EDITORIAL: What is up with GameSpot?
Sometimes, there are things you just can not make sense out of. The recent resignation of Shoichiro Irimajiri is one of them. Another, of course, is “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?” These are all fine questions (yes, even the last one). But the one that still boggles my mind is “Why the Heck is ZDNet and Gamespot so biased?”
Over the past few years, the signs have been easy to figure out–games that everyone and their grandmother think are of top-notch quality still ‘aren’t up to par’ and receive only mediocre ratings. PS2 games, on the other hand, even with jaggies, receive higher ratings. I should point out, though, that this does not happen only at GameSpot and EGM, but GameFan is starting to go this route as well.
GameSpot TV on US cable channel ZDTV is a prime example of this bias. Their recent E3 special treated Sony like a god, when in fact their showing was certainly not on this level. Kate Botello and Adam Sessler did not show terribly much from the Sega booth. This is also evident on the GameSpot web site, as their E3 coverage had next to no Sega coverage. GTV’s regular shows are mostly focused on Sony games and news, and while some reviews are bad, others show very high ratings that the game does not deserve at all.
Electronic Gaming Monthly is not as bad, but still, top-notch first party titles are sometimes being frowned upon for little things that would otherwise be overlooked. Previews for most Sony games are easily overhyped, though that is not to say some Sega previews in EGM are. However, if you notice sometimes, Sony games that are hyped and fail to impress receive some good markings from their Review Crew, while Sega games under the same situation usually receive worse ratings.
So, why is this happening? Is Sony feeding so much money to Ziff-Davis that it is keeping rather dismal Sony games from having their true faults exposed by ZD staff? That is a possibility, yet I have seen Sega advertisements on ZDTV. Could the entire EGM and GameSpot crew just be a huge load of Sony biased pigs? There is another possibility. Whatever the case may be Ziff-Davis really needs to get their act together so they are seen by all gamers as fair and balanced. It’s as simple as that. A few staff changes here and there should do the trick. Is that so much to ask?
