Blow: Consoles Are Handicapped by Corporate Culture

[Vivi22]

What I mean is that they had a contract or something that they had to agree with to make the game for XBLA or PSN, if they agreed with it now its not the time to cry about it. And the games that they did could very well be PC exclusives if they had so much problem with it in the first place.

It isnt about pretending to like it, its accepting the fact that you agreed to that treatment.

But if we're talking about Blow in particular, there weren't many options when he released Braid for releasing an indie game and reaching a decent sized audience. Steam wasn't really putting up many indie games and selling it yourself on a website is a rough way to go if you're not Minecraft (even harder considering it was 6 years ago). At the time it was either take your chances on your own on PC, find a publisher, or get on XBLA. Microsoft does deserve credit for being the first to really start giving indie titles a platform to reach a big audience, but that doesn't mean the system didn't have problems then or that they don't still have problems now. In fact, XBLA is notorious for being a harder for indies to deal with than just about any other platform because the certification involved is more arduous than most indie devs can handle. In fact, it says a lot when the best way to get your indie game passed certification and onto XBLA is to get a publisher. At that point it kind of defeats the purpose of being indie in the first place.

So while it may have been the top of the heap 6 years ago when Braid was released, and if you want to reach a wide audience and have the resources to deal with the hassle it can be a good way to go in combination with other platforms, the fact is that indie titles are a lot more mainstream than they used to be and there are better options now.

So I don't see the complaints as being from a place of "oh we agreed to this deal and it screwed us over so screw consoles even though it we said yes to it." I see it as a case of pointing out that there are some big barriers holding indie's who might want to get on consoles back, and those either don't exist on other platforms or are far less of a problem. Which is important to know, not just for other indie devs debating which platform to go for, but for the console makers themselves who need to be aware of the problems they're causing which hold back support for the platform. And I have no issues with pointing out those issues publicly since companies like Microsoft have been sitting on some of them twiddling their thumbs since day one despite feedback from developers telling them there's an issue.

 

[mronoc]

He contradicts himself a bit, first he's saying that it's the certification process that's at fault, and then he says that it's the dashboard itself that's at fault.

Just what exactly is the problem, here?

No contradiction, he's just pointing out two different symptoms of the same problem.

Also, is it just me or does this guy seems awfully full of himself after he released Braid.

Besides the advertisements, I dont see whats so bad about either dashboards (well, I only have experience with the 360, so maybe the PS3, IDK. I think he is just blowing smoke out his ass...

Blow's been outspoken about gaming and the nature of the industry since before Braid was released. I don't see how publicly voicing your opinions and observations is being full of yourself. As far as the Dash and XMB, it's not really an issue of something being explicitly wrong with them, they're just both kind of unwieldy and unintuitive compared to Steam and iOS interfaces. Xbox's dash seems like second nature to most gamers by now, but it required a lot more playing around with to get used to than, say, an iPad.

 

[Vigormortis]

I saw a Skype interview with Blow recently on Destructoid and he seemed like a really cool guy. Thoughtful and insightful. Not arrogant or sanctimonious like I've heard people say he is.

Yeah, well, no. He's an asshole. If you look at the background of his little feud with MS you'll see why.

Perhaps. He has, at times, shown a certain level of arrogance. (thought far less than people seem to credit him for. at this point people just like to shit on the guy, deserved or not. he's essentially become a pariah of the console market.)

However, his level of dick-ishness aside, the man has a point. At least, in regards to the certification, vetting, and updating service Microsoft and (to a much less extent) Sony have for their respective consoles.

I mean, when it costs upwards of $40,000 or more per update on Xbox Live, it makes it nearly impossible for a small developer to support their game. That's a sign of a broken system.

 

[LostintheWick]

Me: Pretty much everything is handicapped by corporate culture.

I see what you did thar, and raise you one agreement.

Double that agreement. The corporate structure hurts most things.

I have a hard time disagreeing with Jonathan Blow on most of what he says. He is a hero among devs and for devs. There needs to be more voices like his. These complaints bring awareness and need to be voiced or nothing will improve. People who don't develop games may not understand this perspective. They just start up a game and play.

A bunch of "bubble-boys/girls"

 

[kortin]

Yeah this, every time Blow's name shows up on a news article I prepare myself for arrogance and idiocy.

Well that's just the thing. This man seems to be one of the few people on this planet that can actually say something that someone else said in the past (that is generally well received the first time around) AND insult anyone who reads it at the same time.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I would say that the whole goddamned industry is handicapped by corporate culture and has been for nearly a decade now.

 

[RA92]

I saw a Skype interview with Blow recently on Destructoid and he seemed like a really cool guy. Thoughtful and insightful. Not arrogant or sanctimonious like I've heard people say he is.

Yeah, I'm actually quite saddened to see the responses here. Calling him an asshole? It's as if he has insulted console gamers personally or something, not call out on the console manufacturers for the betterment of the users' experience.

I guess fanboys will be fanboys...

And it reminds me of The Atlantic interview, which portrayed Blow as a demigod, the last savior of games... and people came off seeing him as full of himself, even though it was the interviewer who made all those exaggerated claims, not Blow himself.

 

[THEoriginalBRIEN]

I've never really had a problem with the PS3 dashboard.

I think their online market prices are outrageous, and that it could do with some more apps, but overall I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

Corporate culture isn't always a bad thing.

 

[The White Hunter]

"The edge that both Apple and Valve have going into the future is that they both genuinely care about the end-user experience and want to make it as good as possible," he said. "Which coincidentally seems to be the place that these consoles are handicapped due to their corporate culture. Can anyone look at the current 360 or PS3 dashboards and legitimately say that those are products of an entity that deeply cares about user experience?"

Anyone care to speculate on what he's waffling on about here, I've no idea what's so "anti-user" about XMB or the Dashboard?

Yeah I don't get it either. The worst thing about the 360's dashboard I've heard is that it updates and all changes too much. The XMB is fine, it has been since I got my PS3, it's easy to find what I want and it's functional and simplistic?

Anyway, pretentious cum stain is pretentious cum stain, honestly i don't know why people care what he says.

 

[Scrustle]

I saw a Skype interview with Blow recently on Destructoid and he seemed like a really cool guy. Thoughtful and insightful. Not arrogant or sanctimonious like I've heard people say he is.

Yeah, I'm actually quite saddened to see the responses here. Calling him an asshole? It's as if he has insulted console gamers personally or something, not call out on the console manufacturers for the betterment of the users' experience.

I guess fanboys will be fanboys...

And it reminds me of The Atlantic interview, which portrayed Blow as a demigod, the last savior of games... and people came off seeing him as full of himself, even though it was the interviewer who made all those exaggerated claims, not Blow himself.

Yeah, I also saw an excerpt from Indie Game The Movie where he was being interviewed and he was talking about how he was disappointed with some of the reactions to Braid because he felt like they were missing the point of the game. So he went around sites commenting on posts trying to explain it to people. That probably wasn't the best thing to do, but I don't think that was him being arrogant. He was just trying to help people understand what he was trying to say with his game, but I guess people thought that he was going around telling them that they were playing his game wrong. That's probably why people have the impression of him they do though.

 

[templar1138a]

At least Jonathan Blow(hard)'s statements didn't involve the words "artistic" or "juvenile."

Then again, maybe he did in the permalink, but I don't care enough to look.

Blowhard is the Marlon Brando of the video game industry. Seriously.

 

[Rad Party God]

Ouya's coming, so there's that.

Also, why in the 9 hells does any of these indie developers never consider making these games for PC before considering porting them to consoles?, it seems like they get screwed by this "corporate bullshit", they start to wheep, whine and cry and still sobbing, they threaten to "go to Steam", and still (sometimes) they never even frickin do it!.

 

[thiosk]

"The edge that both Apple and Valve have going into the future..........."

If Valve made a console with a Steam like service I might as well just send them all money in one go and save myself the hassle.

I really do see steam as the future here. I've yet to get something off steam that doesn't run on my computer-- and this is after multiple upgrades. This has never happened before.

Unfortunately for Steam\Apple, apple seems hell bent on control, and are loathe to allow another service to sell things for their products. Which makes sense, but I don't see Steamapps coming along any time soon.

 

[J Tyran]

"The edge that both Apple and Valve have going into the future..........."

If Valve made a console with a Steam like service I might as well just send them all money in one go and save myself the hassle.

I really do see steam as the future here. I've yet to get something off steam that doesn't run on my computer-- and this is after multiple upgrades. This has never happened before.

Unfortunately for Steam\Apple, apple seems hell bent on control, and are loathe to allow another service to sell things for their products. Which makes sense, but I don't see Steamapps coming along any time soon.

If the Ouya does well Apple might try and iOS based small console, its a shame that Valve will probably attempt to make a console though.