It's a well-documented phenomenon in the game news industry that secret information gets leaked fairly regularly. It's almost unavoidable. But why is that not the case with other media coverage? It seems to be most prevalent when it comes to gaming blogs and game publishers. Such is the topic of this week's Sessler's Soapbox. Adam talks about how he sees the leaks as a result of the exclusivity deals that media outlets make, therefore creating a culture of "we got it first" amongst the outlets. But let the Sess explain it for himself.
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suryu
crap i fell asleep
ArrenKae
I don't care about Rock Band, Guitar Hero or any other music game. They could leak the game and I wouldn't play it.
1) Why look at movies as a standard?
2) There're exclusives doled out in every industry. Sometimes it's just calling your article an exclusive. "No one else has this particular interview with the band or the actor".
The silliest types of leaks are when a game's learned about because its' title's registered or it's submitted to the ESRB and that data's public info. You'd think there'd be some agreements like, "delay announcing this name for a month or three" but I guess the gov. doesn't cut such deals and if they're processing the request they're also publicizing it.
ArrenKae
I don't care about Rock Band, Guitar Hero or any other music game. They could leak the game and I wouldn't play it.
1) Why look at movies as a standard?
2) There're exclusives doled out in every industry. Sometimes it's just calling your article an exclusive. "No one else has this particular interview with the band or the actor".
The silliest types of leaks are when a game's learned about because its' title's registered or it's submitted to the ESRB and that data's public info. You'd think there'd be some agreements like, "delay announcing this name for a month or three" but I guess the gov. doesn't cut such deals and if they're processing the request they're also publicizing it.
oBLACKIECHANoo
halo reach was never "hacked" it was microsofts fault it got leaked because they put a version of the game on marketplace for reveiwers to download and to dl it you needed to redeem a code and your account had to be flagged for it too, some people found away around the flag and also got their hands on a code that could be used more than once so they downloaded it and took all the files of of the hardrive wich is easy to do and can only be played on jtag'd xbox's or developer kits.
SHOGUN_34
Adam could you please look at this and comment. Great idea for a show and I have not seen anyone respond, this is not a waste of time.
http://forums.g4tv.com/showt hread.php?t=155084&g4rdr=1
SHOGUN_34
Adam could you please look at this and comment. Great idea for a show and I have not seen anyone respond, this is not a waste of time.
http://forums.g4tv.com/showt hread.php?t=155084&g4rdr=1
bolo73
Not all leaks are hack jobs. Companies some times want to creat buzz about there products. So they allow information to be leaked.
I agree with Adam though. Companies look like children when they responded with no information about a game everyone knows is in the works and only a month or two later they go HEY LOOK AT WHAT WE HAVE COMMING OUT statement. This is mainly for the big games that are part of a franchise.
They can say yes we do have a game in the works and we will give you information or just do what Hollywood does. Tell they what stage it is in. You do not have to give out any info beyond that.
vinny87
Leaks come from the stupidity of the games marketing teams. Recently Mass Effect 2 was announced for the PS3 but the next question that was asked was obviously about Mass Effect 3 coming to the PS3. The answer that they gave was that they haven't announced anything about Mass Effect 3. They were acting as if they weren't making the game. We all know they're making the game. We all know it's coming out and now we all know the third is coming for the PS3. So why be secretive? I don't blame the press because the PR teams for the games publisher are dumb about this.
IllusiveShepard
"Keeping My Finger in It." LOL
Garrehn
I don't mind the way video games are released to the public. I would prefer to have it all at once but it doesn't matter that much to me. The only thing that really grinds my gears is when a sequel is obviously going to happen but they wait for a year or two to announce it. I hate listening to reporters ask if it's coming and I hate listening to developers tip toe around it. It's like an annoying friend tells you they have a secret and then they don't want to tell you.
Garrehn
I don't mind the way video games are released to the public. I would prefer to have it all at once but it doesn't matter that much to me. The only thing that really grinds my gears is when a sequel is obviously going to happen but they wait for a year or two to announce it. I hate listening to reporters ask if it's coming and I hate listening to developers tip toe around it. It's like an annoying friend tells you they have a secret and then they don't want to tell you.
theantigzus
WOW!!! im feeling ashamed for Willie Nelson because they failed out of his song. What were you saying Adam? J/k you have the best discussions and opinions, but seriously who was playing rockband?
cwbys21
I've got to say first off, I'm surprised this Soapbox isn't about the Metroid review or the xbox live increase, but I suppose that would take more than 7 minutes and will be saved for Feedback tomorrow. As for what Adam said, I can understand sometimes companies not wanting to say outright, yeah, were working on Uncharted 3 because then people will ask them questions that they don't know the answers to yet and they want to keep expectations under control. But don't insult our intelligence by trying to pretend the game doesn't exist.
zombieguy13
I feel bad for the guys at Bungie cause it was really sad that the swan song got hacked. I am really excited for Reach and hope nothing else happens between now and launch. I do care more about the Reach leak because of the physical nature of an entire game versus the set list. While i can understand the secrecy of the set list, now that we know, it makes me that much more excited. Valve loves to "leak" things and i salivate when ever i hear of a Valve "leak".
Again, Sorry to the people at Bungie. I hope the douchbags that hacked Reach get teabagged a whole mess load of times in Multi.
moosebutton
great soapbox this week, adam! im not sure if u were at comic con this year, but i was and i got to play dead space 2 and dragonage 2 at the bioware little screening for fans. they told me that no game critics like ign, or x-play, or gamespot, got to play it yet. is that true? did u play either of those two (awesome!) games? just curious, thx
IWSTUTNISB
*click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click*
SONG FAILED
Adam, never let somebody play a plastic guitar in the same room as you when you're trying to talk. It's annoying... even more so when the person playing isn't that great.
expl0siv0
I find it kinda funny that there is some intern or someone just hitting replay on the rock band 3 video. Good work anonymous unsung G4 hero.
I find it interesting that sessler seems so fed up with how video game journalism functions as a member of the same community. So far it seems like he has kind of kept his opinions on the down low. However it makes sense that individual journalism outlets will compete for exclusivity because the key word is there in the sentence: competition. Let's just have one state run video game journalism outlet and that problem will have been solved.
PS3Darklighter
I think the main reason the gaming media seems less than legitimate compared to other types of news media is because most of it is internet based.
G4 is great but its barely about gaming anymore and the gaming magazines are pretty good for reviews and discussions but a monthly magazine will never be as good as TV for up to the minute news.
Still the internet is just the worst medium for news. . . and the worst invention of the past few decades. Internet journalists are supposed to aspire to get jobs in the real media but most internet writers who cover games seem happy to just stay in the minor leagues writing for websites.
Blockcam101
HeroBeGone,
Yeah in 2003 a German hacker named Axel Gembe hacked into one of the peoples computers who was working on the game Half life 2 and sent the information out. There were nude models and all these other things happening with the leaked information. Valve sent out a request to the online community to help find where it came from. A bunch of people wrote in and they finaly tracked it back to the guy. So they sent the guy a job request to come work for them in an effort to get him to fly over so the FBI could nab him. Although once the German government found they nab him instead.
This was the article I remember
http://www.wired.com/threatl evel/2008/11/valve-tricked-h/
ColonelCampbell
Adam Sessler, spreading knowledge, one soapbox at a time.
On the issue of the Halo Reach leak, i am amazed someone managed to do that. But then you sit and think and you realize you probably wouldve done that too. All the hype built up to that game probably caused them to sht themselves.
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