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[BennyBlanco]

In the first clip, recorded six days after the game’s launch, Blow was unsure at how well the game had performed, saying “it’s a little too early” to judge.

“I’ll put it this way, we’re definitely not sure,” he told a viewer. “It’s not like we sold a million copies on day one, which is what you’d expect. It’s a remaster, right? So you don’t expect it to be like a new game in terms of the hype level. But we just have to see where it lands.”

In the second clip, recorded 34 days after the Anniversary Edition’s release, Blow was asked by a viewer if the game sold well. “No, it sold horribly,” he replied.

“Well, it depends on what your standards are. If you compare it to nostalgic things, like the Jeff Mintergame that’s on Steam, or Atari 50, it’s sold much better than all of those. But it has still sold like dog shit compared to what we need to make for the company to survive.

“The future is uncertain, let’s put it that way,” he added. “It hasn’t been good. Hasn’t been good.”

I honestly didn’t even realize it came out.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Jonathan Blow is such an asshole that I'm glad it's selling like shit *shrug*

 

[Trogdor1123]

I wasn’t either. It’s been out forever though so maybe no one needs it?

 

[Punished Miku]

I still have a functional copy. Zero interest in rebuying it.

 

[LakeOf9]

Good

 

[The Cockatrice]

Oh no, the same game re-released with a shitty price and a few extras that really could've been as a patch sold poorly? Get fucked.

 

[Diddy X]

Obviously, it's a remaster of a 20 year old Xbox live arcade game.

 

[rm082e]

I don't know why he would have thought this would sell like a new game. That makes no sense. Everyone who wants that game already got it for free or on deep sale and played it. It doesn't need a remaster, so he shouldn't have expected very many sales.

Seems like he made bank off that game and set himself up financially for the long run. Seems like the trap of indie game devs - they get enough that they can live of the interest on their million bucks, so they take a lackadaisical approach to making games.

 

[RoboFu]

stop the speeches and make a new game? never was into braid myself.

 

[Hudo]

Has he finished re-inventing the wheel with Jai yet?

 

[winjer]

At 19.50€ price point, it's no wonder it sold poorly.
I got it for 4.85€ during the last Steam sales. This is a much more reasonable price for a remaster. Even if that remaster has new levels and graphics.

 

[ResilientBanana]

Braid was a mediocre game.

 

[Fess]

Jonathan Blow is such an asshole that I'm glad it's selling like shit *shrug*

He made The Witness. He can be the biggest asshole on the planet and I’ll still hope his company will survive so he can make more games.

 

[BennyBlanco]

He made The Witness. He can be the biggest asshole on the planet and I’ll still hope his company will survive so he can make more games.

Yeah the Witness was great. Braid was a novelty at the time but I have no idea why he had such high hopes for a remaster. Guy is definitely an eccentric and can be a dick but I hope he makes more games.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Hey Jonny, we all played it back in 2008. We're good.

And it didn't need a remaster honestly.

I like the guy mostly for how outspoken he is. We need more guys that have some balls to say some industry shit that a lot of people dont wanna hear. He had a great talk with Moriarty some months back

 

[Johnny Concrete]

If his company struggles than that's on him. Making his own game engine was not enough this time, he had to make a whole programming language as well.
I thought he did this because he was chilling.

Now it's been like 10 years since he put anything new out. What do you expect?

 

[Bloobs]

 

[tommib]

I still have the original download on my PS3. I don’t need this, Blow. Sorry. You’re a cool and smart guy but I have no need for this.

 

[Diddy X]

Braid was a mediocre game.

At its time it was a great 20€ game.

 

[ShadowNate]

This needed more marketing, but I suppose that would require even more funds to do properly.
And times are very different than when the original was released -- which pretty much fell right into the kick-off, or arguably helped kick off, the golden years for well made and affordable indie games on Steam and later on Humble Bundle.

I got the remaster and played a little bit and I must admit, if you're not getting it for the commentary, it feels like hardly anything has changed, and I would then only recommend it on a sale. Maybe the new levels (which I didn't reach) make it worth it more than I currently appreciate it for. I'll probably be playing this on and off so it's going to be a while until I see all the new content.

I agree that the Witness was brilliant by the way, and I do look forward to the next original title from this company.

On a related note, did you know that World of Goo is getting a sequel that's releasing in like 3 days?

 

[Krathoon]

Well, gee. I guess the game was not as cool as Mario 64 or Super Mario RPG, huh?

I bought it.

That is the problem here. His games need to have more personality. They would sell way better.

 

[poppabk]

It's a remaster of a game that was deliberately 8 bitish in nature. That doesn't really work.

 

[spons]

There's no point to this game - you're just walking around jumping on shit.
Shit's stupid as hell man.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Yeah the Witness was great. Braid was a novelty at the time but I have no idea why he had such high hopes for a remaster. Guy is definitely an eccentric and can be a dick but I hope he makes more games.

An artist type being misunderstood? Stop the presses.

Creative people are often weird or assholes. Let them be. It's like the saying never meet your heroes.

 

[Von Hugh]

Jonathan blows

 

[_Ex_]

In the past 26 years, Blow has created three games:

1998 Wulfram
2008 Braid
2016 The Witness

Blow should focus on making new games instead of milking past glory.

On a personal note, even during its day, I thought Braid looked like shit despite being a precious "critical darling". The graphical aesthetic is junk, the protagonist looks like a doofus, and the game design is one trick pony. Expecting a resurrected 16 year old indie platformer to perform well sales-wise against modern indie platformers is naive at best.

 

[K' Dash]

I played and enjoyed on the 360.

 

[Krathoon]

What he needs to do is actually make his game characters interesting. He needs to make memorable characters.

 

[Del_X]

Yeah that sucks but maybe don't make pretentious boring dog shit?

 

[FoxMcChief]

I’m all over the board with my thoughts on this. I don’t like games failing, but I love the idea of Jonathon Blow failing and a remaster failing.

 

[ReyBrujo]

In the final clip, recorded 74 days after release, Blow was asked by a viewer about Jai, a new programming languague he’s been working on and plans to release at some point in the future.

When asked how many people were working full-time on the compiler for Jai, Blow replied: “None, because we can’t afford to pay anyone, because the sales are bad.”

What do you want a new language for? Spending resources in something you don't need is an easy way to get red numbers all along.

 

[Krathoon]

Yeah. There is no need to make a new language.

 

[FoxMcChief]

 

[Drake]

I mean, maybe they should release a new game instead of remaking a 16 year old one. Braid 2 sounds like a great idea and probably would have sold really well.

 

[abstract alien]

The game was really good, and I loved the story, but there really isn't any reason to play it twice.

 

[Krathoon]

People like that amaze me. He has zero respect for the game or Johnathan Blow. It is hillarious.

 

[FoxMcChief]

People like that amaze me. He has zero respect for the game or Johnathan Blow. It is hillarious.

You know Soulja boy haunts Blow’s dreams.

“Ain’t no point to the game.”

I love it every time I hear it.

 

[tmlDan]

Why tf would i want to play this old ass indie game again, maybe he should make games quicker.

His last game was The Witness almost a decade ago, how tf are your indie games taking so long.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Never cared about Braid.

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

If your idea of ensuring your company survives is to re-release a 15+ year old game...

Then you have no business still being in business to begin with.

 

[Fess]

Guy is definitely an eccentric and can be a dick but I hope he makes more games.

I don’t care, Cliffy B is crazy too but made one of my favorite action games ever with the first Gears of War, and the Phil Fish guy, said stupid things but made Fez, loved it, Itagaki could say real strange things but made Ninja Gaiden, and Thomas Mahler is an odd character too but made Ori and recently No Rest for the Wicked, so I allow it.

I don’t plan to be friend with any of them. If they make games I enjoy then I want their studios to be successful so I get more of that.

I’m more pissed at the higher ups on the publisher and platform holder side that remove stuff that I enjoy without actually creating anything themselves.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Braid was an overhyped ok game. The Witness was excellent. In any case, he speaks as if he were Kojima, which makes his failure laughable instead of relatable.

 

[Sushi_Combo]

Dogshit game provides dogshit sales.

 

[Krathoon]

Oh, lets just hinge everything on re-releasing an old game. That will go well.

 

[Fbh]

Seems like he overestimated the relevance of the game.
Braid was cool but it also benefited from being in that early wave of digital indie games. In the current market with so many smaller projects releasing all the time I don't know why he thought this would get great sales.
Even as someone who does like smaller indie games, I'd rather buy a new one than a remaster of an older game (that didn't really need a remaster anyway)

 

[Krathoon]

I guess he thought his game was as popular as Duke 3D.

 

[amigastar]

Never cared about Braid.

Same, not my style of game.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Honestly, it's nice to see people acknowledging that Braid was never a good game. Everyone was on Jonathan Blow's dick back in 2008 or whenever it was.

 

[mitch1971]

Damn! This...blows

 

[diffusionx]

It's like a 17 year old game, it was always overrated, its primary addition is new art that you could go either way on, there's a bunch of commentary where this pompous guy sniffs his own farts, and it came out with basically no advertising.