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.