This is typical of big companies.
They don't have to pay on time so they don't don't.
The little companies have to pay on time.
Making computer games can be a hard slog for indie developers. Big studios have piles of R&D and marketing cash, and it's easy to see your pride and joy fall into unplayed obscurity. Microsoft sought to help indie developers with the Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) portal on its Live console marketplace, which was set up six …
At least MS fessed up and promised to take action.
Last time this happened with Google (android) they simply locked the topic, told ppl that they should e-mail Google (even though one of the most heard complaints was that mailing didn't do anything at all) and eventually the thread got removed entirely.
I deal with quite a few large customers and it sounds more like a mistake by a chair warming grey clone. These customers often dictate extended credit terms that they then further extend when they want to. This MS problem is quite probably someone inadvertently deleting a block of lines on a spreadsheet, or gave the wrong search criteria for their report.
Most people I deal with are incompetent with spreadsheets and the opportunities for mistakes are frequent. Remember the guy working on the sale of Lehman Brothers who sent out a spreadsheet with hidden rows, but they were actually counted. Search El Reg for “Lehman Excel snafu could cost Barclays dear”.
Last time I worked for MSFT it took 90 days for them to even recognise I had submitted the invoice and another 90 days to pay it. Doesn't matter to them what payment terms you insist upon as they will never take any notice. I feel for those guys, it is a real downer if you have completed a project/game for them with their development units screaming constantly for delivery and working 24/7 to complete, only to have that happen.