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[Wazzim]

I bet they're trying to cover up their pitiful FFXIII port job. Remember the 'multiplatform' bullshots they tried feeding us before release? Xbox fans deserve better than that.

No they don't, FFXIII only sold over 1 million on the xbox, MS destroyed the whole Jrpg market and it's american, so they deserve nothing! /jk

This is probably for the youtubers over here, just watching the whole mov--err game.

 

[H_Prestige]

When your game is more movie than game, then yeah, you have to keep your stuff locked down like the movie studios do.

 

[-PXG-]

When your game is more movie than game, then yeah, you have to keep your stuff locked down like the movie studios do.

:lol

 

[StuBurns]

I was kind of surprised this isn't already the rules, I was actually wondering watching the GiantBomb Deadly Premonition thing if they were actually allowed to show a complete game like that. I believe the average review embargo usually include things that journalists are not allowed to include/discussion around the time of release already.

 

[TheSeks]

Just a few videos of the beginning of the game. Like the first 3 hours or so

Just reverse the video, problem solved. It isn't the begging of the game if Lightning is doing things that happen at the beginning of FF13 in-game at the end of your video.

 

[rvy]

I guess having fans is like having HD towns in their games.

HOLY SHIT! :lol

 

[Patryn]

I was kind of surprised this isn't already the rules, I was actually wondering watching the GiantBomb Deadly Premonition thing if they were actually allowed to show a complete game like that. I believe the average review embargo usually include things that journalists are not allowed to include/discussion around the time of release already.

For a game like Deadly Premonition, I'm sure Ignition is ECSTATIC that Giant Bomb decided to do an endurance run. Sure, it shows the whole game, but it also gives a lot of publicity to a game that was running well under the radar. I know that I, at least, had never heard of the game before they started it and I went out and bought it based on the ER.

But I don't think it works the same way for high profile games that already have significant mindshare.

 

[distrbnce]

So I'm not allowed to use the YouTube feature on Just Cause 2 anymore?

I guess that can be overlooked if it allows more bitching about the rumor that started this thread

 

[ScHlAuChi]

We have longplays of most of the Final Fantasy games on our YT channel.
We never got a takedown notice, so maybe they arent?

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

For a game like Deadly Premonition, I'm sure Ignition is ECSTATIC that Giant Bomb decided to do an endurance run. Sure, it shows the whole game, but it also gives a lot of publicity to a game that was running well under the radar. I know that I, at least, had never heard of the game before they started it and I went out and bought it based on the ER.

But I don't think it works the same way for high profile games that already have significant mindshare.

Also from the sounds of it DP is a fairly lenghty game, as was Persona4. Drip feeding it out in chunks over a long period of time is unlikely to deter potential customers. If someone is that into it that they want to see the ending they are probably more likely to just cave and buy the game themselves rather than wait 5 months for the GB guys to get to it.

Edit: Just checked, DP is already up to Ep 25 (5 weeks) and Persona4 ended on Ep 155 (31 weeks).

 

[StuBurns]

For a game like Deadly Premonition, I'm sure Ignition is ECSTATIC that Giant Bomb decided to do an endurance run. Sure, it shows the whole game, but it also gives a lot of publicity to a game that was running well under the radar. I know that I, at least, had never heard of the game before they started it and I went out and bought it based on the ER.

But I don't think it works the same way for high profile games that already have significant mindshare.

Indeed, even having four guys rip on how shit your product is for an extended period of time is going to bump sales for something like that, but my point was that I thought they were breaking a rule (one Ignition would be fine with them breaking in this case) as appose to being allowed to do what they're doing.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

I guess that can be overlooked if it allows more bitching about the rumor that started this thread

Erm, it's not a rumour. It's a fact that SE attempts to regulate use of screens and videos of their games. Don't believe it? Go try to upload the ending of Dissidia on Youtube and tell us how it goes.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned for both ERs that they had to get special permission from Atlus and Ignition to do it. Or maybe I dreamed that.

 

[Patryn]

Indeed, even having four guys rip on how shit your product is for an extended period of time is going to bump sales for something like that, but my point was that I thought they were breaking a rule (one Ignition would be fine with them breaking in this case) as appose to being allowed to do what they're doing.

If they get permission from the copyright owner, they wouldn't be breaking a rule.

 

[Volcynika]

I'm pretty sure it was mentioned for both ERs that they had to get special permission from Atlus and Ignition to do it. Or maybe I dreamed that.

I know Atlus USA even pointed out the endurance run on their fan newsletter, so they seemed to be ok with it.

 

[Melfice7]

i will never understand the secretism of the industry.. "sorry we cant discuss that" "sorry we cant show you" "sorry we cant tell you the release date yet but in a week we can" WTF why is everything like this :S

 

[Macho Madness]

i will never understand the secretism of the industry.. "sorry we cant discuss that" "sorry we cant show you" "sorry we cant tell you the release date yet but in a week we can" WTF why is everything like this :S

One wrong slip can cost a lot of money. There's your answer.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

i will never understand the secretism of the industry.. "sorry we cant discuss that" "sorry we cant show you" "sorry we cant tell you the release date yet but in a week we can" WTF why is everything like this :S

I can see their point a bit on this one, though. I think a case could be made that if people can watch the story on Youtube they might not buy the game, if the story is their principle reason for playing.

God help anyone that only plays an FF game for the story, but that's how it is for some I guess.

 

[The Faceless Master]

well, it kind-of makes sense that they can remove complete cutscenes and require certain things from people who agree to accept free review copies of the game, but any gameplay videos should be covered under fair use.

 

[Jeels]

As someone who works on some popular SE Fan sites, I can definitely confirm this. It makes it incredibly difficult to get stuff out to the fans, even fan made stuff purely for "fandom" purposes. Things that purely promote the game.

 

[StuBurns]

One wrong slip can cost a lot of money. There's your answer.

Is there really any evidence for that though? Is there proof that a certain announcement period is ultimately beneficial? If there was, I'd think it'd be more consistent. In terms of information leaks, if it leaked today that the next GTA is in New Orleans and is out next November would it really make any impact on the sales? I'd be shocked if it did.

 

[MidnightScott]

What I have to say kinda has to do with this but not Square Enix. I had a regular account on Youtube and recorded videos of my Ouendan & Elite Beat Agents playthroughs. I also had uploaded Pokemon Japanese openings (this was before everything changed). Anyway, I removed anything they asked me to remove. (JASRAC said that one of the songs on Ouendan violated a copyright, however this was in a game they obviously approved so what the hell is the problem?)

But then one day I sign on to my account and it is suspended. I emailed them and they never emailed me back or anything. I don't upload anything to Youtube these days.

I only own very few games with the Square Enix label on them...lets see...The World Ends With You, and Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. I wonder why...:S

 

[Phloxy]

Not if Linkin Park has anything to do with it......

 

[ToastyBanana]

When your game is more movie than game, then yeah, you have to keep your stuff locked down like the movie studios do.

Doesn't matter once the stuff is out there... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiM29NZtOeU

 

[charlequin]

Is there really any evidence for that though?

No.

(And based on analogy with the film industry, which is about 200x more open about this stuff than the game industry, there's quite a bit of evidence against it.)

 

[I AM JOHN!]

I think that everyone is doing the thing described in the OP now, here's what Pelaajalehti received from Microsoft/Remedy (from their twitter)

"Näyttökuvien (screenshot) ja videoiden tallentaminen tästä arvostelulevystä ei ole sallittua mihinkään tarkoitukseen"

It pretty much states that taking screenshots and videos from this review copy is prohibited for any purpose.


Publishers want to control the footage they give out public so they can show the best possible sides from the game they are releasing. Cool? No. Basics of moneymaking 101? Yeah.

There's a key difference between a game that is not out that the publisher is giving you for free for review and a game that you can buy and do whatever you want with. Can you tell me what it is?

 

[Patryn]

Is there really any evidence for that though? Is there proof that a certain announcement period is ultimately beneficial? If there was, I'd think it'd be more consistent. In terms of information leaks, if it leaked today that the next GTA is in New Orleans and is out next November would it really make any impact on the sales? I'd be shocked if it did.

They want to control the news cycle. By only allowing certain elements of a game to be public at specific times, they can have their entire PR arm ready and armed with answers to any possible question that may arise. If they let anything go, they couldn't be half as prepared.

Also, by scattering information about a game over a longer period, it means that news and fan sites will continue to generate stories about that game over that longer period, instead of having one large barrage of stories and then nothing. They want their game's name out there for a longer period.

They also want the game in people's minds at a specific time. I think they worry that if consumers hear about a game too soon, when it eventually comes out it'll feel like old news or something.

It's basically all about control. By clamping down, they're trying to ensure that consumers only see what they want them to see and how they want them to see it. That way, they feel they can present the best possible view of a game.

Still stupid as hell though.

 

[Lard]

Square Enix don't want fans anymore because they have too much fans?

Too many fans.

/Grammar Nazi

 

[PflargBlarg]

Yeah, Square really are asses in this aspect. They even shut down a Chrono Cross (or was it Trigger?) remake called Chrono Resurrection, which was fanmade with no intention of making profit.

Site: http://www.opcoder.com/projects/chrono/
Youtube trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YELRuYNBRDk

Do you see how AWESOME this could have been? But Square had to be douches and shut it down. Guess we'll never see the end result. This is partly why I don't own a single Square Enix game.

Sorry, but there's nothing wrong with what SE did here. If you don't protect your trademarks you can lose them. It doesn't matter if it was made for profit or not. Before ever starting a fan project, a group should ask the owner if it's alright. If they're not ok with it there's no point in even starting.

 

[Diffense]

It's good that I don't care.
Games with actual gameplay encourage purchase when you see them.
My last Square disc was FFIX and passing on FFXIII was an easy decision.

 

[ULTROS!]

Too many fans.

/Grammar Nazi

I was sleepy! :lol

Spoiler

and besides, my native language isn't English.

Anyway, very OT but I noticed FFX-2 (the first official Final Fantasy from Square Enix, not Squaresoft, if I'm right) and all the FFs after that have an R logo after the word Final Fantasy. Something like Final Fantasy (R) XIII.

 

[Diablos]

Oh yeah... it was terrible. Guess they save all the real footage for Distant Worlds.

FAN ART FTW!

Square is living in the dark ages when it comes to this stuff. I'd expect nothing more from the same people who would only permit you play a FFXIII demo if you purchased/imported the FF7: ACC Blu-Ray. It took four years for the game to come out since its announcement, basically. A demo (which really was more like a tease of a very incomplete product) would have been okay 2.5 - 3 years through, I would think. Most companies would.

 

[Amir0x]

You just play it and feel the enjoyment spread throughout your body. <3

That's indigestion, not enjoyment.

 

[Regulus Tera]

if the appeal of FFXIII wasn't almost entirely the combat system and battles, and not the story, you might have a point

Too bad the battle system gets tiring like five hours in.

 

[SovanJedi]

Yes, and the fanart that replaced it was somewhat... embarrassing.

Ours didn't have fanart when I went to see it. The Kingdom Hearts section had a lot of Disney clips playing in some vague attempt to go along with the music, though it was all a little corny which is a shame. One Winged Angel had absolutely nothing to go with it except for flashing lights.

Quite honestly, though, I'm not sure which of us got the bum deal.

 

[Wazzim]

Too bad the battle system gets tiring like five hours in.

I have alot to complain about FFXIII (Not a single classic FF tune in the whole game? The fuck SE) but the battle system is pretty awesome.

 

[Spire]

This sounds like the thing where Prince sued his fans for posting fan art and images of him online. What a bunch of stupid motherfuckers.

 

[Diablos]

I have alot to complain about FFXIII (Not a single classic FF tune in the whole game? The fuck SE) but the battle system is pretty awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDwAN90MKTo
(SPOILER if you don't want to hear the FFXIII Choco song... I guess...)

 

[entremet]

Reminds me of the DSP situation. DSP is a Youtube account holder with a several popular channels, where he completes games and tapes the segments with his commentary. His channel was shutdown and recently reinstated due to a complaint from Ubisoft.

It was found out that Google was actually fooled and the original complaint was not by a Ubisoft employee.

 

[kamikazekoala]

Someone from Gamefaqs (I think it was FFXIIGrandMaster or something) got his FFXII walkthrough (well, it was a lot more then a simple walkthrough, it was a lot of movies and dealed with a lot of stuff that could help people, like the RNG method) deleted. He sent a mail to SE why it got deleted and they replied that every movie made about SE games will be deleted for copyright infringment, even if it is just a walkthrough, because they own the IP and now one else may use it. He posted the whole story and I searched for the post in gamefaqs, but I couldn't find it anymore.

 

[NEOPARADIGM]

Obviously SE just has too much fans already.

 

[APZonerunner]

One company's shitty policies do not excuse another company's shitty policies. This is the long road to damnation people are far too willing to walk.

The film industry is also not a good comparison. Movies do not have gameplay. Even if you're a story driven adventure game, the experience of playing your game should be worthwhile and appealing. If the experience of playing your game is so uncompelling that people would not want to play it after choosing to see the ending on YouTube, the problem is not the YouTube video they watched.

You are right, of course; what I was saying was more that there are practices out there far more worrying than Square Enix's blocking of home (or office) brewed screens and video. That practice is something that varies greatly - if you're a big site or a person/publication that Square Enix's PR trust, they'll be quick to dish out special dispensation and let you do what you want.

I think they are worried about smaller or less-professional sites presenting sup-par video, but the problem there is they deal with the issue in a sweeping manner - mass banning YouTube videos rather than individually asking "is this video harmful?" It's an incredibly weird practice. Out of interest, J-GAF - are SE Japan as hot on pulling down NicoNico videos and the like?

Well, I think many companies do simply think of the gaming media as an extension of their PR.

One of the things that has been pissing me off lately is over at Siliconera, how they've been teasing announcements of Xseed's (apparent) bringing over of Falcom's stuff.

For instance:

http://www.siliconera.com/2010/05/07/your-ticket-is-here/

Seems to me, if you are really a journalist, you publish news. Or you don't. You don't tease stuff like that just because a company tells you to. That's viral marketing.

This is a wider issue that could be discussed in great detail. There's a few forces at play here. First of you've got smaller sites vying for attention, invites to events and review code, and in order to compete they often feel the need to big-up and post junk stories about that company so they can ram an email choc-full of "content links" to show they're worthwhile.

The other side is friendship, I think. For me personally there's been a few times with Nippon Ichi where I've stretched editorially what I'm meant to have reported on to squeeze a news story about one of their games where it doesn't technically belong.

Why? Because I like those guys. I like their PR team, and I like the company and most of the games they put out. Obviously you can't let friendship effect any opinion piece or review - if they put out a shit game, then it'll get reviewed as shit, and the email sending the review clipping/link will express a bit of regret that we didn't like it - but like I say I have stretched for news stories and stuff because I like those guys. They've not pressured me to do it at all, but the press release comes down and I feel compelled to try to help them because they're cool and human beings where many of the PR people you find out there are marketing robots.

That said, you wouldn't catch me posting that kind of viral marketing stuff you see above. It has no value whatsoever.

 

[LiK]

Germany only?, will wait for news of this from elsewhere

 

[soldat7]

they like alienating fans?

And themselves.