Bethesda Is Officially Obsolete (The Jimquisition)

Same. Just got here. Never even knew God's gift to gaming was on Patreon.

Wodenborn

What the hell, I didn’t know there was a Patreon because I just watch the videos and rarely read the mostly cancerous YouTube comments. Dammit, Jim, promote yourself more.

Tythius

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Don't beat yourself up Trevor. Hope can be a powerful feeling, even if you're all too aware that Bethesda's output doesn't warrant it anymore. I <i>still</i> hold out the most infinitesimal hope regarding the next Elder Scrolls game, even though every single one of my consumer instincts is telling me "don't get your hopes up" and "the ship has sailed, abandon ship" etc. I almost know with a palpably grim certainty that they'll ruin it somehow, but I need something to live for man!

Freakish Uproar

I hold out hope that Bethesda will take this as a kick in the pants and a wake up call. But I'm stupid about hope sometimes, so... yeah.

Trevor Bond

I figure you've *probably* heard about this, but I know there are a million things going on right now making it possible to miss stuff relevant to your interests even in adjacent groups, so I wanted to make sure you knew Lindsay Ellis was getting a group together to go after ContentID. It seems like something you'd be into. /understatement

Kass Fireborn

<i>"Bethesda is a farting horse corpse."</i> - <b>Jim Sterling in full Haruspex mode (2019)</b> Every time we zoomed in on Todd's little purse-lipped face I had to pause the video.... x3 This Jimquisition is a masterpiece.

Freakish Uproar

Normally I'm not fond of online griefing, but there is something blackly comic about this entire thing. Imagine spending $99.99 to acquire an add-on for a "live service" that only exists because Bethesda contrived a gameplay impasse in order to strong-arm impulsive people into spending <b>even more</b> money on their unfinished game with a less-than-rosy looking lifeline. Imagine spending all of that money, and the two most major features of that add-on don't even work. And to top it all off you're getting shit from other players, because the consensus around Fallout 1st is that it is (at the very best) considered a joke of eschatological proportions. It'll make 'em think twice about wearing that NCR ranger armour... ;3 I think if I ever met Todd Howard in real life, I'd just give him a big hug.

Freakish Uproar

To be honest, the only good thing about Fallout 76 is that it’s tangentially related to “Starting Over” by Miracle of Sound lol

Of all places for it to happen, there is a class war going on in FO76. https://twitter.com/freyjaerlings/status/1188547338421391361?s=21 It's actually pretty hilarious to read about.

baron von carson

Surprised you went for Skeletor at 11:35 rather than Young Frankenstein...

Asterion Del Toro

I heard a rumor a while back that the problem is they ARE taking their time... with Starfield and ES6. Both are pretty far out from release, and you don't have income without a release. They may well clean up when those two hit v1.0, but until then their company is bleeding money, on paper at least. 76 is Bethesda offering one franchise up as a sacrificial lamb to save two.

Asterion Del Toro

Fantastic video and great points Jim. Maybe this is why there are a dozen versions of Skyrim: Bethesda peaked there and they knew it. Also...What fresh hell is this? Jim actually promoting his own stuff?! We are through the looking glass people! 😉

Perpetual Noob

❤️

One of the first things I heard about this game was that you CAN'T pick up every glass, plate, cheese, and whatnot in the world...and that it wasn't a supremely open world. And my first thought was, "The two things that seem to be the root of all that ludicrous instability Bethesda's games are known for? The two things that add almost nothing to the gameplay, and yet still stick around for reasons I can't even BEGIN to guess at? I think I might JUST be able to get over it!"

Dr. Judge, Private Eye

What I think is absolutely stunning is just how bug and crash free a game like fallout 3 is. Red Dead has a game bigger than fallout 4 or even 76, again bug free. Meanwhile, Bethesda was this little lovable company that put out good games that were buggy as hell but we liked them anyway. When Skyrim was new, there was nothing like it. Now we see bigger games without microtransactions and no or very few issues. I loved the company before 76. I pre-ordered 76 assuming it was fallout 4 with friends. I will now only by ID games from them.

Benedict Holland

Gabriel: I think the Providence thing was part of a plan to take the company public at some point, hence the sudden gung-ho attitude to monetisation.

Nki

It might be worth looking at Zenimax's cap table (or trying to at least) In 2010 there was a major injection of cash from Providence Equity Partners which somewhat coincides with when their business decisions started changing signifigantly (endless re-releases of Skyrim , ESO jumping in the MMO market, etc) I can't find the exact quote but I remember a while back someone pushing Todd Howard on release dates and he responded by saying the fact that they were private meant they had enough money and didn't need to worry about quarterly numbers so got to take their time. Obviously that thinking changed at some point

Gabriel Nichols

Outer Worlds is amazing, and worth all the hype.

Adam C.

My library of Bethesday games has Skyrim, Fallout NV, and Doom. That's about it, and I wouldn't be upset if Bethesda fizzled out at this point.

Matt Ahn

So what I'm getting from that intro is "Content warning: Jim is even more Jim than usual in this one. Enjoy."

Ben L.

The more I play The Outer Worlds the more this makes your case very clear.