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Regarding Sessler's "bad news" about the industry

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kazebyaka

Banned
From the Reddit :
http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1pbsgd/regarding_sesslers_bad_news_about_the_industry/
I am one of the reviewers being affected by this
i will not give out my name or which review site i work for, because i don't want to risk getting found out
Essentially, what the problem is, is that the big devs for next gen consoles are adopting a new policy (and by "big devs" i mean almost every dev for the new consoles at launch)
Essentially, the policy does two things. First, if we want to make a review, we have to send it to the company of the game being reviewed and get the review accepted before we can publish it without it being taken down. Secondly, it makes it so that we have to sign terms with companies before reviewing their games.
The reason this is only affecting SOME of us, is because we are assigned games each, and some of us have to go out and sign these policies with the publishers before we can do a review. The problem here, is that some publishers (Such as EA and Ubisoft) are making us play their games in their studios, under their supervision, and on their consoles. One dev required that I had to go to the studio and watch one of the developers play the game while i watched and took notes which would then be published as a review (that would have to be accepted by the dev first.)
The reason Sessler is upset, is because he doesn't think this is Morally acceptable. He wants to review games how he likes, but since developers are making us do silly thiungs like watch them play, he's upset and doesn't wanna be a part of this big "scandal" (as Sessler told me) that they are putting on, which would essentially turn "Reviews" into "Advertisements".
you could say he's overreacting and being childish, but as someone who has worked with him before, i can really understand why he's so angry. I'm angry too, you know.

Mock, if old
 

Requiem

Member
Wow that sounds terrible....

If the reviewer just waits until the game is out, would they still have to follow these provisions?
 

fvng

Member
Doubtful, besides I don't trust super anonymous posts like that, but if that was true, they'd have every reason to be angry
 

Syf

Banned
if we want to make a review, we have to send it to the company of the game being reviewed and get the review accepted before we can publish it without it being taken down.
Wow. That's very hard to believe.
 
Hard to know if true but no one should sign to that. Just wait for games to release and buy one in store, then do the review.
 

coldone

Member
It is all the metacrtic pressure. Few dumb ass reviewers who give critically low numbers to get high metacritic hits.. brought this upon them selves. Now the pendulum has swing completely the opposite way.
 

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
if that's true, then the mountain of shit called "gaming journalism" just reached Himalayan levels

hopefully John Walker scribbles down a poisonous column about this, if true
 

Theecliff

Banned
One dev required that I had to go to the studio and watch one of the developers play the game while i watched and took notes which would then be published as a review (that would have to be accepted by the dev first.)
What the hell?
 

Derrick01

Banned
If this is true then the only question is what will most reviewers do about this? Will they actually come up with some way to stop this from happening like buying their own games (probably not the best idea for the long term) or will they whine and stomp around about how unfair and awful it is and then fly out to the events, then demand to be taken seriously as journalists when the forum users call them out for their bullshit?

I think I know which one I'm going with.
 

fvng

Member
Just buy the game and review it after the fact.

That doesn't give their viewers/readers enough time to make a decision on whether they should buy a game on day one. If it takes them a week to play a game and write a review, those reviews wouldn't be out until a week after release. How is that practical?
 
641o.jpg
 

Cohiba

Banned
Sounds believable but it could easily have been written by someone who wants to stir up trouble. It sounds a lot like the NFL reddit post from a few days ago.
 

Brinbe

Member
that's motherfucking disgusting... I can understand Sess' hesitation now. I wouldn't want to be a part of that too.
 

The_Monk

Member
Thank you forposting fellow GAFfer. If true then those conditions are really unacceptable to be honest. They want to control everything, play their own way on their own console at their own place. It seems that they are afraid that their games will have issues and they try to minimize most of them by controlling everything.
 
Hard to know if true but no one should sign to that. Just wait for games to release and buy one in store, then do the review.

Yes, if journalists all take a stand against this, the backlash will be put upon the publishers not them. Of course that would require them to actually grow some balls and cooperate with each other..
 
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