Kotaku claims to be blacklisted by Bethesda and Ubisoft

[theRepublic]

binary solo said:

mornelithe said:

Not really, pretty sure Kotaku isn't an extension of Ubi or Bethesda, so that kinda fails under scrutiny.   It's also the developers/publishers choice.  Just as Kotaku is free to write whatever they want, Publishers/Devs are free to associate with whomever they want (protected under the same amendment). 

Did you watch the video? Of course the publishers have the choice, that's not the issue. The issue is whether blacklisting is a helpful or harmful tactic in the broader scheme of things and whether us as the ultimate source of the profits for game companies are well served by publishers thinking they can blacklist media outlets for whatever reason they want. You might be able to argue that this blacklisting was somewhat justified, but blacklisting has been done for some very dodgy reasons, bad reviews, and the more publishers think they can blacklist with gamers on their side the more they will do it and the worse off we'll be.

It's kind of ironic that people who supported the so-called aims of #GG regarding journalistic ethics (which basically amounts to media colluding with publishers to give good press for games) are basically in support of this tactic, which is exactly one way for game companies to exert pressure on gaming media to give good press. The threat of blacklisting puts gaming media on notice to be more positive towards the publishers.

Blacklisting is generaly an abusive practice and gamers should be generally opposed to it, regardless of what they think about the behaviour of the media outlet concerned. Kotaku may be a rare case where it is justified. But I tend to err on the side of being highly sceptical about the companies doing the blacklisting because business trying to control the media is a dangerous thing for the consumer.

Thank you for this post.  I thought I was taking crazy pills while reading this thread.

The relationship between publishers and gaming journalists is far too cozy for my liking already.  Publishers thinking they can get away with blacklisting media is just going to make things worse.