I read this article today, very well written and provides a unique perspective on things. Here's a snippet:
"From The Perspective of a Game Publisher
By Anonymous Guy from Big Publisher
As someone who has worked on the marketing and PR for game publishers for many years, it’s fascinating to read Shoe and Crispin’s perspective on PR for games, and how publishers try to manipulate them to get big previews and good reviews. I have been one of those people, doing everything I can to get try game journalists to place my games on the cover of their magazines, extended previews, assets posted online and the scores as high as possible. I have pulled ad buys in protest of what I felt were unfair review scores. I have spoken to the “boss” of publications before, and complained about certain journalists. I have “banned” certain media outlets from getting pre-release access to games, because of previous unfavorable coverage.
OK, I can already hear the people posting in comments below. “Typical publisher scumbag! How dare you try to interfere with truth!”, they will cry. And they have a point. But the strategy behind a publisher’s efforts to pressure publications in the interest of a game does make sense in certain instances. Sometimes the efforts to control the message of a game comes from the most hardcore of gamers – the developers."
Click here to read the entire article.
"From The Perspective of a Game Publisher
By Anonymous Guy from Big Publisher
As someone who has worked on the marketing and PR for game publishers for many years, it’s fascinating to read Shoe and Crispin’s perspective on PR for games, and how publishers try to manipulate them to get big previews and good reviews. I have been one of those people, doing everything I can to get try game journalists to place my games on the cover of their magazines, extended previews, assets posted online and the scores as high as possible. I have pulled ad buys in protest of what I felt were unfair review scores. I have spoken to the “boss” of publications before, and complained about certain journalists. I have “banned” certain media outlets from getting pre-release access to games, because of previous unfavorable coverage.
OK, I can already hear the people posting in comments below. “Typical publisher scumbag! How dare you try to interfere with truth!”, they will cry. And they have a point. But the strategy behind a publisher’s efforts to pressure publications in the interest of a game does make sense in certain instances. Sometimes the efforts to control the message of a game comes from the most hardcore of gamers – the developers."
Click here to read the entire article.