The state of videogame criticism? Dead.
In just the past month and a half, we've seen EA block all Madden scores below 9.0 until after the game's release (leveraging their advertising dollars), we've seen Sony send out a "review guide" telling reviewers how to review Lair, and now review copies of Halo 3 come with a swag bag including a Halo 360 and another $300+ of gear.
EA and Microsoft's plans worked very well... Sony's not so much. Clearly Sony has never had a child. You can either make a child bend to your whim by threatening to take their allowance away if they don't obey you (like the Madden embargo), or you can bribe them with toys (like the Halo gear). You can't just give them "guidelines" for how to do something and leave it at that.
The point is, the system is broken.
Oh, and by the way, before we start, here's several things which are irrelevant. You can just ignore people when they make these arguments.
1. This is just how the industry works! Therefore, it is how it should work!
2. But it goes on in other industries too! Therefore, it is ethical!
3. Nintendo does it too, you Nintendo fanboy! (Note: I would have mentioned the rumored Metroid Prime 3 score embargo if I knew the details. Oh wait, I just did mention it.)
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
