Comments by "Mat Broomfield" (@matbroomfield) on "5 Dark Video Game Industry Secrets" video.

  1. Of course game studios and other software publishers pay for good reviews. I worked in journalism for decades and it was common at two of the UK's biggest publishers. Payments would be made in the form of holidays, equipment, rewards, access and advertising. At Future Publishing once I wrote a shitty review for Poser and the editor called me and told me that the product manager at Smith Micro had contacted our advertising manager and that I had to change my review. It was clear that there was a threat - change it or we withdraw our advertising. It was also, incidentally, the last time taht I got to review that product, despite having reviewed the past 6 or 7 releases.
    65
  2. +Mr. Madanat PC Plus, Computer Arts, 3D World, PC Answers, PC format, PC review, Mobile Computer User, and DV World.
    4
  3. +Jonathan Dyton Threats on advertising are standard, and hardly surprising. I worked at CU Amiga, New Computer Express and maybe one of the EMAP spectrum mags. They were ALL in bed with the publishers. I didn't see cases like those you describe, but the whole industry was then, and still is, far too nepotistic. The worst thing is, the little publishers got honest reviews, so they couldn't compete alongside the massive wealthy ones like EA, Ocean, Psygnosis, and others. Still, it saddens me to see how some great mags like PC Format and C&VG have gone now. The internet exposed software publishers to the truth of public opinion, but it was also the death knell for paper magazines.
    4
  4. +REVENGE Maybe. never heard of it myself, but I suspect the worst offenders are the thousands of times that the magazines never got caught. To say nothing of all the competition prizes kept by staff members.
    3