This is such a depressing part of the gaming industry and one that I’ve run into more times than I’d like to remember.
Sometimes it’s simply been a lack of experience in the industry while at other times it’s downright deceitful.
EA Games in Norway has now been caught attempting to pick and choose which gaming reviewers are given advanced copies of Battlefield 3 via a small survey that they’ve asked people to complete.
The questionnaire starts off in the already murky territory of
Did he personally review BFBC2 or Black Ops, or was it just the outlet? What was his personal review score
Now this sort of question is already bang out of line and the publisher is obviously fishing for a favourable reviewer to take on the title but then the questionnaire just heads into the absolute no go territory with the following questions.
Is he a fan of Battlefield?
Is he a fan of Call of Duty?
Did he play the Beta? Did he enjoy it/frustrated with it?
Has he expressed enthusiasm or concern for BF3? What are they?
What’s his present view on the game?
To put that into straight forward English EA Norway want to know if the guy reviewing the game is a fan or not and if not then it’s highly unlikely he will be getting a copy.
Unfortunately the people who have pulled this sort of crap on me have always done it via the phone so I haven’t been able to post up that awesome scoop of a story but trust me this happens locally and it does make me wonder sometimes why certain places seem to get their reviews out really early.
On the other hand I’ve been on the receiving side of this sort of good fortune where a distributor has given us a review copy earlier than anyone else because we’ve publicly been excited about a game and they are banking on a good review. Sometimes that works out for them and at other times I’m stuck with an irate PR person on the other side of the phone with some entitlement issue.
The unfortunate truth of the industry at the moment is that you need to find a reviewer or outlet that you trust and then wait for their reviews or for the reviews that appear after release day. It’s no surprise at all that the first review in for a major title is virtually always fantastic.
Last Updated: October 19, 2011
