The Chicken or the Egg
The day I hit confirm and launched Rigged for Epic into cyberspace I looked for my first visitors and the quiet darkness of the Internet looked right back at me. Nobody knew I was there and the silence was deafening. I can see how many people visit my site and those hits become an important measure of success (for some). If I suddenly started getting ten thousand hits a day publishers and advertisement agencies might then consider paying me to talk about and promote their product. Getting review copies for games would then be an option because usually PR companies understandably don't want to deal with every minuscule fan site on the web. So there is the catch twenty-two: how do you get those hits when all your game reviews come out a week after everyone else?
This year we have started to see a fairly significant change in the symbiotic relationship between developer/publisher and games journalists. I think based on history it is a fair assumption that if a publisher/developer holds back review copies from media outlets then there is a chance they are trying to hide something. I must stress this is not always the case, just as DOOM proved this year. With a poorly received multiplayer beta, when Bethesda held back review copies many were bracing themselves for a sub par game. As it turned out the single player campaign of DOOM was awesome and easily one of the best FPS games of 2016.
Shots fired
So last week Bethesda published a blog post stating that from this point going forward, all game releases would work the same and no media outlets would get review copies until a day before general release. As you can imagine, most media sites have not welcomed this news. I have been pleasantly surprised how professional most sites have been by trying to see perspectives from both sides of the fence.
Now you would think I would be jumping for joy at this news right? Finally, the playing field has been levelled and the big boys will now be in the same situation as small fish like myself. However, I am not happy in the slightest and here is why. Sure my site is important to me but I value the health of the games industry far more than my own personal venture. I believe the gaming is unique and consumers deserve as much information as possible when making their purchase. This move by Bethesda (and some other publishers) is anti-consumer because it takes independent journalists out of the equation: at least in regards to a pre-release review system.
Publishers want your preorders and that is why we see these bundles of tat and in game fluff on offer, the recently revealed season pass for Watchdogs 2 is a good example. I think what bothers me more than anything is the level of hypocrisy we see here, with so many elements of the policy having double standards. Currently, there is even a one-day early access on offer if you pre-order Dishonored 2, something many gamers will be chomping at the bit to get and Bethesda know this. Now if we are being fair, Bethesda is one of the most consistent developers out there for overall product delivery (bugs not included), games like Skyrim and Fallout are almost always critical and commercial successes: so why not just trust them? Well this seems to be the very message Bethesda are running with, 'look how good DOOM was and that was a game with no advance review copies'. I have found the entire approach and tone from Bethesda to be confrontational and bloody minded: like the kid stomping off the field with his ball because the other kids are winning.
At the end of the day Bethesda can do what they like, these are their games and publishers are there to make money. However, the relationship with the gaming press is an important one because it creates a window for gamers to gauge a product before they purchase: now the only material people will have to go off will be the videos the publishers put out (or approve) which of course are inherently bias. Even if we assume we can trust Bethesda implicitly from this day on: many publishers/developers who we can't trust will see what Bethesda are doing and follow suit. We could very quickly see a massive exodus of companies not willing to share review copies with the independent media outlets and/or shifting to a system where they use preferred influencers on Twitch/YouTube. Many younger gamers prefer to watch their favourite YouTube Icons 'let's play' games as a way to judge if a title is for them but as we have seen this year: YouTube and Twitch are breeding grounds for bias, backhanders and a culture that does not embrace honest criticism. Only last month we saw how this kind of set up can go wrong: Mafia 3 looked amazing and for a few hours is was. However after short while it became clear there was a litany of bugs/performance issues as well as most of the gameplay being a rinse and repeat the process from start to finish. Any good review site would have picked up on all these issues but 2K decided not to let media sites have review copies: now we know why.
Bethesda has stated they value the media but I see this statement as pure bullshit because their actions indicate the exact opposite. If you indeed value the media then why hamstring them with a move that effectively makes their existence null and void. Publishers know damn well that a gamer who wants to play the latest game is not going to wait for a week to see what PC Gamer or IGN think. In this way, the publisher gains far more control over how the public receives information about their product.
In the same blog post, Bethesda has also said they now wish both the media and gamers to experience their games at the same time: but why? Considering that most of games made by Bethesda are single player experiences why would they want everyone to experience them at the same time. This statement is also simply not on the level because already this year we have seen YouTubers who have a history of giving Bethesda games warm praise getting full copies of games such as Skyrim a month early. Bethesda is using their position of power in the industry to make changes knowing that most fans are not going to boycott games like Dishonored 2 simply because there are no reviews. In actual fact, Dishonored is one of my favourite games of all time and to not play the sequel would be a big ask.
Another unfortunate side effect of this move is that now media sites will not have time to carefully analyse a game but instead will be under incredible pressure to get their review out because being first gets them hits that media sites live and die by. It's easy to judge games journalists but website traffic is what keeps the lights on and people in a job. This is a horrible situation for media sites to be in and one that there really wasn't any need for. Of course is of no concern to Bethesda who has made it perfectly clear in the past what they think of the gaming press.
Conclusion
As someone who is aspiring to become a games journalist of sorts, I see these changes that Bethesda have made to be short sighted and I'd even venture as far as to say selfish. A publisher's main objective is to make money and to safeguard the money making process: obviously, the people who make the calls at Bethesda no longer think that allowing independent reviews to happen is beneficial to their profit margins. However, this move shows us very clearly what Bethesda really think of their fans: we are a revenue source, a statistic and we should all just trust them implicitly without question. Only yesterday I saw an article on Kotaku setting out what a poor state the Skyrim Special Edition was in, even on console. However, no reviews pointed this out because only 'enthusiastic YouTubers' were given access to the game prior to launch.
I and many other reviewers out there have been saying this for years but this message could not be any more important today: do not preorder games. Bethesda has used their influence to take information away from you the consumer, so I say let us show Bethesda and any other companies who wish remove unbiased criticism who has the real power in this relationship. You as the consumer have the power to make publishers listen and ultimately change. Don't just avoid pre-orders but email, tweet and message them setting out exactly why you are taking this action. From this moment onward I will be taking a very keen interest in the games Bethesda publish because according to them their games will be perfect and reviews won't be required to highlight bugs and weak points. I for one beg to differ.