The Splinter Cell Essentials Marketing Fracas

Videogame Media Watch has a breakdown on a developing story, yet another example of the sometimes less than stellar relationship game reviews/previews have with game marketing. In essence, Ubisoft used language from a GameSpy preview in their marketing, combining words to get the result they wanted. From the article: "As the 1up article notes, the UbiSoft ad probably does need an ellipsis to note where words were removed from the GameSpy preview. This is hardly the main issue, though, as the difference between 'one of the best games on the PSP' and 'one of the best games we've played on the PSP' is not all that important. A somewhat more salient question: how can a game turn from '...one of the best...' on a system to a 2 out of 5 review in a matter of two-and-a-half months between preview and review? "

Comments

Re:Sucker born every minute.

[gEvil (beta)]

This reminds me of a joke sticker on a CD that came out several years ago. The sticker simply said "...mesmerizing... -Time" as if Time magazine had said that about the CD. It was a fairly small band who had absolutely no chance of ever being reviewed in Time (do they even have CD reviews?), and again, it was done purely as a joke. Anyways, I always got a slight chuckle out of that.

Re:I'll just say this

[mrpotato]

"I [...] approve of sleazy marketing." -- bogie

"I never tire of [...] killing people." -- bogie