So, its Monday and that means a few things one it means there is a new episode of Monday Night Raw that I will turn on and most likely fall asleep halfway through. It means that a new bombcast is only a day away and it also means that The escapist drops a new Jimqusition. This weeks titled "Xbox One: A Lying Failure Machine" is sure to raise some fluff as Jim Sterling is known to do but personally, I think he has some good points. And many of the same things he brings up are the reasons I waved goodbye and never looked back to the Xbox Ecosystem despite having hundreds of dollars and years of time investment in it. The way Microsoft has handled everything with the constant back peddling and panicked reactions to casually admitting they were lying about quite a few things including how important the Kinect actually is to the system.

You know as much as I reviled their original stance of always on DRM I would have respected Microsoft more had they the balls to actually weather the storm instead of constantly making panicked reactions. So what does everyone else think? Video here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/9565-The-Xbox-One-A-Lying-Failure-Machine

Why weather a storm when being engulfed is inevitable? No surrender but no survival.

Would you? Isn't it just as likely that everybody would have perceived them as bull-headed about a feature only disconnected investors look forward to?

Also, why does Jim have Nazi iconography displayed behind him? Is this a Wolfenstein thing?

He's... not really wrong about anything, as long as you consider back-peddling the same as lying. I'm not going to write Microsoft out of my life forever though, Sony's made it's fair share of failed promises too. I'd say I'm pretty likely to become a Microsoft fan again in the future, probably when they've put out a few good Halo games.

The WiiU looks awfully tempting now though.

I prefer backpedalling to stubbornly refusing to admit theres a problem. I tend to equate that more with honesty than lying. But I suppose, it's more about perception, backpedalling on features people want would probably feel a lot dirtier to me. And yeah, the title is classic Jim - he wants to incite the console wars in his comments. Stirring up the adversarial emotions does get him some clicks after all.

I think most of us who follow these consoles closely tend to get used to reading marketing materials and determining for ourselves what is true and what is pure hyperbole. I think it's better for the industry to quickly adapt to a changing marketplace than to stubbornly soldier on like they did in the last year of the 360. Heck, even the staunch Xbox loyalists were tired of microsoft points before they finally killed them off - a process that took the better part of a year to happen. We - the gaming fans who follow news closely - are demanding snap decisions from companies used to making choices that won't hit shelves for 12 months, and I for one am happy to see that lead time growing smaller.

As devoted to the PlayStation Nation as I am, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I will buy an Xbox One at some point because there will be games only on it that I want to play, but sure. I can't disagree.

Also, I still don't like Jim Sterling as a human being. Something about the way he talks makes me hate him. A lot.

@video_game_king said:

I would not have respected them more, but I would have liked them more if they were able to sell me on those "breakthroughs". For example, at the beginning of the previous generation, I didn't care about features like forceful achievements, party voice chat or HD; but after a while, I got it. Without even trying it, I would not have bought a 360 if those were promoted as the "new" features out of the box, but by leading by example they distinguish that generation from the previous one and now companies that don't support them are perceived as out of touch. On the other hand, in this generation they went headstrong until they noticed they couldn't justify it, and proceed to backpedal a lot, at which point it was impossible not to notice they have a distinctive lack of faith in their own ideas...

And about Jim... it goes back to the previous intro, which was similar to a parade of Helghast troops. I guess the iconography is meant to refer to him addressing an angry crowd.

So this is a regular thing? Is it at least ironic in any sense?

It seems like Microsoft had a plan for a lot of features but only got them sort of working and decided to go with and figure out the problems later. It is now later and they didn't figure out how to address the problems.

I don't really care since I'm an unabashed PC guy but it always seemed it was a serious problem that the messaging was constantly off at each stage and step. Every time a question was asked about a feature or plan they didn't seem to have a good answer or they had contrary answers. No one knew the message. It felt like no one had the plan beyond "We'll fix that". No one should be surprised if people get mad if they bought in early and find out "All of that stuff we sold you on...had to cancel it because we couldn't figure it out. Aren't you glad we did you that as a favor?"

@video_game_king: That's not Nazi iconography.

Wow, Sterling comes across very angered over this.

His arguments are understandable but his reasoning for anger just seem childish. He seems to confuse marketing and reality, something that is somewhat forgivable for a fan or forum poster but imo not for a journalist.

Honestly this comes across as someone who doesn't understand that business' don't often come out admitting their mistakes but instead choose to move on and take up a different marketing strategy in hopes of improving their outlook.

Overall this is a disappointing video. To get so worked up and angry over a business making mistakes and to do it so focused on only Microsoft (Sony has it's share of mistakes and U-turns) seems short-sided.

@video_game_king said:

No , it is just a part of his sthick. Dictator of thoughts and that sort of stuff - Andy Kaufman of video games.

I own both a PS4 and Xbox One, and lately, I have barely touched the PS4. I think that Microsoft's willingness to actually listen to their user base is refreshing. The monthly updates have improved functionality, and it's nice to know that every month will make the console better. There is still work to be done, but there is also a lot that Sony could do to make their console better, although I've yet to see much progress from them(with the exception of digital pre-order and pre-load).

After the June 9th price drop, and the XDK update, the gap between both machines is becoming smaller and smaller. As a consumer, that makes me fairly excited. I hope this gen will be more about storytelling, writing, and innovation. Not just who can push a few more pixels, have a prettier skybox, or throw in a new shader pipeline. I am genuinely hopeful for the future, and its been awhile since I have felt that way.

Jim is doing what Jim always does, fanning the flames. I've been playing video games for far too long to fall for it. I know what I like, and I know what I dislike. I also know that I would much rather have Microsoft work with it's customers than to just say "deal with it", which was their stance at first.

You've got to have some flex. The reed that cannot bend in the storm, will break.

@video_game_king: If the question is "is this in every episode?", the answer is: yes, yes it is.

Is it ironic? I don't know. Sometimes its hard to read whether he is trolling or being serious. He plays around it, especially with the closing sentences always being an hyperbolic boast of his own persona, which I think its mostly intended as a catchphrase... At the very least, it is evocative.

Just wait until that Threes game drops. Killer app right there.

He's not wrong, although I wouldn't go as far as to say I'll never forget being lied to. I mean I have more important things going on in my life than holding on to a grudge against a gigantic corporation. Make the console better and I'm fine, which is kinda what they've been doing for now. It's not like soylent green or anything, we're not going to find out that the reason the XBO couldn't do 60 FPS was because it was actively seeking out babies at night and eating them.

If you want to get philosophical, remember this fun tidbit from thousands of years ago: All war is based on deception.

Wait what does this have to do with anything?

Yeah, real refreshing to see a company to suck up to the consumers only after they have receiving an financial ass kicking. It is real heart warming to see that company is willing to do what you asked them to do, only when it is their last option.

As much water as most of his arguments hold, I probably wouldn't own an Xbox One right now if Microsoft hadn't backpedaled on a few issues, the Kinect specifically. There are some incredible-looking games coming up on Xbox One, but there's no way I'm paying a $100 markup for a camera I don't even want. The console ecosystem would be a lot more diverse right now if Microsoft had pushed full steam ahead with their original plan, but in this case that might not necessarily be better. With more Xbox consoles selling now than ever, the competition between Microsoft and Sony just became real.

Respect does not equal money. This is a business. I got the thing at launch but what good does it do me if the system fails because they want to stick to their guns instead of getting more systems out there. Respect that the changes have helped sales as June seems to indicate.

@finaldasa: To tell you the truth, I have grown disappointed of many of Jim's videos because of that very thing. It is commendable to address anti-consumer practices and ask for changes, but most of the times his rants seems more interested in creating controversy for its own sake, and his savviness is more appropriate of some random forum commenter that a recognizable person in the medium with many years in his CV.

I think the last straw was at the AC Unity rant, where his response to a developer saying including an optional female character in the campaign would amount to a lot of work and pressure in the budget and schedule was basically "who cares? just do your job! it can't be that hard..."

@charlie_victor_bravo said:

Cursed if you do, cursed if you don't.

• Make the changes, and people will accuse you of bending over pressure, being a coward and not having enough faith in your original proposal...
• Don't make the changes, and people will accuse you of being headstrong, having lack of touch with your audience and force situations based on hubris...

The difference, as always, is not on the message, but the delivery...

I really don't enjoy this overly exaggerated and click bait type of headline. "My problems with the Xbox One" would warrant greater appreciation from me.

I've seen it happen a lot around gaming coverage, and it's been around awhile, the rise of angry video game coverage. Some of it can be entertaining but overall the "angry nerd yelling" has become so pervasive and rampant it almost becomes a bummer to try and enjoy video games. Worst of all I think this attitude, especially from someone like Sterling who is supposed to be a true journalist and reviewer as I understand it, spreads to those who watch these videos. They assume the video game industry is especially warped or corrupt. It's sad because we need more kids ready to enjoy, share, and eventually create their own games rather than assuming every company is out to screw them over in order to make an extra buck or two.

I would certainly not respect Microsoft more if they stood their ground with their horrendously anti consumer approach. But all this backpedaling also means my trust is at all time low. From the start Microsoft has acted as a company willing to do anything to exploit their customers and will not treat people with respect for any reasons as long as sales don't tank. Business is business and i have no delusions about why any companies in that industry do whatever it is they do but some of them at least show a minimum amount of decency while trying to make as much money as possible. Microsoft has long proven they don't belong to that group.

The solution would have been to not come up with shitty new rules for your game system in the first place, so that you wouldn't be forced into the corner. If Microsoft honestly had no idea that what they were planning to do would cause a huge uproar, then they need to hire a bunch of new analysts, or whoever it is they use, because that shit would have been obvious.

As for the video, he's not wrong. I have both systems, and the patchy nature of the Xbox UI which results from the multiple changes it needed to go through because of their back pedaling, is a a pretty big turn off. At the very least they are constantly updating it, but I wonder if they will ever be able to fix the shitty slow installations that the console seems plagued with.

Seems like a lot of people bought their PR about sales in June being good because they doubled May's numbers...but the sales in May were terrible. And we just got the npd numbers a few days ago; June's sales weren't very impressive and they still sold less than ps4 in a month where MS had a price drop, and sony didn't have to do anything. They're probably pretty worried right about now as I'm not sure what else they can do in the near future.

Would Nintendo have weathered the storm if they didnt lower the price of the 3ds by close to $100 4 months after launch? One of the first rules of buiness is you react to the market opinion. Xbox one opinions stated you were too expensive and were carrying dead weight hence the lowering of price and getting rid of kinect. My opinion Microsoft is the dumbest company in games but are not going anywhere, anytime soon.

Complaining just to complain, it's the most popular thing to do.... Rant Against the Machine, seems to be the era we all live in now.... Jim, Totalbiscuit, Angry Joe, & other nameless forgettable YouTubers all rant brimstone and fire about the sinfest of EA, MS, and other BS strawmen that's ruining "Gaming" for all the "True Gamers" like them.... they don't research anything about what the rant about and I'm sure besides the red 'rec' button they press that's about the only thing they really play.....

He's a smart guy but I'm not a fan of how he presents this series. If you're going to do a 'one guy giving his view on games' kinda thing I'd prefer to see it done similar to how Danny O'Dwyer does it with the Point.

PS4 install times to get into the game and start playing are much faster. Here's a comparison article : http://www.kotaku.com.au/2013/11/installing-xbox-one-games-takes-way-too-long/

Cursed by their own actions. If they would have listened from the start, there would be no problem.

So I didn't watch their E3 show. Did they finally explain the bullshi...machi....."the Cloud" yet?

@hermes:

Keep in mind people want Microsoft to do well and fix mistakes when made. Fixing up XBox One to compete against the PS4 or whatever is not the issue. What no one wants is a Microsoft acting like everything they are doing is some favor and then doing us another favor when they cancel it or dramatically alter expectations. Its this corporate double speak, which Sony does as well, that drives people up the wall.

They are indeed primarily a X1 problem that has been documented through a variety of comparisons online. The PS4 is not affected by it anywhere near the amount that the X1 is, which basically takes forever installing every single game. As for your second point... what is your actual point? People had a right to get upset because the policies that Microsoft introduced were shit. I'm not dogging them for changing the policies, because if they hadn't I would have never purchased one at all. The solution would have been to never introduce them in the first place. Any amount of foresight on Microsoft's part would have allowed them to realize that the world is still at least a solid console generation away from being able to fully support an all digital model with the accompanying DRM. Even then, many people across the world will lose the ability to play console games since they don't have the consistently fast internet speeds required. It was poor decision making on their part, and nothing they do afterwards will really remove the dark cloud that hung over the consoles announcement.

Three points:

1. That's not Nazi iconography, it's actually based on the Helghast from Killzone. The original signature for the Jimquisition featured the Helghast marching.
2. He uses it because he's satirizing the very idea of his show; the idea being a games pundit talking shit to a camera about video games. He chose to make it silly and present it as some evil dictator spreading propaganda.
3. He's got a weird sense of humour. His sign off is "Thank GOD. For me." In the wrap arounds to these videos it's obvious he's playing an exaggerated character. It's a dumb joke. There's not much more to it.

Question regarding console manufacturers keeping promises and trying to make their console better:

Is Sony making attempts to make the PS4 better? I see a Microsoft making updates to the system on a seemingly a bi-monthly basis to improve it. Is Sony doing a similar thing? I don't own either console, so I don't know what people are griping about with the Xbox One or PS4, but I remember people saying that the party system on PS4 was kinda screwy at launch, something else about the camera mic always being off. Did that stuff get fixed?

Do you think one console will be better supported and respond to fan feedback more than the other?

Sony didn't do us a favor by releasing the PS3 as a $600 box. Nor did Sony do us a favor failing to secure whatever they needed to make the PS3 controller. Nor did Sony do us a favor when they finally did.

Did Microsoft do us a favor by confusing messaging, weird design decisions, spending money on tv shows, a more expensive box and other goofs? Did Microsoft do us a favor by fixing each of these? People talk about "Microsoft having the guts to fix things" but that is just business. What would take "guts" is saying "We gambled on these things and they did work out. For anyone who bought our products counting on these features we are sorry" but we'll never see either of them say.

So how about this instead? If Microsoft and Sony or whoever avoids making and marketing weird decisions then we as consumers can avoid this whole thing about how much contempt we should hold against them.

I could but why would i when you leave out the part where i also mentioned the minimum amount of decency shown by many companies not the "fantastic wonderful things" they do and also not making any delusions about what every companies in this industry are there for.

I don't have time to waste with someone distorting what i'm saying and seem to be a Microsoft apologist by the looks of things.

I've been using my XBone a whole hell of a lot more than my ps4 these days.

I can play games on it just fine, the media focused interface and voice commands work good enough, if not better than the PS4's giant (and theoretically Neverending) line of shit, with a system menu sort of akin to the XMB above? I love both, but until we get some more exclusives coming out on PS4 that I care about, I'll probably continue to use the One more

Once again a Jimquisition comes out and once again people don't seem to understand what he's saying....

He's focusing on Microsoft for their reversal of their DRM policies and Kinect BECAUSE they didn't apologize for their lies and instead took it up on their high horse and said that they listened to consumer feedback, thus making themselves look like a hero.

And just because he's focusing on Microsoft doesn't mean he doesn't hold any sort of criticism of Sony. This bullshit about "balancing" out the criticism between Microsoft and Sony is silly.

It's a great title, I'll give him that...

Jim is more a consumer advocate than a journalist, he's been that way for years. He's a reviewer, yes, but his opinion stuff is straight up subjective, angry pro-consumer stuff. Doesn't mean you have to agree with him, but just know that this is nothing new from him.

I'm not sure if I completely agree with the video. I prefer them going back on stuff they see doesn't work with the public rather than just press on, even if they lose their "vision" or whatever. I'll never understand people who hated the original vision saying they'd respected MS more if they'd stuck with it, just seems like some backwards bullshit.

When did they straight up lie about the DRM and the Kinect though? It always seemed more like they wanted to do this stuff because of reasons you and I probably don't like, but reversed when the backlash got big enough for it to not make financial sense anymore. I don't see the big lie there that they have to apoligize for.

And before anyone accuses me of being a MS apologist or some such bullshit: I own a PS4, will probably buy a Xbone for the new Halo game. I don't give a fuck about some stupid console war, I'm not 16 anymore.

Theyre in a decent place now, but Microsoft/xbox royally fucked up going into this generation. No denying that, its just a fact. It really isn't going to mean anything in the long run though; this is going to be another gen where they're, pretty much, both neck and neck when everything is said and done.

The second they said "we need this..... we can't possibly pull the plug on this because it's impossible" and proceeded to pull the plug on it is the second they lied.

@shivermetimbers: That's it?