No More Early Copies for the Press to Review

[Hyperglide]

Why let the old media guys have access when you can buy youtubers for super cheap?

And for For Honor I can't say I care all that much. They're running an open beta leading up to launch, so people who want to try it before buying will have an opportunity to.

All the justifications they give for it are terrible though.

Finally someone ITT gets it. Times are a changing and print media and big game sites like Gamespot and IGN who are known to cowtow to demands from publishers and cower under pressure for good reviews or lose ad revenue people turned to other sources of data and info.

Hence YouTube. Guys like AngryJoe, Cynical Brit, Jim Sterling and ACG. Game publishers know this and see the shift in the industry with analytics. So now so don't feel the need to get the information out sooner as most gamers get their info from newer media outlets.

 

[Sharkey]

ACG used to be my go-to guy on youtube for reviews. I was one one of his first 500 subscribers or so back when he first started the channel. I ended up losing trust in him after a while, though. He started putting out too many reviews in too short of a time span, at the same time only showing early game footage, and then some mispronouncing of character names that he really shouldn't have since they were frequently mentioned in the game. I started to doubt if he was actually playing enough of the game(s) to give a proper review of them. He was also the first to publish a review for a lot of games and have those out right at midnight after the embargo was lifted.

 

[dAfTiE]

Finally someone ITT gets it. Times are a changing and print media and big game sites like Gamespot and IGN who are known to cowtow to demands from publishers and cower under pressure for good reviews or lose ad revenue people turned to other sources of data and info.

Hence YouTube. Guys like AngryJoe, Cynical Brit, Jim Sterling and ACG. Game publishers know this and see the shift in the industry with analytics. So now so don't feel the need to get the information out sooner as most gamers get their info from newer media outlets.

Actually, no.
Guys on youtube are FAR easier to make give you positive coverage. Not TB, that guy is too big. But they're taking guys with under 20k subs and flying them to france to play steep and shit.
No one working at an actual publication is going to sign a piece of paper that says they can only write nice things about the game, they can't show or talk about bugs, but thousands of youtubers and twitch streamers will.
And since most of the ones they go to are on the smaller side they'll sell themselves for fucking peanuts.
And since the kids watching are dumb they will repeat the "IGN ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR" meme forever while never noticing the little text in the description that says "this video sponsored by X" which means actually bought and paid for.

 

[Hyperglide]

Actually, no.
Guys on youtube are FAR easier to make give you positive coverage. Not TB, that guy is too big. But they're taking guys with under 20k subs and flying them to france to play steep and shit.
No one working at an actual publication is going to sign a piece of paper that says they can only write nice things about the game, they can't show or talk about bugs, but thousands of youtubers and twitch streamers will.
And since most of the ones they go to are on the smaller side they'll sell themselves for fucking peanuts.
And since the kids watching are dumb they will repeat the "IGN ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR" meme forever while never noticing the little text in the description that says "this video sponsored by X" which means actually bought and paid for.

No one watches the smaller channels and if they do you are either naive to think they don't get sponsored. I wasn't talking about them. Only the bigger guys who are established and do it for a living.

 

[Hyperglide]

ACG used to be my go-to guy on youtube for reviews. I was one one of his first 500 subscribers or so back when he first started the channel. I ended up losing trust in him after a while, though. He started putting out too many reviews in too short of a time span, at the same time only showing early game footage, and then some mispronouncing of character names that he really shouldn't have since they were frequently mentioned in the game. I started to doubt if he was actually playing enough of the game(s) to give a proper review of them. He was also the first to publish a review for a lot of games and have those out right at midnight after the embargo was lifted.

What an odd argument. You stopped watching him because he mispronounes words?? Also, about embargoes ACG gets early review copies like everyone else did. He gives those games he buys away on his Patreon cause. He buys every game he reviews even when he gets review copies cause he wants to feel if the game has value. He clearly states every review he does isn't sponsored.

 

[method115]

I'm glad cause I hate review companies and yes they are all paid shills. I've seen several games that are reviewed and major bugs are left out of the review. I think BF4 was the last one that really pissed me off.

 

[Concrete]

It's anti-consumer. If they would drop the pre-order, play this on day 1 or you're nothing culture, then it wouldn't be such a big deal.

To push pre-order culture and stop any early copies going out to reviewers/streamers, it's clearly anti-consumer.

 

[Concrete]

Actually, no.
Guys on youtube are FAR easier to make give you positive coverage. Not TB, that guy is too big. But they're taking guys with under 20k subs and flying them to france to play steep and shit.
No one working at an actual publication is going to sign a piece of paper that says they can only write nice things about the game, they can't show or talk about bugs, but thousands of youtubers and twitch streamers will.
And since most of the ones they go to are on the smaller side they'll sell themselves for fucking peanuts.
And since the kids watching are dumb they will repeat the "IGN ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR" meme forever while never noticing the little text in the description that says "this video sponsored by X" which means actually bought and paid for.

TBF the big companies also get jetted out to those things, with preferential treatment, and a lot of the marketing people know the journalists. So both sides have issues with transparency.

 

[TeTe]

Like others said, I don't pre-order games so I don't care.

In fact, I've been playing much older games cause they're cheaper for download now. Games that I know are good.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Insert 'Don't be stupid and buy games before learning of what gamers say about it' response, here.

Gaming jornalism is dead, has been for a while. About every lifelong gamer has a few examples of how they trusted a review, bought a game, and the game sucks. Sometimes its a question of personal taste, other times its a blatant deception.

For me, all gaming journalism died after Mass Effect 3 was released. Fans were outraged over the ending, online polls 97% were not satisfied with the conclusion. Bioware, now owned by EA, didn't want to aknowledge the backlash because it'd hurt sales.

But gaming's biggest journalist outlets, who are supposed to have gamers' interests and be our voice to game designers across the industry, defended Bioware/EA and called those who were dissatisfied 'entitled' and used cop-out excuses 'there wasn't any possible ending that could have been satisfying to everybody.'

'Um, pardon me, but could it be that you have your head up EA's ass because they hook you up with exclusive previews, interviews, clips, early review copies for your publication? Which attract visitors to your site, and increased ad revenue? And if you're blackballed by them, the biggest game company in the industry.... you're pretty fucked?

Could that have played a part in dismissing gamers outrage over the ME3 ending, while never adressing the specific reasons why?

No.... you're journalists with the highest integrity.

 

[Gregolian]

Finally someone ITT gets it. Times are a changing and print media and big game sites like Gamespot and IGN who are known to cowtow to demands from publishers and cower under pressure for good reviews or lose ad revenue people turned to other sources of data and info.

Hence YouTube. Guys like AngryJoe, Cynical Brit, Jim Sterling and ACG. Game publishers know this and see the shift in the industry with analytics. So now so don't feel the need to get the information out sooner as most gamers get their info from newer media outlets.

I just wish AngryJoe would have "shortened" versions of his review.

 

[SleepyBoy]

When a game gets great early reviews it really hypes the game and boost sales. To me this is about Developers not being confident in their products and wanting to cash is on ignorance.

 

[method115]

When a game gets great early reviews it really hypes the game and boost sales. To me this is about Developers not being confident in their products and wanting to cash is on ignorance.

That's fine with me. Betheseda has always made great games so not worried about them. I'm just sick of the fluff reviews that don't even tell you about the bugs in a game. If your not telling me about bugs then your pretty much useless.

 

[SleepyBoy]

That's fine with me. Betheseda has always made great games so not worried about them. I'm just sick of the fluff reviews that don't even tell you about the bugs in a game. If your not telling me about bugs then your pretty much useless.

Agreed. Skyrim is one of the best games of all time but it's nearly unplayable on ps3.

 

[method115]

Agreed. Skyrim is one of the best games of all time but it's nearly unplayable on ps3.

Yep and look at the review scores over a 90. This gaming review sites are just useless.

 

[Mga223]

For honor is a terrible game and every review would let it out that its not worth full price and will get boring quick.

 

[Sharkey]

What an odd argument. You stopped watching him because he mispronounes words?? Also, about embargoes ACG gets early review copies like everyone else did. He gives those games he buys away on his Patreon cause. He buys every game he reviews even when he gets review copies cause he wants to feel if the game has value. He clearly states every review he does isn't sponsored.

No, I said he was mispronouncing character names. Not just words. But character names that he would have audibly heard a bunch of times throughout good chunks of a game or throughout the full game if he had played through enough of the game. i.e. Prominent characters to that game.

I'm aware of how he runs his channel. I watched him with some regularity for well over two years before I stopped. I'm saying that I don't trust him anymore due to some of those above reasons. I question if he's actually playing enough (or all) of the game for a lot of his reviews. Karak, who basically runs the channel on his own, put out something like 115-120 separate game reviews in 2016 (including reviews for a lot of long 30, 40, 50+ hour games), and a lot of those were bunched up in a short time span. I find it highly unlikely that he found the time to play through all of those games to completion (or even close to completion) while still finding the time to juggle the other things he does on his channel, as well as real life. Him only showing early game footage or him mispronouncing prominent character names in games only makes me think it's that much more unlikely.

If you trust him then so be it. I'm saying I don't trust him anymore. With the way he tries to get the first review out there (thus get all those early views for his channel), with how often he mentions his patreon, and things like that, he comes across to me as a guy who's much more interested in making a buck rather than give an honest review of a game.

 

[Hyperglide]

Insert 'Don't be stupid and buy games before learning of what gamers say about it' response, here.

Gaming jornalism is dead, has been for a while. About every lifelong gamer has a few examples of how they trusted a review, bought a game, and the game sucks. Sometimes its a question of personal taste, other times its a blatant deception.

For me, all gaming journalism died after Mass Effect 3 was released. Fans were outraged over the ending, online polls 97% were not satisfied with the conclusion. Bioware, now owned by EA, didn't want to aknowledge the backlash because it'd hurt sales.

But gaming's biggest journalist outlets, who are supposed to have gamers' interests and be our voice to game designers across the industry, defended Bioware/EA and called those who were dissatisfied 'entitled' and used cop-out excuses 'there wasn't any possible ending that could have been satisfying to everybody.'

'Um, pardon me, but could it be that you have your head up EA's ass because they hook you up with exclusive previews, interviews, clips, early review copies for your publication? Which attract visitors to your site, and increased ad revenue? And if you're blackballed by them, the biggest game company in the industry.... you're pretty fucked?

Could that have played a part in dismissing gamers outrage over the ME3 ending, while never adressing the specific reasons why?

No.... you're journalists with the highest integrity.

Except that Mass Effect 3 was actually a great game. I agree that they get skewed reviews due to sponsorships but the ending was a strictly subjective opinion. A game reviewers job is to review the game and not the ending.

 

[GearSolidMetal]

Except that Mass Effect 3 was actually a great game. I agree that they get skewed reviews due to sponsorships but the ending was a strictly subjective opinion. A game reviewers job is to review the game and not the ending.

Yeah, and among the big gaming publications the universal opinion of the ending was 'some people will like it, and some won't, just like every ending to a loved series.'

A complete cop-out, intentionally being vague to not harm the sales. Conveniently subjective.

'But it's only the last 8 minutes! The rest of the game is awesome!' It was mediocre with acouple great moments. But those last 8 minutes completely shit on the rest of the game and the whole series.

For casual fans that only played the first two ME games once, yeah, the ending was fine. For those that played the first two games multiple of times over, was fully versed in it's lore, read the novelizations, and viewed this series as this generation's original Star Wars Trilogy.... it was absolute shit.

And since its been 5 years, its easy to forget the details as to why it's hated. Check out this video as a reminder.



As bad as Bioware fucked up with the ending, the media's coverage/cover-up of the backlash was far worse.

Now, there's only a few reviewers of games I consider credible, that have never recommended a shitty game.

 

[Losfer Words]

Game industry is a total shit show.