The latest debacle with Ubisoft's loss being attributed to Wii has me thinking that these type of hit pieces need to be chronicled and "journalists" held accountable.  There is overwhelming evidence all over the net that shows "journalist" and editors have a healthy disdain for the Wii.  We've all remember the infamous Invisible Walls episode where PS3 was praised immensely and Wii was horribly trolled.  We all remember the Eric Brudvig interview where Wii was bashed.  We also remember Damon Hatfield's butthurt anti-Wii rant on Gamescoop and his infamous blog follow up.  There was also a subsequent blog post from an IGN Guides editor that bashed the Wii further. And let's not forget other meltdowns and trolling podcasts. There was heavy trolling on 1up Yours for years as well.  And these are the people who are reviewing your Wii games!

So anti-Wii sentiment is all over the industry - that we know.  But isn't it going too far when folks purposely skew reports to put a negative slant on the Wii?  This does happen.

Example #1:  Luke Plunkett's LostWinds article

In this article, Luke opens with: "Lostwinds is pretty great, but because it's only available on WiiWare, many people are missing out. Maybe a version on the 360 or PlayStation 3 could be a little more inclusive."

However, this is NOT what he originally said.  He edited when he was called out by commentor Showmeyomoves! 

Showmeyomoves! said: "Uh, okay Luke...

Let me just take two sentences from your article here and put them side by side:

"Lostwinds is pretty great, but because it's only available on WiiWare, many people are - for whatever reason - ignoring it." (Plunkets original opening statement)

Then:

"The very fact that we're doing this sequel shows it's been successful." (What Frontier Studios Boss David Braben said in the EXACT same article three paragraphs later).

People aren't ignoring this title, you just need to get off this "Wii is for non-gamers" bullshit."

----------------------------------------------------------------

After Showmeyomoves! calls Plunkett out, he edits the article and responds with "Fixed, to make it a little clearer what i was trying to say!"

Too bad no one was fooled.  Plunkett is the biggest Wii troll on kotaku and this was no slip up.  A quote in his very own article contradicted his own commentary.  It's as if he didn't even read what Braben said but just assumed that LostWinds was a failure and was being ignored because it was on the Wii.

Example #2: Leigh Alexander's Ubisoft $117million loss article

Now this one all hinges on whether or not the info we got from GAF by way of famousringo is correct or not.

Leigh says in his/her fourth paragraph that "the instability of the Wii software market in particular has harmed the publisher (Ubisoft)."  But the  quote she followed that statement up with from Guillemot doesn't necessarily corroberate that notion at all.  He says: "Our Wii games have got off to a more contrasted start in a less predictable market.", which could mean a lot of things - but he/she assumed it must've meant that $117 million lost was due to Wii software in particular - which is a humongous stretch.

If this chart is correct:

...it means he/she straight up lied in the report.  There's also no source in the original article at all.

Example #3:  Alexander Sliwinski's self-ownage - Part 1 & Part 2

Remember the old fanboy mantra of "Wii games don't sell"?  We'll Nintendo sent Game Daily a chart showing Wii, PS3, and 360 software sales at 19 months (alighned launch) which showed that Wii software sales far outpaced those of rival systems.

"That is a very impressive chart" says Sliwinski.  "What we want to know is what happens when two things are taken out of that chart: first-party titles and -- way more importantly in Nintendo's case -- a little piece of "software" called Wii Play. After doing those two things the chart may look the same, it may look totally different, but we'll be sure to post the comparison when we get it."

So Sliwinski took it upon himself to alter Nintendo's chart:

You see, being as though he couldn't say that "Wii games don't sell" anymore, he now moved the goalposts to "Wii 3rd party games" don't sell!  What a troll!  Well, it gets better...

One day later, presumably after hearing of Sliwinski's troll attempt, Nintendo released this graph:

As you can see.  Wii came out on top again.  So what did Mr. Sliwinski, just owned, have to say about this now?

"The life-to-date sales for the Xbox 360, which was out a year before everything else, would skew the numbers to show a total of 82 million units sold, with 82% third-party, for a total of 67 million units. As for the "software" controller bundle known as Wii Play, it has sold 6 million units. If we completely removed Wii Play from the Nintendo figures, it would actually boost the company's third-party data to 62% of a 54 million unit total.

So, obviously, third-party games sell on Wii. The perception that they don't is probably caught up in sales ratios and looking at the 80%-plus third-party sales on the competing consoles."

Ok, so it looks like he took his ownage like a man right?  WRONG!  He moves the goal posts yet AGAIN!

 "Also, third-party publishers probably aren't looking at just the first 19 months, those companies probably look at the overall sales chart. We've altered the chart above to reflect the big picture in the graph below."

Yes folks.  He took it there.  We went from the original argument which was "Wii games don't sell!".  When that was proven wrong, we had a goal post shift to "Wii 3rd party games don't sell!"  And when that was proven wrong, we get even another goal post shift to "LTD 3rd party game sales!" 

He had to shift the goal posts TWICE in order to make the Wii "lose"!  Talk about going out of your way to troll...

SIDEBAR

I was logged in to Joystiq when Sliwinski posted the second story and he was RIPPED by several commentors.  I was one of them.  But instead of eating his crow, he (and/or someone else on Joystiq Staff) began deleting ALL the comments the pointed out how wrong Sliwinski was.  I got banned for reposting my comments each time they were deleted.  VGChartz users Kenny and Fernando Rocker saw the entire thing unfold.  In fact in an MSN convo I had with Fernando, he asked Justin McElroy why I was banned.  McElroy responded that they 'don't tolerat Joystiq hate'.  More like they don't tolerate commentors holding their editors accountable!

Example #4: James Ransom-Wiley misconstrues Iwata's words

Ok, we already know it takes years to churn out main series Mario and (especially) Zelda games.  So when gamers were upset that a new Mario or Zelda were not announced at E3 2008, they supposedly accused Nintendo of abandoning them. 

Iwata responds with: "We have never neglected our core gamers. We still have developers working on popular core gaming franchises but we need longer to complete these games, approximately two to three years."

Iwata gave a general time frame for the completion of these core games - nothing more.  But then came the "journalist" spin.

Mr. Ransom-Wiley took Iwata's statement and morphed it into "Dear Core: Wait 2-3 Years", meaning that gamers would have to wait 2 or 3 more years for Nintendo's core titles to come out - which was NOT what Iwata had said at all.  It's as if Ransom-Wiley took the date of the original Eurogamer article (August 26th) and started the 2 to 3 year clock from that date as opposed to entertaining the general comment Iwata made to begin with.  Irresponsible journalism at its finest.

And as if that wasn't enough, Ransom-Riley had to troll a bit as well - saying:

"So sit back, twiddle some other thumbsticks, and let those other folk navigate the slopes for a while. Your turn's a comin'."

By "other folks", he clearly means 'teh cazuals' and "navigate the slopes" is hot linked to EA's Celebrity Sports Showdown.  Shameless.

Our own Mr. Khan and Fernando Rocker called him out on his antics in the comments section and even reported him to other Joystiq Staff - Ransom-Wiley was later promoted.

Example #5:  Brian Crecente's Wii Fit Fiasco

The media often starts the FUD machine early with Wii titles.  For example: Craig Harris at IGN used to continually call New Super Mario Bros. Wii a port of the DS game for several episodes of Nintendo Voice Chat.  Wii Fit was probably one of the most targeted titles of the FUD machine.  But in no other example has Wii Fit hate backfired this deliciously.

Here's how it all went down:

Yahoo published a Forbes article about the so-called "The Truth about Wii Fit".  In the article, Kotaku's Brian Crecente bashed the game, saying:

"I don't know a single person who has bought the game who uses it routinely after a month."

Also from the article: "...Crecente remain skeptical about the Wii Fit hype, predicting that this, too, will pass into fitness fad history (yeah, just like the Wii, right!? - Ken). When a neighbor mentioned heading out to buy a Wii Fit recently, Crecente's advice was simple: Don't do it. "I have to keep reminding people," he sighs, "even though it's a videogame, it's still exercise. It might be fun a little bit, but it's work."

So Crecente tells his neighbor not to buy Wii Fit and says it's a fad.  lol!

So what happened next was the user backlash - the Wii Fit Backlash!  Yes, the fans stepped up and told Crecente he was full of shit.  What Yahoo published were several anecdotes from people who wrote in and shared their stories about Wii Fit.  The author of this piece, Mike Smith, owns Crecente by saying:

"Crecente apparently doesn't know very many of our readers, who responded to the article in substantial numbers both to set us straight about their Wii Fit habits, and to offer advice about how to get the most out of Nintendo's ground-breaking fitness game.

Here's a taste -- and believe us, we really do mean a taste -- of the comments we received."

Yup, Crecente only seems to know the internet fanboys - not the PEOPLE.  Not only do the people tell Smith that Crecente is full of shit, but they school him on how he could get the most out of it!  That must be really degrading for such a "hardcore gamer" to be given advice by "teh cazuals"!

And Smith points out that he only shared a "taste" of these reader anecdotes.  So there were several more!  The people have spoken!

And not only had they spoken, they reportedly "ultrabombed" his inbox!  Awesome!

So what did Crecente have to say about this?

Well, I gotta give him credit, he tucked his hardcore tail between his hardcore legs and issued this report - "Wii Fit is No Fad"  The funny thing about this article is that he tries to find an out by questioning some of the people who blew his inbox up - presumably trying to pigeon-hole them as "teh cazuals", but what he found was they didn't entirely fit into his box of pre-conceived notions.  He makes up a new box for them - the "hardcasuals" - lol!

And in sweet, sweet irony - one month later - Crecente had to report this piece of lovely news!  Poor guy!

Meanwhile:

= 22.73 million 

Example #6:  Luke Plunkett cherrypicks Sega's Darren Williams' quote, trolls.

I encourage you to click on the link and read the entire answer to the original question.

Disregarding the entire answer to that question, Plunkett takes this quote and runs with it:

"I think on one hand the Wii has become the most expensive board game on Earth - it's the kind of thing that families will play at Christmas, and probably won't play again throughout the remainder of the year." - Darren Williams

Also, notice he left the last sentence off as well.

Our very own Gnizmo summed this one up perfectly:

It's as if Plunkett skims the interview for anything that can be perceived as a negative comment against the Wii then he publishes a story about it, as he believes it reaffirms his belief.

Example #7: Joystiq's mysterious Media Create reorder

This isn't huge - it might be an honest mistake - but it's suspicious because I never seen them do this before...

Last week, the Wii outsold the PS3 according to Media Create - their official chart can be found right here.

Media Create always lists hardware in order from most sold (top) to least sold (bottom) - and that is how the data is represented on their chart in that link:

Looking at the Joystiq link, the order is faithfully represented except that PS3 is above the Wii despite selling over a hundred units more.

- DSi LL: 67,243 33,310 (33.13%)
- PS3: 46,558 11,806 (33.97%)
- Wii: 46,673 13,829 (42.11%)
- PSP: 38,839 6,087 (18.59%)
- DSi: 37,021 4,951 (15.44%)
- DS Lite: 7,268 2,217 (43.89%)
- PSP Go: 3,809 765 (16.72%)
- Xbox 360: 3,685 400 (9.79%)
- PS2: 2,057 33 (1.63%)

Mistake or purposeful alteration?

Example #8:  Michael McWhertor downplays NSMB Wii's first-day sales

Not only did he down play NSMB Wii's first day numbers but he did it with ass-backward logic.  He says:

"Some of Mario's other Wii games started a little stronger out of the gate, including Super Smash Bros. Brawl (816,000 units sold) and Mario Kart Wii (608,00 units sold)."

First off, he's comparing NSBM Wii's FIRST DAY sales to Mario Kart Wii's and Super Smash Bros. Brawl's FIRST WEEK sales - and has the audacity to say they came out of the gates stronger.  That doesn't make any sense and isn't a fair comparison at all. 

Secondly, I think he chose to consider Smash Bros. a "Mario game" just so he could add another game that supposedly "topped" NSMB Wii first day sales - as if using first week sales vs. first day sales wasn't already silly enough.  So I guess Brawl can be considered a Pokemon, Zelda, Kirby, Star Fox, Fire Emblem game too if it'll help his argument in downplaying the sales of any of those future games too.

Earlier in that article, he says:

"New Super Mario Bros. Wii's first day sales ahead of that of Super Mario Galaxy's, which managed 256,000 units sold in its first week on Japanese store shelves. But the Wii follow-up to New Super Mario Bros. on the Nintendo DS will likely fall short of its portable predecessor. New Super Mario Bros. DS racked up some 900,000 units sold."

Good try, McWhertor - but here's your crow.

Example #9: One of these things is not like the other thing... Gamasutra Edition

Now it's time to play our gaaaaaaaamme!   It's time to play our game!

Here we go!

XBOX360 and PS3 - The Most Anticipated Games Of 2010: Xbox 360/PlayStation 3

DS and PSP - The Most Anticipated Games Of 2010: DS And PSP

PC and MMO - The Most Anticipated Games Of 2010: PC And MMO

The Wii!? - Third-Party Publishers React To Deflating Wii Bubble

Did you guess before Cookie Monster finished his song?

This quote from John Gordon on the last link says it all: 

"This is what I've seen this week on gamasutra:

Jan. 5 Most anticipated games on PS3/Xbox 360
Jan. 6 Most anticipated games on DS and PSP
Jan. 7 Most anticipated games PC and MMO
Jan. 8 Third party games don't sell on Wii, so why bother "

If you can't tell which of those stories just doesn't belong here - here's a hint.  A Gamasutra commenter by the name of Ephraim Knight had to create this little blog post since Gamasutra neglected to be fair at all.  The opening paragraph reads:

"In all the preparation for gaming in 2010, Gamasutra ran a series of articles highlighting some of the most anticipated games of the new year. Unfortunately, they forgot one key player, The Wii. Not sure how, but they had an article for the PS3/360, DS/PSP and PC/MMO but not the Wii."

MORE????? Gawd dayum!!!

I'm intrigued, show some more when you get the time.

There's one I remember from last year, and I think you watched that one alongside me, Kenology: Nintendo published NPD stats that showed third party games do sell well on the Wii with a software sold by aligned launch graph, but lumped 1st party in with 3rd party, which caused gaming media commentators everywhere to call Nintendo out for distorting the facts, and demand to see what the same chart looked like with the first party sales removed. Nintendo responded by separating out the first party sales, which still put the Wii's third party sales over the 360's, which caused gaming media commentators everywhere to change their argument to that the Wii hadn't sold as much software as the 360 in terms of LTD, instead of aligned by launch.

hehehe I'm saving this topic for later

I think this is good and all, especially after todays doom articles.

But...

How about we have a thread were we praise the good journalists/sites/companies who we thinks do a great job without bashing anyone. Just for a change. Some one else has to do it though, I'm to lazy :P

How about we have NINTENDO threads not related to the same 3 debate/argument??? .... This is insane

Practically any Nintendo based Kotaku article qualifies. I now understand why gaf bans sites.

Really I could see a site created specifically to keep these 'journalists' in check by calling them out on their bullshit when warranted. It's more rampant now than ever.

That was Alexander Sliwinski's post from Joystiq - I remember that all too well and I remember you and I talking about it.  I'm still looking for the link to that one so I can add it.

We all know that game journalists, well most of them anyways, have a strong dislike of the Wii