Low score embargoes, review guides and $800 swag bags, oh my!

[Erik Aston]

The majority of people don't care about swag bags because they don't get the swag bags. Why are you so against free stuff? Are you jealous that you can't get them?

All the major reviewers get swag bags. Their purpose is to bias the reviewer to give a favorable review. Why aren't you against bribing reviewers?

Am I jealous? You're just trying to distract people now.

There may be review embargoes, but they can't stop them once the game is actually released. The moment the game is released reviewers can release their reviews and people can read them. As long as I can ready my review before I buy the game I don't care when it's released. The moment the clock hits midnight on the release date (or the lockdown date whichever is first), those reviews are up and I can read them. Are you worried that you might get the rare opportunity to find the game before it's released and be without a review?

They don't block all reviews, just reviews under a certain score. So people considering buying a game only see high review scores. Poor reviews are marked up if a site needs traffic, or are left until whatever date if it doesn't. As you can see from opening week sales of a game like Madden (or Halo), MILLIONS of people form their opinions about what to buy before the game is released. First week sales make or break Madden every year.

This particular story doesn't come from some blogger trying to take down the big press and make a name for himself. It comes from Matt Cassamassina at IGN. Heard of him?

"EA embargoed all ratings under 9"
http://gonintendo.com/?p=22818

So what's so wrong with trying to hype your game?

There's nothing wrong with a game publisher hyping their games. But they aren't supposed to buy off reviewers or threaten them with less advertising dollars. And game reviewers don't exist to hype games for the publishers. They are supposed to be unbiased.



As to Metroid, I don't know the details. I was told there was a similar deal to what we saw with Madden. But don't be so naive to think Nintendo has never done stuff like this. They used to bully third party devs, for pete's sake. Forget about the specialist press.