American video game magazine accuses publishers of retaliation for bad reviews

Electronic Gaming Monthly says several elite videogame publishers are punishing it in retaliation to negative reviews and previews. According to a story in the Montreal Gazette, the American title posted an editorial on a sister website in which the editor-in-chief, Dan (Shoe) Hsu, accuses Sony's sports division, Midway Games and Ubisoft of refusing to provide the magazine with review and preview copies of games because of a negative review of one of Ubisoft Montreal's titles.

EGM savaged Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed in this month's issue, awarding the Xbox 360 version a dismal 5.8 out of 10. Shoe figures Ubisoft and company are mighty miffed about some of EGM's stinging reviews:

"For the time being, you'll get little, late, or no coverage of the following products: anything Mortal Kombat ([Midway Games] didn't like our reviews), anything from Sony's sports department (ditto), and now, anything from Ubisoft (it seems our coverage of Assassin's Creed was the last straw). ...

"We won't treat these products or companies any differently, and we'll just cover them to the best of our own abilities, with or without their support. Because, after all, we're writing for you, the reader—not them."

Columnist Tyler Todd described this retaliation as an example of the "dirty little underbelly of the videogame industry that most gamers never see".

Contrary to what you might think, working in this industry isn't all fun and games.

Publishers exert ferocious pressure on journalists. It's impossible to attend any sort of media event without some overgroomed public-relations weasel trying to jam a press release down your throat. And when they're not trying to force-feed you glowing press material, they're buttering you up and being extra special nice. Some will do anything to tilt media coverage in their favour.