Publisher Influence on Gaming Press
By Shawn on Thursday, July 5th, 2007 at 8:00 PM PST In Bethesda, Gamer Life, Games Industry
The Washington Post has an article on the lengths that companies will go to influence game reviewers. From all expense paid trips to press junkets, visits to firing ranges to play soldier for a day or exclusive eyes only information meant to elicit positive previews and reviews, many of the largest publishers understand the power of gaming press to influence gamers and they want a piece of the action.
Bethesda Softwaorks recent Fallout 3 event is highlighted and VP of Marketing Pete Hines pulls no punches describing the benefit of catering to some media outlets.
“What we’re trying to accomplish with an event like this is to have the undivided attention of the important people in our industry, that cover the industry,” Hines says, referring to the gaming press.
Coming from a traditional news background I often turn my nose up ethically when I hear of these things but the rules are very different with Web based medial or video-game magazines where the advertising and editorial content is so closely dependent on exclusives and advertising deals. While I’m not saying companies buy positive reviews from these companies you won’t find The New York Times or Newsweek visiting one of these events on a publishers dime because of the implications of influence.. Most legitimate gaming journalists and editors are above allowing advertisers to unduly influence their editorial content or so we’d all like to believe.
It’s important to keep in mind what was said at the end of that piece. Something to the effect of ‘if I say a bad game is good, I’ll lose my readers.’ This is most definitely the case. Sure, you can miss a review every once in a while, but if you have a loyal readership, and you continually bombard them with reviews that give bad games good scores, they’re going to go looking elsewhere for that content. This type of behavior isn’t reserved to the gaming industry, but it does appear to be a bit more prominent here.
I’d also point out that the reason that a title like Fallout 3 is gracing 20 magazine covers is not because those writers were invited to Bethesda. It’s because a vast number of gamers are interested in that title. Let’s face it, it’s all about numbers (mag sales, circulation, hits, whatever). Putting Fallout 3 on the cover garners numbers, so whether or not a junket was involved, those covers were going to happen.