Game Previews Just Game Marketing?

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."

color me ...

[McGiraf]

... surprised

Gotta listen to him

[black6host]

I'm telling you, everything this guy says is gold. :)

Re:color me ... Shocked

[ePhil_One]

Really, I think this guy may be on to something. Lately, I've been thinking hardware companies don't send review sites expensive computers for free out of the goodness of theri heart, I think they are doing it for Marketing reasons. This could blow the whole industry out of the water!

Breaking News: Water is wet

[Anonymous Coward]

Also reported today the sky is blue, foods give you gas, and hitting the ground from a fall hurts.

Next you're going to tell me...

[smaerd]

...that people that post about video games are shills.

That said, Madden NFL 06 is pure engineering genious. The new QB Vision Control and QB Precision Placement really brings you into the game. NFL superstar mode brings you into the world of top talent.

Overall, Madden NFL 06 will totally change the way we think about console NFL games.

Oh, Nostalgia...

[ucaledek]

Remember the good old days where we had unbiased gaming previews and reviews with none of those terrible corporate sponsorship problems? Wait, that's right I grew up on Nintendo Power. Their review of "The Wizard" was dead-on. That was the greatest film ever!

Re:And...

[Anonymous Coward]

Patently so.

Re:Why?

[tresstatus]

i base my purchase of games on the amount of time i spend playing the warez versions. =-)