Eurogamer “blacklisted” by 2K, claims it’s “standard practice”

I actually rate Duke Nukem, it has its own flair and its just fresh unlike the yearly re hashed bullshit called COD

Sony should blacklist Eurogamer.

They keep dredging up PSN hack stories.

Blacklisting is a seriously archaic practice. PR bottom line; if you distribute a pony game to a journalist and they rightly slate it then you only have your damn self to blame.

“We haven’t been blacklisted by 2K.”

You have now!

I bloody hope not!

*Switzerland*

What does black listed mean

Well this is farcical. So publications have no right to criticise games without the threat of being blacklisted? Poor show 2K. Poor show.

Does the blacklisting entail access to interviews and previews, or only just review copies?

What does it mean to blacklist them though? Does it mean that in future they wouldn’t send them review copies of the game or that they wouldn’t give them press exclusives or invite them to press dos?

Pretty much, if I understand it correctly.

First rule of Fightclub: you do not talk about Fightclub. Wich is why The Redner Group got fired.

@8 – I don’t know for definite what’s happened here, but yeah, that’s basically it. No assets, no code, no invites, etc.

So were they blacklisted by Redner or 2K? If the former then presumably that may have already been lifted?

Hmm, I imagine that if you were blacklisted, you’d have the freedom to release information quicker in some cases, if you were well connected enough.

So no Mafia 3 review from John Teti, then?

I’ll just re-post what Brian Crecente (Kotaku EIC) recently wrote on the matter:

It’s an ugly, the ugliest part of this business. And while news reporting can sometimes spur it (I once had a executive of a company spend ten minutes shouting in my face and calling me names at a public venue because he was upset we reported on news, not rumors, but news that put his company in a bad light) it is game reviews that seem most contentious.

Our job, as game critics, is not to help promote a game or make sure that it sells well. Our job, as critics, is to offer up opinion based on full knowledge of the entire game. That’s pretty straight forward. If a critic plays an entire game and hates it, he or she should say so. If he or she loves it, write that. End of story.

There’s some nice humor in DNF but it’s nowhere as good as the original game. 3/10 is way too low, but everything above 6/10 would be too much.

We can’t even get whitelisted.

:S

The flip side is that just like devs/publishers can churn out a bit of a dud game, the big gaming sites can churn out a bit of a dud review. They need to more tightly control the quality of their end product too. EG has had quite a few really bad reviews recently – I’m not contesting the score a reviewer comes up with it’s a personal opinion, but the method and content of the review has been shoddy. They lack information and tend to err too much on the side of trying to be funny/clever.

The reasoning for the EG blacklist supposedly stems from something they said in a podcast a couple of weeks ago.

I don’t really see why people dislike DNF so much. But hey, we live in a free world, one is allowed to say that something is shit whilst another says it’s the best thing in the world, and they are both right, since it’s subjective what is right and wrong, concerning likes/dislikes.

@OP
Who did blacklist eurogamer? Depending on how i read this piece of news, i read it as 2K or Redner, i’m confused x)

Venatio – EG Community Manager – said 2K blacklisted them and not Redner.

I got blacklisted by Sony for selling a copy of Killzone 2 before release date, even though the copy I had received I have bought and not from Sony.

xD

I agree DrDamn, EG’s podcasts and reviews often suffered from too much attempted hilarity. I generally don’t mind as long as it doesn’t interfere with the flow of precious information but they do often chase that joke harder than they discuss the facts. No biggie like, but I don’t want Fox News, I want the news.

I think I heard that podcast, I think they were basically make fun of duke nukem and basically said the game was going to be a massive failure anyway.

Although I hasten to point out it was all in good fun. Just some classically british taking the piss.

Man that was the shitiest review I ever read! Seemd like he didn’t even play it! Did not read eurogamer since then!

Why on earth would a publisher do anything to help out a site that has proven itself time and again to be extraordinarily amateurish and unreliable in their reviews? Eurogamer seems to pride itself on being the harshest critic around, and it makes you wonder if they like videogames at all.

Eurogamer writers are so clearly in love with the smell of their own farts that they feel compelled to be contrary at all times and trash great games that deserve better. Any idiot can find minutae to moan about in any great game, that’s no great skill.

2K are butthurt.

There are tons of average games out there that constantly get 85+ reviews. They’re comparable to blockbuster movies that get shit reviews.

When game journalism grows up, these games won’t have it so easy, and we’ll have many more butthurt publishers.

I always liked Eurogamer and that doesn’t change anything, and being blacklisted doesn’t mean they can’t review those games, it only means they have to buy the game and will not receive a reviewer’s copy and early access to stuff that usually goes around and they wouldn’t be invited to press cofs… oh, wait, that’s pretty much it, Eurogamer should blacklist 2K in return, IMO.

3/10?
you must be farking with me! They deserve it!

I mean all these farking people who keeps giving games below 5 are just taking a f*ing piss!

This is the next gen and no games deserved to be rated under 5/10!
I’ve played garabge games- Iron Man, Thor God of Thunder, Quantum Theory, Homefront. These games are 5/10 or 6 but does not deserve to be rated below 5.

Rating games below 5 is putting your journalism and editorial skills to the test because you will not be taken seriously.

Blacklisting game journos/magazines/sites is an ancient practice that’s been going on since the beginnings of the industry.

Such dirty laundry is rarely aired though, dont know why I guess some outfits are scared they will get blacklisted by other publishers if they do come forward.

@23 Completely agree

@26 yeah I know like giving RDR a friggin 8/10 last year when pretty much everyone else gave it above 9…and then turning around and giving something like Brink the same score…just doesn’t add up, Brink was decent and I was really looking forward to it but even forgiving the horrid online connectivity the first week or two, it still wouldn’t be an 8…

@29 they could also just rent the game…not to mention I don’t think 2k would really care if EG blacklisted them since it would be one less shitty review score

@30 did you play Rogue Warrior or Shellshock 2? And iron man, thor and quantum theory probably deserve under 5 (pretty much any Sega game based on a Marvel movie blows horribly), homefront I would give a solid 6 the multi was pretty much a poor man’s CoD/BF hybrid…but was enjoyable, SP was completely forgettable though

@32 So people are supposed to score according to everybody else? Bullshit, man.

I would’ve given Red Dead Redemption an 8 myself. It was a cool game and all, but beyond the “old west” mechanics, the cool setting, and the Rockstar brand stamped onto it, it really wasn’t that impressive for a game with such a long development time.

You can’t judge a review by the score, you can only judge it by how well the writer backs it up in his own words.

Generally, if I’m looking at buying a game, I’m a lot more interested in what the guy who gives it the “standout” score sees, that the others don’t.

Not that you can’t judge zines and their writers, you just need a better reason for it than “This guy gave it an 8, when everybody else gave it 9″

Personally I think the epitome of Eurogamer mediocrity is their review of Braid. That sort of thing should never be allowed past an editor, without at least one counter-review.

I didn’t like Red Dead Redemption. I tried, I really, really tried to – and for what it is, it’s a well done game – but I just couldn’t.

2/10. (come at me, Rockstar. don’t come at me, Rockstar)

#30:

Canttellifserious.jpg

I pray you’re not being serious anyway.

@34 – i completely agree with you actually. Possibly the most overrated game i have ever played….either that or ico

Did Crecente go to the university of stating the bleeding obvious?

@37 Was there ever any doubt?

What are you smoking Johnny? Lol…did you play the game for more than 10 minutes? Because if you gave that game a 2 you haven’t played the whole game…especially since the ending alone would give it a 5/10…epic shit man…

@33 I’m not saying they need to review based on what other people review, or give similar scores, I’m just saying it was random and a mediocre review…

People have the right to not like any game they want but in my opinion RDR was an unbelievable game, while it might have had a couple of boring parts here and there, and might have dragged along a bit sometimes I just thought it was professionally done and extremely high quality, some of the highest quality I’ve seen in a game…