If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

IGN clarifies how it got the exclusive GTA IV review

ign.jpg

Speaking to GameDaily, IGN Xbox 360 editor Hilary Goldstein has given a frank interview about how he secured the exclusive on GTA IV and his reaction to a Variety article that came out and called the piece unethical.

There's a lot of stuff over there, so it's best the read the whole thing. Essentially, the early review was signed in exchange for a string of header features leading into the piece over a week.

Goldstein does say that "it's something that Rockstar has never allowed before," and we're unsure about that if he means Rockstar's never done an exclusive review on one of its games before.

He also says that "that entire week was all GTA tops on IGN.com, which was something we'd never done before." Again, we're not going to call him out, but is that actually correct?

Whatever. It's an interesting read, and it's about time someone was honest about this process, because this happens with every major game ever released on any platform and it's the same for every territory, so we find the whole wide-eyed "IS THIS RIGHT?" thing more than a little naive, to be frank.

Securing exclusives of this nature is what part of what makes a good editor a good editor, period. The bottom line about editing commercial publications is traffic, and if you think it's about anything else you've clearly never had to make money from a high profile consumer games site or magazine.

Read what Hilary has to say and make your own mind up.

Sign in and unlock a world of features

Get access to commenting, homepage personalisation, newsletters, and more!

In this article

Grand Theft Auto IV

PS3, Xbox 360, PC

Related topics
About the Author
Patrick Garratt avatar

Patrick Garratt

Founder & Publisher (Former)

Patrick Garratt is a games media legend - and not just by reputation. He was named as such in the UK's 'Games Media Awards', the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award. After garnering experience on countless gaming magazines, he joined Eurogamer and later split from that brand to create VG247, putting the site on the map with fast, 24-hour a day coverage, and assembling the site's earliest editorial teams. He retired from VG247, and the games industry, in 2017.

Comments