Jim Sterling talks about the state of gaming reviews and games publishers controlling them

[Master Disaster]

When Jim puts out 2 jimquisitions in one week you know something annoyed him, this week it was EAs refusal to provide a review code for Titanfall 2 and some interesting information he received from EAs main PR house. 

Quote

Yesterday I explained why I do not yet have a Titanfall 2 review while other outlets (some with considerably smaller audiences) got theirs up no problem.

 

I talked about my inability to receive review copies of Electronic Arts and select Square Enix games, with the PR firm 47 Communications being the common brick wall. After multiple failed attempts to learn the reason from 47, I decided to be the squeaky wheel and write about it in an article.

 

The squeaky wheel didn’t get grease, but it did get answers from sources who read the article in question. The good news is, 47 Communications does not apparently have any quarrel with me. The bad news is, some publishers think I’m just too much of a wild card to be trusted.

As it happens publishers are keeping a list of favoured reviewers and wild card reviewers and are actively restricting early access of games to reviewers who won't fall into line and give the game a positive review no matter what. 

Quote

From what I’ve been able to find out, publishers are indeed the ones making the final call. PR firms get requests from reviewers, PR firms forward these requests to the publishers, publishers start crossing names off the list and determining who is allowed to touch the game before launch.

 

Fairly standard stuff, but things have been changing this generation.

 

Over the last year or so, it would appear that at least Electronic Arts is not secure and confident enough to believe I’m a “safe” reviewer. From what I’ve learned, “wild cards” such as myself are no longer considered the worthy gamble they used to be, with game releases and critical receptions more tightly controlled by publishers than ever.

 

Electronic Arts has a documented history of attempting to manipulate the critical reception of its games. It quite famously pressured outlets over Battlefield 3reviews, doing what it could to mitigate the possibility of any unfavorable criticism.

 

In a world where pre-orders are only becoming more important and launch-day microtransactions remain controversial, it’s hardly surprising EA is still attempting to dictate public perception of its games. Best to hide all the shitty business practices from customers for as long as possible, right?

 

This is not just limited to myself. Any critic deemed too “unpredictable” makes certain publishers nervous, and they’ve steadily grown more eager to cut out any variables that could rock the boat too much.

 

If you are a critic and you have been receiving code for high profile games from publishers such as EA, it may very well be because they think you’re easy to please and will give the positive coverage they expect. Frankly, I’d find that rather insulting.

Secondly they're also seriously restricting the amount of review codes available to the gaming press in the first place. 

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What I do know is that things have changed over the last few years. Review codes used to be more liberally doled out, with PR firms having a ton of codes to give to outlets of every description. These days, companies have gotten stingier with the codes, and PR firms are left with a fraction of what they used to be able to provide – when they say they’ve run out of codes, even digital ones, they’re not lying.

 

As I stated yesterday, this is an inconvenience to me from a scheduling standpoint, but it’s not going to stop me doing my job. Thanks to my Patreon support, I have the budget to purchase and review high profile games, even if I won’t get such reviews up before a game’s launch. I remain on Metacritic, and I continue to have an audience I’ve no intention of letting down.

In his video on this topic he also talks about how Bethesda have just announced they won't be doing any review copies at all any more and all gaming journalists will have to wait until release to play future titles and how they're spinning this as a good thing by claiming its to protect the public from spoilers and to ensure everyone experiences the game at the same time. Are they forgetting the past 20 years where reviewers have had early access and to my knowledge have never spoiled a single game? 

 

http://www.thejimquisition.com/im-too-much-of-a-wild-card-to-receive-review-copies/

 

This is a huge bone of contention for me. 

 

They want us to preorder their shit but they refuse to let us see it beforehand and now they're trying to stop any unfavourable traditional reviews from being published by controlling the reviewers who get early access? 

 

Here's an idea, how about you stop selling broken, buggy and unfinished games? How about you stop adding microtransactions and stores to full price titles? How about you stop churning out rehashed games every year? How about you stop cutting content from games to sell as DLC? How about you sell us DLC that's actually worth its price? How about you stop making £50 games pay 2 win? 

 

It's getting to the point where I'm almost ready to stop playing AAA titles at all, most indies seem to understand the market they're trying to impact on. These AAA studios are so out of touch it's laughable. 

 

They want all the possible benefits with none of the downsides and it won't be long before your average AAA title requires you to activate it with your CC number. 

[LePawel]

Why you no demo motherfuckers?

[EUD]

9 minutes ago, LePawel said:

Why you no demo motherfuckers?

60$ demo

[Void Reaper]

I dont blame Bethesda, their Games focus heavily on their Story, so having nobody to Spoiler that is a good thing imho, even though it worked for previous Games. Could be that i just fanboy Bethesda, but i'd rather have a Studio that doesnt give out Review Codes than EA that just punches you until you give them a good Review or you'll never get one ever again.

[zMeul]

5 hours ago, Void Reaper said:

I dont blame Bethesda, their Games focus heavily on their Story, so having nobody to Spoiler that is a good thing imho, even though it worked for previous Games. Could be that i just fanboy Bethesda, but i'd rather have a Studio that doesnt give out Review Codes than EA that just punches you until you give them a good Review or you'll never get one ever again.

that's such a bullshit excuse

don't you know they gave and will give the game to Twitch / YouTube streamers way before they do to reviewers

[TheReal1980]

Reviews are so past it, no one trusts anything anymore.

[AlTech]

8 minutes ago, zMeul said:

that's such a bullshit excuse

don't you know they gave and will give the game way to Twitch / YouTube streamers way before they do to reviewers

Yeah exactly. They could easily give a special copy of the game but with the story disabled/turned off.

[Castdeath97]

Total biscuit opinion on pretty much what is the same topic:

 

 

[Bouzoo]

37 minutes ago, Void Reaper said:

I dont blame Bethesda, their Games focus heavily on their Story, so having nobody to Spoiler that is a good thing imho, even though it worked for previous Games. Could be that i just fanboy Bethesda, but i'd rather have a Studio that doesnt give out Review Codes than EA that just punches you until you give them a good Review or you'll never get one ever again.

No excuse to do that to Dishonored 2, since they allowed reviews of Dishonored before release, which stands on highest possible rating on Steam.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-10-26-bethesdas-anti-consumer-review-policy-comes-as-no-surprise

[Void Reaper]

7 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

No excuse to do that to Dishonored 2, since they allowed reviews of Dishonored before release, which stands on highest possible rating on Steam.

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-10-26-bethesdas-anti-consumer-review-policy-comes-as-no-surprise

Haven't read that much into it and it was more of an Impulse-Response, but now it does make my previous argument Invalid.

[suicidalfranco]

Okay, so Bethesda enters my list of games to buy from G2A

[Misanthrope]

This is hardly fucking news.

[Joelbanks5]

Meh, I've never preordered games, such a waste of money. I wait to watch gameplay to make the decision to buy or not and then buy it at $40ish when it goes on sale on like GMG air someplace. 

[Joelbanks5]

And ever since I bought a crappy item on amazon that had almost 5 stars and I read the reviews about it, I've stopped relying on reviews for purchasing any item.

[michaelocarroll007]

2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

 

 

Here's an idea, how about you stop selling broken, buggy and unfinished games? How about you stop adding microtransactions and stores to full price titles? How about you stop churning out rehashed games every year? How about you stop cutting content from games to sell as DLC? How about you sell us DLC that's actually worth its price? How about you stop making £50 games pay 2 win? 

 

 

 

They could do all that work or just give copies to only positive reviewers... seems much easier lol. Sarcasm.

 

Last game i pre ordered was Gears of war 3 in like 2011 I don't see any reason now days to pre order a game in today's world. You use to on launch week goto a store that could of sold out now days its digital download thoses dont run out lol. having a pink gun cause i pre ordered is not going to make me.

 

The main problem is Most have no problem buying the dam $100 dollar version of gears 4, call of duty  with he season passes and all the drop boxes microtrans in call of duty. as long as many buy it they will continue to sell it because the majority are saying yes and have no problem with it.

 

Its upsetting to the few of us and it wont stop till the majority say no

 

To play devils advocate though  game prices have not gone up since what 2005 or even before then a $60.00 360 game with inflation would be $75.00 today but they still charge 60 so they rip many off on crap DLC so you get a good amount paying 100 and some paying 60  and the average price probably falls around there 

 

 

Looking more into it N64 and PS1 Games were actually even more  costing 50-70 dollars was not a standard price like today and  to just go with the same 1996 $60.00 price  thats $95   if you went with $70.00  the game today would be $107    yes there is more to it then this like cost of cartridges and making the games has probaly gone down but its not like they have gotten more expensive at all.  compared to things like  gas milk ect 

[Castdeath97]

49 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

This is hardly fucking news.

But the fact that Bethesda is "officially" includes this as a policy kinda is.

[apm]

2 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Yeah exactly. They could easily give a special copy of the game but with the story disabled/turned off.

because you cant review the story?

i want reviewers to complete the games and not some half assed shit.

 

i only preorder games where im 100% certain that it wont suck and dishonored 2 might be one of them.

fallout 4 on the other hand was dogshit and a ton of diehard fans were disappointed by everything.

 

no mans sky.

[Ryujin2003]

1 hour ago, Joelbanks5 said:

Meh, I've never preordered games, such a waste of money. I wait to watch gameplay to make the decision to buy or not and then buy it at $40ish when it goes on sale on like GMG air someplace. 

Totally agree. The over priced games, with DLCS that more than doubles the cost of the original game..... wtf.

 

I tend to play "older games". I wait until til sites like Humble Bundle or GamersGate, or even Bundle Stars has a good deal on the game that includes all of the DLCs.

 

Everything is going towards milking for the most cash possible, and is supported by a large part of the gaming community. They bitch, but want it and buy it anyways. They let the publishers win.

 

[Master Disaster]

38 minutes ago, michaelocarroll007 said:

They could do all that work or just give copies to only positive reviewers... seems much easier lol. Sarcasm.

 

Last game i pre ordered was Gears of war 3 in like 2011 I don't see any reason now days to pre order a game in today's world. You use to on launch week goto a store that could of sold out now days its digital download thoses dont run out lol. having a pink gun cause i pre ordered is not going to make me.

 

The main problem is Most have no problem buying the dam $100 dollar version of gears 4, call of duty  with he season passes and all the drop boxes microtrans in call of duty. as long as many buy it they will continue to sell it because the majority are saying yes and have no problem with it.

 

Its upsetting to the few of us and it wont stop till the majority say no

 

To play devils advocate though  game prices have not gone up since what 2005 or even before then a $60.00 360 game with inflation would be $75.00 today but they still charge 60 so they rip many off on crap DLC so you get a good amount paying 100 and some paying 60  and the average price probably falls around there 

 

 

Looking more into it N64 and PS1 Games were actually even more  costing 50-70 dollars was not a standard price like today and  to just go with the same 1996 $60.00 price  thats $95   if you went with $70.00  the game today would be $107    yes there is more to it then this like cost of cartridges and making the games has probaly gone down but its not like they have gotten more expensive at all.  compared to things like  gas milk ect 

Unfortunately , even though you were joking that's the sad reality of it. It is easier to give your game to reviewers like TheRadBrad who, even while the AI is spazzing out in front of him, will talk about how great Mafia 3 is instead of your TBs or Sterling's who will give a truthful and informed opinion on what they see, not just parrot back the PR material no matter what state the game is in. 

 

Also on your pricing point, I agree with you and to be super clear, I'm not against devs selling us post release content at all. If they did the work then they should get paid but the recent trend has been to provide minimum story updates and instead focus on cosmetic or otherwise meaningless content which takes barely any work, has minimal impact on the game and can be sold tor 3/4s of the price of a full blown story expansion . 

 

For all the bad Randy Pitchford has done he did get the seasons passes for Borderlands spot on, a nice mixture of cosmetic items and decent length story expansions which were well worth the price. 

[Notional]

This twat looks and acts like Heinrich Himmler.

[PlayStation 2]

And this isn't shocking in the slightest. And why so? Because people are naive as fuck.

[raphidy]

I don't even care bout new games. I am waiting for 50% GOTY nowadays. Reviews will be out by then. Too much backlog, not enough time. Only preorders i do are: limited/collector edition physical copy. Like P5 is a real struggle to not preorder.

[Mira Yurizaki]

Game publishers are starting to fear that if they give early reviews and copies to those who aren't humping their leg (or  the other way around since that's how you establish dominance), people will kill their preorders if the reviewer gives the potential customer a bad taste in their mouth.

 

Solution? People should stop preordering. If you want me to preorder publisher, give me an incentive that's worth as much as the game to me. e.g., I like to joke around when I got the Tales of Xilia collector's edition I bought a figure (it was a nice quality figure worthy of the CE price alone) and it happened to come with a game.

[dragosudeki]

2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Unfortunately , even though you were joking that's the sad reality of it. It is easier to give your game to reviewers like TheRadBrad who, even while the AI is spazzing out in front of him, will talk about how great Mafia 3 is instead of your TBs or Sterling's who will give a truthful and informed opinion on what they see, not just parrot back the PR material no matter what state the game is in.  

In my opinion, some of the game's joys are found in those funny glitches. And TB (I don't follow Sterling, so I can't say anything) gave an ill-informed opinion of Shadow Warrior 2, saying the game had the 'bullet sponge' problem, despite him not using his weapons properly. Major problem with TB (and probably Sterling), is when he gives a bad opinion (whether its informed or not), most of his fans will blindly think the same thing and not try the game out for themselves. Reviewers that have a lot of influence on the community can be both good/bad for a game whether its justified or not. Then, of course when you try to avoid that double-edged idea, you will still get backlash for not providing a free copy which in my opinion is ridiculous as well.

[dalekphalm]

9 minutes ago, dragosudeki said:

In my opinion, some of the game's joys are found in those funny glitches. And TB (I don't follow Sterling, so I can't say anything) gave an ill-informed opinion of Shadow Warrior 2, saying the game had the 'bullet sponge' problem, despite him not using his weapons properly. Major problem with TB (and probably Sterling), is when he gives a bad opinion (whether its informed or not), most of his fans will blindly think the same thing and not try the game out for themselves. Reviewers that have a lot of influence on the community can be both good/bad for a game whether its justified or not. Then, of course when you try to avoid that double-edged idea, you will still get backlash for not providing a free copy which in my opinion is ridiculous as well.

Can you elaborate on why he was using his weapon incorrectly?