"Bottom line, Exclusive Reviews are Bullshit."

Exclusive Reviews, we all see them popping up on varies sites and magazines. It's great, coverage that can only be located in one place; therefore, driving more traffic/sales. Win - Win, right? What about the motivation behind the publisher for offering this exclusive review? Under the table deals and bloated scores can result from these sketchy business propositions. The most recent incident that made the public more aware of this dirty underbelly would be the whole Jeff Gerstmann, Gamespot debacle. The man gets kicked from an 11 year career after "a certain game company" flooded the site with adds for their upcoming game and the game itself was not all that great. Jeff's review stated that and BOOM, he gets let go.

whattheyplay.com's John Davison was at the recent 1up yours PAX panel and was able to shed some light on this topic. When asked if people in the press get manipulated by the publishers, everyone chimed in and gave their two cents on the matter. Talking about the infamous Prey exclusive review and first hand dealings with these types of situations, John puts it simply, "Bottom line, exclusive reviews are bullshit."




X-Play's Adam Sessler was on the Panel as well and he adds, "Shame on the game industry to think that we're such tools that they can actually do that. It's really kind of embarrassing and there's times that I actually think that because we are the newest form of entertainment and that, you know. Look at us, we're not up here with suits and ties. There is a sense that we are more manipulable and that we can be pushed around and that's the part that really gets my iron."

I agree with these guys. Getting something from any game company as a "gift" or anything along those lines prior to a review or preview is just wrong. Pressuring you with wrong information about how other sites will give this game so and so score to make you somehow bend to the will of the PR is crap. Respectable publications like EGM and the whole 1up network refuse to accept any "gifts" from any game company and their editorial and add department are on separate floors. I guess what I'm trying to get across is, and this was mentioned on the PAX panel as well, know what your reading. Think for yourself when seeing the word "exclusive" plastered all over web sites and magazines - being exclusive might not be the only tactic that's being applied.