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Game Previews Just Game Marketing?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the unsurprising-but-sad dept.

Kotaku has a feature up today written by James Wagner Au, formerly embedded reporter in the world of Second Life. He's now doing his own thing, and he's got a fairly cynical discussion over at the Kotaku site about the real purpose behind game previews in industry rags. From the article: "For the thing of it is, game magazine previews are almost uniformly positive, even for the most undistinguished titles. So it unrolls thus: publisher makes mediocre game; press previews depict mediocre game as being good or at least worth a look; excited gamers read previews, foolishly believe them, start making pre-sale orders of mediocre game; driven by preview press and pre-sale numbers based on that press, retailers stock up on mediocre game; publisher makes money from mediocre game, keeps making more games like it."

7 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. OOOOH child, things are going to get buttsecksier by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


  2. O RLY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Captain Obvious' head just exploded.

  3. Hi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Welcome to 10 years ago

  4. Re:Why I read Slashdot ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    ...Coz some slashdotters believe everything they read.

  5. Great article, Zonk! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Wake me when you post the 'water is wet' one.

  6. Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    .. Thank YOU captain obvious!

    Is this want counts as journalism now?

  7. Re:Not necessarily "marketing" by raodin · · Score: 0, Troll

    Do you realize that your opinion is not the singular objective truth of the universe?