All of the above. We have biased journalists, bloggers pretending to be journalists, fanboys rampant on the internet who "speak the loudest," and company spokesmen/women that can't keep their mouths shut.

Gaming Websites, definitvley

What I meant by gaming companies, I meant the Presidents, CEO's, and other employees not the games themselves.

I couldn't agree more. :)

I chose Other, because I blame Wii Fit.

Now that that's out of the way, the real problem is the tribal instinct of human beings. We like to break the world us into us vs. them, and are willing to create these mental divisions based on pretty much any criteria: Nation, gender, race, ideology, etc. Because we're nerds, we like to use computer and videogame platforms instead of language or class.

Then we go on to find excuses to reinforce these divisions and lift up "our side" while putting down "their side." It helps build a sense of community and comraderie within the tribe, which we humans find very rewarding, maybe even necessary, due to our social nature.

I agree with famousringo, it's human nature to dislike things you don't have and defend the things you do

1.: people in general like to see things fall... and populist "journalists" exploit that

2.: elitist attitude on the internet... you can't like popular things, or you are an idiot/fanboy and all your arguments are invalid or something like that.

3.: angry/nitpicking "reviewers", especially when it somehow generates a following of believers, even though its supposed to be for fun... e.g..: i love zero punctuation but damn, wth is up with people that say "okay, i dont buy the game then" after it gets bashed!?

Gamers.

Few want to admit it though.

I am blaming fanboys.

All of the above are obviously fanboys so either answer 4 or 5 would be correct.

Especially Gaming sites and Journalists and critics as well. Gaming Fanboys need not be specifically mentioned.