My Favorite News Story for May 23rd

Square Enix had some interesting things to say this week related to picking up developers in a move to grow along with the other big publishers. I thought that was somewhat predictable but what’s more important is that Japan is finally starting to acknowledge that the world has overtaken them in most areas. Technology, innovation, and great ideas are now coming from western developers and it’s been going that way for a long time. That’s the only option.

Nintendo and Sony have yet to really come close to getting a real online structure in place. Not only did Xbox have a better service 5 years ago then Sony and Nintendo do now, but even Dreamcast did it better. It’s disappointing because for so long there really were a lot of good things coming from Japan. Home is the wrong way to do it, in my opinion. Just looking at Sony, all they really have to do is lay a basic set of rules for something like cross media bars. But instead they decide to put out this MMO style thing. I know it sounds great, and makes sense in a way, but it just isn’t good enough for consoles. Live is set up so well right now. With one click on the button I can see what my friends are doing and send messages or invites. That’s what people want. Live has enough subscribers that it really makes a case for that type of system. Home will, at some point, be pointless. It just doesn’t justify the amount of time and work to get it up. But in Japan that’s what they think consumers want. I know a lot of people are excited but those resources could be put elsewhere. Free online play is all you really need to get people in, you don’t need to make another MMO.

As far as Nintendo goes, we all know it will always be about their games. That’s the one thing I can see coming from Japan that truly is great. They keep releasing the same Zelda, but it’s always awesome. Outside of that, Wii is mostly shovelware. But in both cases it’s Japanese developers holding back gaming. At least that’s how I see it. It’s not just a bunch of remade games like Mario Kart, it’s these JRPG’s that are bad. For decades now that has been the main genre everyone moved towards. It wasn’t until recently that games like Knights of the Old Republic, Oblivion, World of Warcraft, and Mass Effect managed to surpass that way of telling a story through a role-playing game. They’re getting better at it to. Whereas Final Fantasy never changed its formula. They change the way you grind. But no matter what, it’s still grinding. They are always single player games that can’t get online right. We’ve moved on.

So when a company like Square Enix comes out and says they are trying to stay relevant it’s a good sign. It means they realize they have a problem worldwide. You can have the Japanese market for yourself, but you have to realize everyone else wants something more. And it’s encouraging to see that happen. There is way more potential out there but it’s up to each developer to create that.

Exclusive Grand Theft Auto 4 Reviews (Article)

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 not 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’s 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.