previews in game mags

[eastyy]

i personally believe previews should give more of an indication of how good a game is of course i hear the same remarks "you cannot judge a game until its finished" and many magazines only get very early code but after driv3er sold well i believe in so many of the previews i saw there was no indication on how average the game was looking i am sure that many people went and bought the game purely on what was said in the previews and before they saw any reviews.Gamesmaster in there previews do mention what is looking dodgy in the game or needs to be fixed which i think is great

[Flabio]

Thing is, companies don't send preview code to mags, they usually invite the mags out to them. Often, the mags don't even get to play the game themselves, but will be shown a very tightly directed demo playthrough.

[eastyy]

hmm so really its a sort of blackmail? "you mention anything bad in the preview there will be no more exclusives" wonder if thats what happens with some reviews to

[edandersen]

hmm so really its a sort of blackmail? "you mention anything bad in the preview there will be no more exclusives" wonder if thats what happens with some reviews to

Well no **** Sherlock. It's a business. Their only care is to get as many sales as possible so they can charge more for advertising.

[Azelpds]

Thing is, companies don't send preview code to mags, they usually invite the mags out to them. Often, the mags don't even get to play the game themselves, but will be shown a very tightly directed demo playthrough.

Actually, they do. You will get some presentations sure, but they send most of the times preview versions also of their games before the review versions, except in some cases like GTA series and games from Rockstar for example.

[martTM]

Yeah, it's true - usually, the presentations are reserved for when games are either:

a) Extremely early
b) When the publisher wants to keep an element secret (story, for instance)

Some publishers don't send out any code until review though ? Rockstar and, quite often, Nintendo being the two primary culprits there.

[Concept]

Is money an objection with some publishers/development houses?

Rockstar always seem to officially reveal their games rather depressingly in OPSM2.

[gamerade]

this was my biggest gripe with EDGE, their original 'manifesto' to readers stated they would not be 'previewing' games until completed code was available (read the editorial statement in #1). That was until they realised they would scraping the proverbial barrel to fill editorial space.
Bingo, 'Pre-screen' was announced. Pages of mock-up screenshots, rumor, gossip, factually baseless commentary and a mantra like regurgitation of company propaganda. This coupled with 50% advertisements relegated it to the newsagents shelves years ago for me and very little has changed since.

[yesteryeargames]

This has nothing to do with preveiws, sorry. but look out for pictures of me in this months issue of PSM2, in the pro evolution soccer league section

[eastyy]

a friend of mine did some beta testing on a pc game called sacred:underground he is now really a part of the company and is his working on sacred 2 i asked him what they have planned for the game but he said to me he has been sworn to secrecy that did annoy me because he said the company was afraid of other companys stealing ideas i find that ridiculous one if the game is good most people would still buy it and two if the ideas are good they will be ripped off later anyway i imagine in many previews that companys do not want magazines to show to much information

[martTM]

Is money an objection with some publishers/development houses?

Rockstar always seem to officially reveal their games rather depressingly in OPSM2.

PS2 exclusivity agreement + Official Sony magazine + (admittedly) highest readership for a UK videogames magazine = Pointing out the bleeding obvious.

They want to reach the biggest audience - it's pretty obvious where they're going to put their focus.

[Flabio]

Been a coder in the industry 8 years now, and not one company I've worked for has ever sent preview code out to magazines. It's always been 'come visit us' press days.