It's Microsoft's Fault That Videogames Are Bad (The Jimquisition)

I am definitely thanking god for having a video game journalist who doesn't buy the balance fallacy like a chump. And also one who remembers Duckula. Jim, you are a treasure!

Trevor Bond

When did the Duke become a videogame executive?

Twit In A Hat

I have two tablets, an older one joined at the hip to a book chain that I mostly use as an e-reader and a newer Samsung model. Several years ago, I got Minecraft on the e-reader for my daughter to play with. Even the mobile version is pretty expansive, especially if you're the sort of person who can amuse themselves by making structures. It's elegant in its simplicity. Since they're attached to the same account, I thought I might as well download it on the newer tablet. The newer, flashier version wants its chance to sell you everything under the sun before it will let you in the game. In aid of this, unlike the older version, it refuses to run at all unless the tablet is connected to a WiFi network for it to glom onto. That is to say, on a fundamental level, the older version is more functional than the newer one. If you're stuck on an airplane, that's definitely the version you'd want. I mean, I'm a Windows user; I don't NEED more reasons to dislike Microsoft. But this kind of crap seems emblematic of their approach from the Ballmer era onward. We're Here To Add Something To Your Experience That Will Make It Worse. (Pay us, please.)

Kraken

Microsoft does look ahead of the curve on a number of things like Backwards compatibility though, and it's important to note that many of the bad decisions mentioned in this video were made when Don Mattrick was still part of Microsoft, really pretty much every bad decision MS ever made can be traced back to him, once he left things improved dramatically, sure you still get the occasional outlier like Halo 5 and the Gears sequels but by and large MS has improved dramatically since this gen started.

RedBedroomRecords

Wow, really starting to put in the production values in these episodes, Jim - green screen and all! Notably, of the big three console companies, Microsoft is the only one based in the US (although I heard Sony moved its HQ here as well - and then started censoring JP games...)

James Hull

Microsoft IS different from the others. Microsoft likes to announce their new shitty policies ahead of the curve assuming everyone else will follow suit once the y see it being done. Then when other companies instead choose to make fun of them they look like the greedy fools they are. Whereas other shitty companies usually try to be sneaky about their bullshit.

Kevin Bartelen

The Jimquisition starts to feel more and more like travelling along a road up to the tip of a mountain. And damn it, I'll follow this street no matter what lies at it's end! Good Episode :)

Yeah it fit better with the Randy Pitchford video than it did here, i'd personally argue the blame for the aggressive monetization this gen falls WAY more on MMOs like WoW then it does on MS(but they are partially to blame and yeah i'm not happy with The Coalition trying to sell the lack of lootboxes in Gears 5 as a progressive move) as WoW started charging for premium mounts in 2010(not to mention charging for fucking server transfers of all things, which as TotalBiscuit pointed out countless times on his WCRadio show BluPlaz should've been free) and with it's millions of subscribers you better believe big publishers like EA were taking notice of WoW's tactics(hell i'll bet that's why Activision merged with Blizz in the first place) plus all the shitty games like Farmville, that game truly set the stone for shitty mobile games(which publishers also took tons of inspiration from) with it's lack of gameplay and pay to skip mechanics. Hell Microsoft definitely took inspiration from WoW in the form of Achievements as they were a big staple in WoW, so it wouldn't shock me one bit if WoW also inspired MS to put more monetization in it's games.

RedBedroomRecords

Gotta disagree with you somewhat here, I don't see Microsoft as "grasping" at all and I think they've produced plenty of amazing games to sell people on the XB1, it certainly sold me on it at any rate. While I was not fond of MS having MTXs in its games, I would disagree that it alone normalized the practice, I think publishers would've done the same exact things whether MS's games had MTXs or not as Dead Space 3 already set the tone far better then MS ever could, not to mention all the PC games that had been flogging aggressive monetization for years at that point like WoW with it's premium mounts(MMOs in general were pretty bad in terms of monetization once WoW started setting an example) and CSGO with it's random crates, i'm sure big publishers took just as much if not more inspiration from them(and shitty Facebook games like Farmville and countless mobile titles) than they ever did from MS. Not one of your better videos this year I have to say. I'm a bit biased against Nintendo myself to the point where I still haven't bought a Switch as honestly none of the titles on it right now really look all that great and the constant stream of ports isn't really that appealing to me either as i'm not one who spends a lot of time away from home(plus i'd be too paranoid about getting mugged for the Switch to take one with me) so i've got zero interest in rebuying ports of games I already own(especially not when some of those ports are straight up garbage like Skyrim and Saints Row the Third) I like Sony's games but i'm not fond of them as a company, Guru Larry reminded me why as his latest video last night showed just how bad Ken Kutaragi was in terms of flat-out lying to hype up the PS2 and PS3(he was so obnoxious with the latter that it actually turned me off from ever buying anything from Sony for many years, it wasn't until just a few years ago that I finally bought a PS2, PS3 and PS4) if social media had been around back then, people would've raked him over the coals for some of his lies(especially claiming that the PS2 was "exactly like the Matrix") Say what you will about MS, but they never lied to that extent when hyping up the XB1. I genuinely loved Detroit's story and I think it was a damn good "What if robots were people" tale, I got 100% on every flowchart in the game and i'm with Laura Kate Dale on that game 100%. Halo 5 is a pretty good game MTXs aside. All that being said I will concede you do have a point that too many MS games depend on MTXs, you pretty much have to turn to their third party exclusives if you want quality single-player titles without MTXs. For me though Microsoft's accessibility and backwards compatibility options more then make up for all the missteps they've made. The fact that I need to pay for a fucking Playstation Now subscription if I want to replay previous gen titles on the PS4(without rebuying them at any rate) is an egregious fucking crime(I just fucking knew that Cell processor was going to eventually bite Sony in the ass) whereas on MS I can just insert a previous gen game into the Xbox One and have a digital copy, it makes Nintendo and Sony's pathetic offerings in terms of being able to play previous gen games fucking embarrassing frankly(oh and Games for Gold and Gamepass are far better deals then PS Plus and Nintendo's weak online offerings) and like Caddicarus said in his latest episode last night I think Nintendo and Sony should at least take some inspiration from MS in terms of backwards compatibility and having superior online offerings.

RedBedroomRecords

I found the new format good, just not jimquisition level good.

I liked the new format you used here. I wouldn't necessarily say it was better than the previous episodes but it was a nice little change with some catchy music!

Jono Charles Davey