Jason Schreier whinges about Bethesda ignoring them
Am I the only one who finds it rather funny and ironic that the very so-called video game “journalists” and I use the term pretty loosely where the ones decrying entitled gamers for wanting bug free video games on release. But bitch and moan like Janson Schreier, when they are cut off from early release material and exclusive access to developers. Companies like Bethesda knows that Kotaku and their glorified “writers” are a bunch of sensationalist hacks who are always on the lookout to write clickbait garbage. But it isn’t just Kotaku who are guilty of this, the entire industry has this problem. They went down the path of dishonesty reporting and moral outrage journalism. And honestly, most gamers worth their salt don’t care whether or not websites like Kotaku, Polygon, and IGN get early review copies of the products.
Because like me they know these websites now peddle agendas and don’t care about their audience or the games they are reviewing. This move by Bethesda shows that publishers now know that game journalists have become irrelevant in the bigger scheme of things and that they do not need to be held hostage by them or jump at their command whenever they are unhappy. This is basically Bethesda saying these people have become useless, but they haven’t stated it publicly just yet, and I am seeing other companies following suit pretty soon. This is the kind of thing you will get when they the media abuse it’s privileges, and honestly, what did you expect when you were constantly biting the hand that feeds? Bethesda bent them over and rammed it right in without any lube. Ever wonder why Kotaku was blacklisted by Bethesda? They leaked and spoiled certain details months before Fallout 4 was even released.
I think gaming journalists have become highly irrelevant and in some cases, damaging to the success of a game. We saw the same thing happen with music, some record labels refuse to send music review sites early copies of an album. It used to be a frequent occurrence that a leaked copy of an album was due to a reviewer leaking it.
Ultimately, it's the people who decide if a game is good or not. One of the biggest examples of failure in video game journalism is when IGN reviewed Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby in 2014. They gave it a score of 7.8 out of 10 and listed one of the cons as, "Too much water" - it was so laughable it became a meme.
I don't blame Bethesda for boycotting sites like Kotaku, I rarely ever read game reviews anymore. I actually find I get more value from watching playthrough videos on Youtube and Twitch these days, they're generally more honest representations of the quality of a game, not the words of an entitled blogger writing under the guise of being a journalist.
Great article.