Gearbox honcho gets huffy over leaked Borderlands 2 announcement, calling news about the game released ahead of *his* schedule 'shoddy journalism'.
We just read this over our morning coffee and toast. We recommend you have a read of it, too, though we leave your choice of meal up to you.
The deal is this - yesterday, Eurogamer and then many other sites broke the news that Gearbox was working on Borderlands 2. It's interesting news, but really hardly surprising, given the game's success and 2K's marketing commitment to the game. However, therein lies the problem.
You see it would appear that Randy Pitchford, Gearbox's boss, believe that any sense of real journalism in gaming is so far out of place as to be deserving of namecalling. He came out swinging on Twitter, saying that anything unannounced didn't exist and that the article itself was shoddy journalism.
Of course, cut to the next day and 2K and Gearbox make the official announcement, and as that Ars article points out, therein lies the rub. 2K had an already extant agreement with Game Informer to break the news and details of the game.
It's worth repeating some of Ars' points, because we too worry that this shows exactly what parts of the games industry think of those who write about it - that we are merely an extension of their marketing department. No wonder a lot of readers have little faith in games journalism, when the industry that should be supporting us thinks so little as well.
All this on top of the looming presence of Game Informer. GI is a title that wields incredible power, and if that mag's signed an exclusive deal with 2K, then it's very likely there were discussions between both parties once that Eurogamer story broke. Atomic's had it's own issues with Game Informer's remarkably pull, when the mag refused to let us have a global lead on a Civilization V announcement - as if Atomic could in any way effect their sales! Because of that we were asked not to publish until after GI had their chance. Which, of course, would have effectively been a waste of time and not been 'news' at all. So we turned down the entire preview offer, cancelled our trip, and had to find another article.
It was annoying to say the least.
And again, that too was a 2K game, showing the very tight relationship the two companies have. As an Editor, I defend my exclusives too, but I'm not going to do it at the expense of another title.
It's a shame, really. I used to quite unashamedly like Randy Pitchford, and enjoy his work. But the man's making that harder and harder to do. Attacks like his on honest games journalists do not do anyone any favours.
What do you cats think?
Issue: 137 | June, 2012