That is a boycott. That's how it works. Boycotts don't mean you stop doing something forever. It means you stop doing something until your demands are met (like going on strike, only the consumer instead of the worker).

 I'd hope anyone with the guts to stand up and do what's right would get some attention for it.

Seriously, how anyone can find fault with EGM for this is beyond me. It's like some of you guys have bet your first-born's life on MGS4.

I absolutely and definitely abhor any kind of attempts to impeach the journalistic integrity. I know there are many many magazines who have thrown their integrity out the window years ago, and those magazines I tend to disregard. I don't know what is the scene in other countries, but I think us Finns are fortunate in that the biggest gaming magazine here, Pelit, has always kept journalistic integrity close to heart. For a long time, they even refused to preview games and would only release a review after having completed the game. Nowadays they have previews, so they've "compromised" a bit, but quite often you can read either the editor or one of their longest standing reviewers talk about the issue of journalistic integrity in gaming press.

Now, back to the other issue at hand: it's not really shocking that Konami is trying to influence the press, that's what all companies do. However, setting up conditions under which you can't tell the truth is just plain wrong, and Konami should be shunned for it.

Good for EGM. I don't know why Konami is putting restriction on reviewers. So what there's a 90 minute cut scene as long as the reviewer doesn't give away the story. Why is Konami hiding the install? All PS3 game install the only question is how big. Maybe it's bigger then 4GB and they are worried that might scare 20GB and 40GB PS3 owners.

Thumbs up for EGM for having balls and not reviewing the game.

Freedom of the press is often cited -- but it applies to government, not the private sector.

It is ironic though that a game that has scenes more like Hollywood movies is taking an approach that is used for bad movies -- no pre-screenings.

Mike from Morgantown

Some reviews actually have plot spoilers, but that's less important than letting people know the cut scenes are long.

WTF. 

This isn't like Xenosaga, where it's not an established franchise.

And it's not as though fans were clamoring for the cut scenes to be reduced, just being allowed to skip them. 

i have uped my respect meter here.....*turns it up to 11*

I agree that the restrictions are pretty shady, but does any one else think the roundtable discussion will be far more interesting and revealing than a simple review? Maybe there's some good to come out of this.

Oh, and it's not really Konami's fault.... It's the La-li-lu-le-lo!

A boycott or strike is different though.

You don't know how long it'll last, and you don't know what the end result will be, you may get a raise, you may get your benefits, or you may not.

What EGM is doing is waiting until next month to review it.

I don't understand how that's anywhere close to a boycott, rather than just keeping the integrity of their magazine together, and vying for unneccessary attention.  (not that I don't respect them for that, keep journalistic integrity intact, just don't make a huge deal about it.  They didn't have to mention anything, except say the review would be next month.  Doing the whole roundtable thing, and the comment about Konami's muting of what could be talked about was only to exacerbate the problem, and to bring this into the spotlight for some publicity.)

Yep, private sector need not concern themselves with the freedom of the press. Upholding journalistic integrity is the responsibility of media themselves, that's why some magazines are better at it than others. Magazines who take journalistic integrity seriously, among other things, don't write advetorials, don't mix up opinions and facts, and structure themselves internally, as an organization, in such a way that advertisement sales and advetisers don't affect the journalistic content of the magazine.

Obviously, a lot of the gaming press fails miserably in upholding any kind of standards of journalistic integrity, let alone a high one. Unfortunately, so do many of the "real" newspapers, but that's another story.