3 Companies ban EGM from coverage

[MalaCloudy Black]

In his editorial column in the latest issue of EGM, editor Dan Hsu has named three companies that, thanks to negative reviews coverage, have stopped submitting products to the magazine. Those he names are Ubisoft, Sony's sports game division and Midway's Mortal Kombat team. While there's always been a healthy dose of scepticism surrounding advertiser and publisher pressure on gaming press (particularly in light of recent events), I can't remember the last time a major commercial publication came out and publicly named names like this. Bravo, Dan.

http://kotaku.com/342519/3-companies-bar-e...ng-poor-reviews

While I think it's a bit shit that these companies have barred EGM from covering their games, isn't it also a bit shit to go out and name names? >_>

[zero]

I think they SHOULD name names, it's bullshit for MK Team and Sony Sports to be so petty just because they make shit games and Ubisoft for thinking that a marketing blitz = quality game. Although, I will give MK Team a little leniency because EGM is ridiculously harsh to the good MK games (Deadly Alliance and Deception), making their reviews essentially one giant fanboy rant like: "omg tis is for teh n00bs, Virtua Fighta 4 life."

Still, as much as EGM pisses me off, they're always straight with their readers, and kudos to them for sticking to that under pressure. It's bad enough we have the movie industry trying to keep critics out of early screenings of films, but now we have the video game industry trying to cut critics out of it all together and that's ridiculous, especially when there are games out there like Kane & Lynch or Assassin's Creed that are overhyped, over-stylized and under-developed and people won't realize it until after they wasted $60.

[Scott McFly]

Reviews are opinions, if the reviewer didn't like a game, what do the companies want them to say? That they loved it? If these companies aren't sending them games anymore, then I think EGM are quite right to name them, then the readers won't complain when the latest Ubisoft game isn't reviewed. Still, nothing to stop them going out and buying a copy to review or being sent one by a reader, although I'm not sure if they would do that anyway.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Will they still review games from those companies but now using retail copies instead of advance copies, or will they stop reviewing games from them all together? I also wonder those companies have pulled support from outlets that have given them bad reviews, which I believe is the majority of review outlets.

[Pepsi]

Will they still review games from those companies but now using retail copies instead of advance copies, or will they stop reviewing games from them all together? I also wonder those companies have pulled support from outlets that have given them bad reviews, which I believe is the majority of review outlets.