Jonathan Blow does a face plant; Blames MS for price drop he agreed on in 2010.

Fauxbuzz-Jonathan Blow, creator of the witness , made an epic blunder on twitter today regarding the pricing of his game on XBLA on the 360, thinking that MS dropped the price of his game without his permission. After several tweets from people and a little contract checking himself, he forgot that he agreed on the price drop for his game back in 2010.

[Fireseed]

This guy is literally chomping at the bit to get his "Microsoft wronged me" 15 seconds of fame again.

[christocolus]

Lmao...he must feel really stupid now. First he blames MS then he realises he was wrong. If i was Chris Charla i wouldnt let him into the xbox indie programme until he is done with his temper and anger issues. Phil Fish was the same way and see what happened to that guy.

Imo he needs to apologise or get thrown out of the xbx indie programme. He aint worth it,he is just plain silly, bitter and unstable besides there are many more devs out there eagerly waiting to take his place..

[Prime157]

Dude, that was four years ago... what were you doing four years ago?

Not to mention that as an indie developer any contract made by a lawyer should have a lawyer interpret, but how many Indies have that?

Yes, it's his mistake, but he still feels wronged by ms, I'm sorry many you don't get that. Opinions of braid aside.

Edit: four years ago... have you ever regretted a credit card you signed, or a monthly bill that was hard to cancel? Or missed a clause in your insurance policy? What about missing the extra fees associated with financial institutions.

If you think those contracts aren't written up that way then you are naive.

Don't get me wrong, I do, personally, think he's a bit much, but I try to understand him.

[Bigpappy]

So glad I never bought his games.

[mrmarx]

..........

[cooperdnizzle]

@Bigpappy. You are so glad you never bought one of his games? People like you are the reason the game industry is such a joke sometimes. You would skip buying a good/great games because of something personal. Grow up.

[Blaze929]

@cooperdnizzle

um...was that not every person who cried foul when Microsoft announced the Xbox One? "because of something personal." No? lmao the irony

[nukeitall]

The blowfish duo again!

Fish might be out of the action thank God!

I ain't touching anything Blow has been involved in, but MS is better than that, so they will just let him in, otherwise he might go all blowfish again.

That said, what credibility does this guy have, because anything negative MS he will just go on a rampage. Then realized he agreed to it!

Most people would remember if they agreed to MS controlling the price. That is one of the most important clauses in the congtract!!!!!

[Why o why]

Did somebody just compare a 10 quid purchase vs a 400 quid purchase. Did someone just compare something everybody liked vs something most people didn't like......

Blow fail but he cannot blame ms for this. When you sign something you're binded by it.

[darx]

@cooperdnizzle

What a hypocrite!

[ShinMaster]

Microsoft Defenders, assemble!

[DigitalRaptor]

What I find funny in all of this, is that Jonathan Blow spends less time downplaying or criticising Microsoft than most of the Xbox fanboys on here saying how much they hate him, have spent downplaying and criticising Sony and PlayStation.
----

@ Nukeitall

Phil Fish isn't anything to do with this. I know you greatly want to have a go at these guys wherever you can, but try to stay on-topic.

And Blow has more credibility than I think you do. He's designed a great, innovative, highly-acclaimed game last generation and looks to be making another great one for this generation. That's all the credibility I need to know about.

You're basically letting your undying love/defence of MS cloud the fact that he's a great game designer making interesting games.

[minimur12]

he probably realised this just after he started bad mouthing them, but then felt his credibility would be ruined, and played along with it.

He's coming out about it now because he knows no one really cares about the price difference

lol

[OpieWinston]

Dude Jonathan Blow is one of the most overrated Indie devs ever. He's one of the biggest self entitled douche bags in the gaming industry.

He loves to take shit to twitter and spread lies as best he can. He was the one who blew the whole "X1s on Nvidia Titan graphics cards at E3" thing out of proportion. Then the Lococycle dev confirmed that was THEIR GAMES ONLY and he went into total denial mode about how Microsoft is evil.

I mean it's people like him and Phil Fish that are just bad poster boys for the indie genre as a whole.

[MeLoveRamen]

I am pretty sure X1's at E3 were high end pc, why do you think Forza looked so at E3 compared to the downgrade version we get at retail.

[MorePowerOfGreen]

@MeLoveRamen

Nah. Those were lies made up by PS4 fanboys angry Xbox One exclusives looked so good, mad as heLLL XB1 games were getting praise for there unmatched graphical prowess after hearing so much hype over PS4.

The Xb1 exclusives fanboys were trying to damage control were running on XB1 hardware. You can see this lying clown J-Blow get pwned in the link below

http://www.forzacentral.com...
http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

The spin started based on a unfinished XB1 indie game using a PC XB1 dev kit. Only Sony opening tried to fool gamers in thinking games were running on hardware and is the reason why folks thought Killzone, Infamous and Watchdogs was downgraded on PS4.

Hate bandwagon media tried to make something out of this even trying to imply doom etc while debunking the XB1 lies(Eurogamer) while giving Sony a free pass.

EDIT

LOL why do PS fans get so angry when they get owned after you call out their BS? It's no secret PS4 fans were angry scrambling to damage control and attack XB1 exclusives due to their graphical prowess. 1st it was QTE, then running on PC and finally supposed downgrades that were upgrades.

This is PS4 fans faces during E3 and after http://www.gamepur.com/file...

[MRMagoo123]

I think it would be hard for anyone to remember something that went on 4 years ago to the word. So you cant blame him i guess.

@morepoweroftroll

Even you know you are talking BS now lol "unmatched graphical prowess" wtf are you even talking about, if the Xbone had so much power as you seem to think why did they have to reduce everything in forza to make it run on the xbone after seeing it the first time ? you really are completely delusional , i dont know whether it was the sales gap or the graphical gap that sent you over the edge but please for everyones sake ....go seek medical help. Even the most fannish of fans knows the PS4 is the more powerful, doesnt matter by how much more but they all know that , except you i guess but only you.

[cooperdnizzle]

MorePowerofgreen. That is why you have one bubble troll elsewhere.

[kayoss]

Why you even bother replying to MorePowerofGreen? this guy works for MS and is promoting MS until he stop breathing. Why you think he only have 1 bubble to every single account he owns?

[ShinMaster]

@ MorePowerOfGreen

Dude, Forza 5's downgrade since the E3 trailer is very real.

[Blaze929]

This is the same guy people love to listen to huh?

"If so my bad"

I just need to point out the importance of this guy's attitude here and what's going on with Microsoft. He was SO quick to call foul and rant for no reason about something HE FORGOT HE agreed to? And if so, HIS bad?

LOL like the insiders, this "smear Microsoft" campaign is just becoming sad now. Honestly, SAD

[lelo]

Jonathan Blow is a hateful d**k. Everybody knows that by now.

Microsoft was one of reasons Braid was a commercial success since it was them that marketed the game, but Jonathan Blow is such an ungratefully pr**k.

[Mystogan]

Finally he gets what is coming to him. He's a douchebag and now everyone knows.

[UnHoly_One]

I hate this guy SO much.

Him and that Fez guy are the reason I don't take indie games seriously.

They are pretentious hipsters that somehow think they are superstars because they made one game that a few people thought was decent. I hate their attitudes.

[Hicken]

That's a stupid reason to not like indies.

Why don't we judge every group by their worst examples, and thus ignore any and all good the group does outside of the a-holes?

[UnHoly_One]

As soon as I see an indie dev that ISN'T like these guys, maybe I'll agree with you.

[Hicken]

...how about... EVERY OTHER INDIE DEV?

There are literally thousands of indie developers out there; the fact that you DON'T hear about them like Fish or Blow means they're not like them.

Or do you mean as soon as you see an indie dev that has nothing bad to say about Microsoft?

[DigitalRaptor]

That is an utterly and equally pathetic attitude.

What other indie devs have you seen that are "hipster" idiots that deserve the hate? There are thousands up thousands of independent developers out there and I challenge you to find the mass majority of them who act like Blow and Fish.

------

Just for your education (cause you clearly need it), FEZ and Braid were highly acclaimed games that loads of people thought were great. Braid was highly acclaimed, won numerous awards, and is considered a part of the gaming pantheon. The same goes for FEZ, and it's now also receiving great reviews for its PlayStation port.

[OpieWinston]

I have to agree with you in the sense that these two put a bad taste in your mouth
Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow are too full of themselves.

But the indie genre isn't fully like that.

I for one don't really give a crap about Indie games anymore because they USED to produce plenty of innovative ideas with some interesting playstyles. But now you have to go through 99% of the bad games to fine that one masterpiece.

The Hipsters will say "Paper Please" and "Gone Home" are innovative...they aren't........

[Anon1974]

Contract or not, Microsoft couldn't flip him an email to let him know they were dropping the price of his product? Seriously, one email...just a heads up to the developer to keep them in the loop. That doesn't seem unreasonable. And which seems a more likely scenario, that he "forgot" the stipulation was in the Microsoft contract or that he simply didn't know it was in there because you need to be a lawyer yourself to interpret the contracts MS required signed to see his game launched. Sure it boils down to "read what you sign", but we probably wouldn't even hearing about this if MS was better at dev communication.

It should have gone like this.
MS: "Hey, Blow. We're dropping the price of your game."
Blow: "Wha? Not cool. What gives you the right?"
MS: "It's in the contract you signed in order to put the game on XBL."
Blow: "Oh. So it is. My bad."

End.

I'm personally not a fan of Blow and thought Braid was simply OK, but MS could have avoided pissing off a developer simply by sending a courtesy email. Seriously, this isn't rocket science.

[Tetsujin]

I agree 100% (and also voted), MS could have spent a whole 2 minutes of their time to send a mass email reminding companies of some sale/price adjustment to prevent situations like this.

Seems like common sense isn't so common anymore; should be a super power at this point. I understand Blow being frustrated, however to go on social media to vent just means you're not as professional and makes it harder to renew contracts. Also means he didn't actually read the contract, just signed it with $ in mind.

[Anon1974]

Just a couple of points to that though. Yeah, he may have just signed the contract but when you're indie, what choice to you really have when faced with contracts like this? You want your game to be available to as wide an audience as possible so when a company like MS or Sony comes along with a contract, they really have indies over a barrel. You either play by their rules or you don't play.

Of course he wanted to have his game make money and he's just one guy with an indie title. Even if he read the contract thoroughly, there's still a good chance he could have overlooked something like this. I've signed dev contracts. They're monstrosities. I can understand this being overlooked.

As for his level of professionalism, I disagree a bit there. It's his opinion. If I feel I've been done wrong by a company I've worked with, I'm not afraid to voice my disapproval, nor should I be. The way his tweets read didn't seem particularly inflammatory or unprofessional. It's not like he was engaging in an angry rant, or unfairly bashing the company. He stated initially that MS didn't contact him (which we can assume is true) and that they never asked him about the price drop (also true, but they didn't have to).

To me, this didn't come off as unprofessional in the slightest. Seems like he's just musing aloud on Twitter. Had he gone on an angry rant or something, I could understand the charges that he might be acting less than professional.

I think people's reaction to this is a bit overblown, personally.

[maniacmayhem]

@Darkride

Really? You don't think this comes off as unprofessional? This guy just went off on MS in public and then turns around and quietly corrects himself. not even an apology to, just a "my bad".

That is very unprofessional, as unprofessional as Adam Orth who was fired for talking out loud to a friend on twitter.

And you really expect MS to send out an email to every little dev when they drop the price of a game? I'm in development and it's mine and others in my company to keep tabs on games my company puts out on different systems or platforms. Not anyone else's. And when we do find some discrepancy or problem we certainly do not take it to Twitter and lash out at the platform.

Blow signed the contract. He should be aware of every instance his game goes through. If he thought MS did something to his game he should have contacted MS, looked over his contract or anything else before going on Twitter to voice some concern he wasn't 100% sure of.

This is exactly why people get fired from their jobs. Telling tales out of school and posting them on the bulletin boards for the town to see.

Edit:
I think MS can do nothing to please Blow at this point as he has ben raging on MS since he put Braid on Xbox. MS owes him nothing, especially a courtesy email.

[Anon1974]

@maniacmayhem. So you honestly believe that simply stating two things Blow believed as fact is "going off" publicly? And how is his initial post on Twitter "going off" and his followup posts "quietly correcting"? They're twitter posts. It's not like he was screaming in one or using inflammatory language and then switched to quiet whispering in others.

And yes, I certain do think Microsoft deserves to send an email to developers to give them a head's up when they're lowering the price of their games. Absolutely they should. You think for a second that MS wouldn't fire off an email to EA if they were lowering the digital price on one of their titles?

Read Blow's Twitter statements again. There's no "going off" or "telling tales out of school" here. There's nothing even remotely inflammatory in the language of his tweets. He noted that MS lowered the price without telling him and without permission (as far as he was aware at the time). He later corrected himself. End of.

[maniacmayhem]

"So you honestly believe that simply stating two things Blow believed as fact is "going off" publicly?"

But they weren't facts, he was wrong. He did go off and now he is backtracking and saying "my bad". He was wrong plain and simple and goes to my point that Twitter is no where to post first impressions and half researched thoughts.

"You think for a second that MS wouldn't fire off an email to EA if they were lowering the digital price on one of their titles?"

Well lets see, who is more important, a giant 3rd party developer with incredible IP's that is very important to any consoles life cycle or a little indie guy who has made one game and has done nothing but bad mouth MS since he put out this game...hmmmm.

And do you have proof that MS or any company doesn't send an email?

"He noted that MS lowered the price without telling him and without permission"

You are either blind or lack reading comprehension because anyone can read the extreme salt and sarcasm coming out of that first tweet.

Then read is other tweets as he threatens to pull the game from the 360 then drops a comment that it makes more on Steam...oh yea, very professional, nothing inflammatory about that right? Then after a few more posts he realizes just what an a$$ he was with a "my bad".

C'mon, that was a huge d-bag move. Anyone else would have been skewered on this site. But you give him a pass? Interesting.

[frostypants]

He's "literally" chomping at the bit? So he has a bit in his mouth that he is chomping on?

[BX81]

How in the hell can you call your self a professional when you don't even know the contract or stipulations going on with your game? Never mind all the MS like or dislike.

[Prime157]

Well, he IS a developer and not a lawyer... both are professionals.

[BX81]

Lmao.

[frostypants]

Yeah, some of the people criticizing clearly don't work with a lot of contracts. There's a reason business lawyers exist...NOBODY remembers every minute detail of every contract they are involved in, professional or not. Most people don't even know the basics of the EULAs they agree to when they install software, and those things are small potatoes compared to major business contracts.

But this is N4G, where people will criticize developers for what they had for dinner.

[Naga]

Looks like someone ate a bowl of stupid for breakfast.

[AnEwGuY]

...and crow for desert. ;)

[DigitalRaptor]

Lol. oh Jonathan, just get cracking on your game. I thought it would be out by now.

I'd rather hear more stuff about that.

[SaffronCurse]

lol wow

[No_Limit]

Pulling Braid out of XBL anytime you want because you forgot you had signed an agreement for the price drop and is mad about it, LOL. Luckily he is not in the spotlight anymore. A pawn like Jonathan Blow is a joke!

[frostypants]

How is he a "pawn"?

[maniacmayhem]

And this is why professionals should cancel their Twitter account. The minute something pops in their head they put it down on the web for all to see. Once one's feelings come down and a little more insight and checking gets down it usually ends up with that person looking mighty stupid for putting anything down in the first place.

[Alan_Shore]

"I can always just pull the game from the 360, though it makes a lot more on steam nowadays"

What a nobhead

[psDrake]

There is a better chance that he'll make more money off the discounted game of his... There is a reason STEAM works and publishers make money out of it.

[gamertk421]

I was wrong, but I still want to take my toys and go home!

[fanboysmackdown]

Him and Fish can Blow chunks together, they both suck.

[DarkLord1003]

Braid is so overrated. It maybe kind of started the whole Indie thing but the game itself did nothing for me. I like the look of the witness but the Puzzles look rather bland

Edit: Phil Fish should return and make fez2. Can't believe he cancelled the game because of a nobody like marcus beer.

[mkis007]

I don't remember this much hate toward Blow when Braid released on xbox live exclusively. Everyone seemed to champion it as the coming of a new age of indies. Now that he is anti-ms, probably because of his experience with them, everyone seems to forget that. Looking forward to the witness regardless. Hope he can deliver.

[AnEwGuY]

Wrong. People hate on him because he won't let his "experience" go, and goes waaaaaay out of the way, much too often, to make himself look like the d-bag that he really is. In the past 2-3 years, he has spent 100x more time and energy on social media, bashing MS, than he has talking about his upcoming game. And no, that's not really an exaggeration.

[Bathyj]

It was a couple of (deleted) twitter posts.

Its probably not as big a deal as were making it out to be.

Case in point, were giving it more attention and focusing more energy that it deserves, or even asks for.

[mhunterjr]

The fact that he's immature and unprofessional doesn't change the fact that braid is a great game.

[AKissFromDaddy]

Where non-content creators love to criticize all details regarding content creators.

You guys eat this up.

[Hicken]

To be fair, we are the consumers of the content they create.

Not saying we're right silk the time or even frequently with our responses, but I think we've got at least SOME right to be critical.

[AKissFromDaddy]

Understood.

Nevertheless, excessive complaining about content is disproportionate on this very website.

Personally, I share content about deals and videos regarding trailers, reviews, comedy, videocasts, etc.

I just realize a superfluous amount of critics or non-content creators are largely sharing content that angers them.

Shouldn't it be the reverse, where we can actually share and promote content we enjoy? What do you think?

[wannabe gamer]

Well that....blows

[TristanPR77]

Well, this guy should stay in the silence for the months to come. He shouldn't be that jumpy.

[_FantasmA_]

I don't know who this guy is but I like him just because he doesn't like M$. A toast to their doom!

[hilyou]

It just me or at first I read the title as Jonathan blows a face plant?

[Wikkid666]

Maybe Jonathan should cut back on the drugs. They seem to having a negative effect on his life.

[RockmanII7]

Next time try figuring out what happened and fixing it instead of just complaining on twitter. The way I see it he was trying to use his fans to get to MS, even if MS was the one who messed up I'm sure he could have put some effort into talking to them about it.

[NYC_Gamer]

I'm not surprised because Blow always does these type of things for attention..He was first upset about the price of Braid being too high and now he is complaining about a price cut he agreed on.

[Killzoner99]

Blow should just drop Microsoft and go go Sony exclusive.