So are exclusive game reviews bad? Since when does it matter? Since GTA 4 of course. Suddenly this is out there and people realize it happens. I watched this interview with Ben Fritz from Variety on a G4 video podcast. Don’t know who the guy is but he brought up IGN having an exclusive review on GTA 4. His issue was with the integrity of the review when it was worked out to be an exclusive months ahead of time. The major problem with his argument was that exclusive reviews have been worked out since the beginning of all things related to magazines and the internet. And what’s worse is that particularly at IGN, in the past they have scored games pretty low in exclusive reviews.
If IGN had gone out of their way to give this game a perfect score and everyone else put it around 8 or 9 then sure, there would have been a valid argument in this situation. But that’s not what happened. Everyone scored it high. Too high in my opinion but it received universal praise. This was GTA 4 and it is a great game. Now, whether there was pressure from other sites to follow along with IGN and score it high could be an argument. If any major site had given the game a lower score then IGN there’s a good chance they would have felt a huge backlash from the readers. Gamespot in particular comes to mind, where the readers just keep nailing them. They couldn’t afford another issue right now. The writers there just get unfairly hit all the time, when it sounds like most criticism should be going a bit higher up. So it’s possible that other sites may have changed their positions after the IGN score went up. Looking back you know it won’t be a justified score. Not because it isn’t an amazing title, but because it isn’t a perfect title.
I understand there is this desire for journalistic integrity. I’m also sure at some point Variety has made similar stories. These magazines and websites live on the exclusives they get. It’s no secret that you have to bring in readers in any of the formats to survive. No one can say if it’s the right thing to do, but why would it ever change. If this was a game other then GTA 4 we could have never known the difference. It’s a high profile franchise and ironically, it sounds like this Variety guy was looking to get a little of the attention on his publication! It’s hard to say he didn’t have a point but it’s also pointless.
The GTA 4 reviews have all been pretty void of any real criticism. The hype was so effective that it wasn’t until turning it on you realized the looming issues the game has. It’s a unique and rare case that the industry performed this way. It probably won’t be happening again any time soon. And it’s easy to scrutinize the exclusive review, but it’s also something everyone should put behind them because those scores aren’t changing.
It should be noted that Metal Gear Solid 4 is right around the corner. I don’t even have a PS3 and I still think that game would be a more reasonable choice for a perfect score from what I’ve seen and heard. I am curious how that forces a reviewer into a corner. Would you give a perfect score so soon after the last one? And could you then put them side by side to make the argument of perfection? I bet you’ll see some sites avoid that simply because it doesn’t put them in a good light. Different people would obviously be reviewing each, but the sites as a whole still carry a general weight by the readers. It will be interesting to watch. My guess is they knew in advance and made sure to plan for separate reviewers on each release.
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