The Dark Side of PR

Over at the MTV Multiplayer Blog, Stephen Totilo is running a week of articles about game reviews. Anyone interested in the inner workings of the game industry. One entry that caught my eye was his story about Konami’s PR asking the game press not to report on certain aspects of Metal Gear Solid 4 that had nothing to do with plot spoilers. These types of PR shenanigans are not at all uncommon. Here are a couple (vague) anecdotes that spell out a few more dark PR ploys. I’ve omitted certain details not to protect myself or the publishers, but for the sake of journalists who did nothing wrong and have a right to privacy.

Guitar Hero: What’s In A Name

After been introduced to the world on the cover of Game Informer as Guitar Hero IV, the latest game in the franchise has been officially announced as Guitar Hero: World Tour. Nothing in the games industry is simple, even something as seemingly innocuous as a name change. Let’s examine the switch.

Culling Xbox Live Arcade

In an exclusive interview with Next Generation, Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten revealed that Microsoft will start removing Xbox Live Arcade titles that have an aggregate score less than 65% on Metacritic, are more than six months old, and have a demo-to-purchase rate of less than six percent. The online gaming community, not surprisingly, is upset. It’s very difficult to see how anyone (outside of Microsoft) could see this a good decision for the gaming community – who has ever been excited to have fewer games available? But Microsoft never does anything without a reason, so what’s the company’s angle?

The Great Rock Feud

By now, everyone in the gaming community knows all about Guitar Hero IV, thanks to the Game Informer cover story that unveiled its added instruments, character creation, and song-crafting features. Yes, Guitar Hero IV sounds a lot like Rock Band. Despite all boasts by Neversoft employees in the GI article, I can’t really see any major difference between the two games now, but I do have some big questions – namely, why? What’s the motivation to make the Guitar Hero franchise more like Rock Band?

Master Ninja

When I started the game log, I expected there would be a large gap in time from the start of the project to my next completed game, as the massive Grand Theft Auto IV was at the top of my queue. Well, GTAIV has been taking even longer than expected, partly because the “other” game I was playing usurped GTA’s place and became my primary game. That game was Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for Nintendo DS, which I completed last night. It’s everything that the opening hours of GTAIV isn’t: fast-paced, vital, intuitive and just plain fun. It’s also the most interesting DS game I’ve played in a long while.