How the game industry lost its way (and how Nintendo could save it — again), part 2
Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 9:53am by Jack
Editor’s Note: First off, a big thanks to everyone who commented on part 1 (even some of the negative ones over at digg.com 
). It was by no means a perfect column, as I discovered upon subsequent re-reads, but I do appreciate that many people out there share my view on the industry today. Perhaps we can change it, if only just a little.
For now though, onward and upward to part 2…
Part 2: The irrelevant video games media
What do you get when you have hardcore gamers writing articles about games that are then read by other hardcore gamers? If you said the gaming media as it exists today, give yourself a cookie, but the word “free advertising for publishers” gets bonus credit.
But that’s exactly what exists today, isn’t it? An elite clan of people write the reviews, the previews, the commentary and the news articles; and then in turn a very small segment of the population reads that material and takes it as gospel. The material never escapes the echo chamber because, in reality, no one outside the clique really takes video games very seriously. The mainstream media outside of gaming probably views Sony, Microsoft and even Nintendo to a certain extent as interesting distractions for antisocial boys who enjoy flashy lights and loud noises. Is it fair? Not even close. Is it the truth? Absolutely.
Even publishers don’t respect video games journalists. They mock us with fake gamer blogs like Sony did with its PSP for Christmas campaign; they heap lavish review packages on established sites that give out the much ballyhooed “game review score” (free anything immediately tainting that site’s review, btw); and they blatantly lie about or conceal information about their very expensive products because they know there’s really no one who will seriously take them to task.
I cover software companies for a “real” living outside of Infendo, and let me tell you a few things about lying to the press. Even just in the software media circle, for example, if a company displayed the bravado and outright dishonesty that Sony shoveled upon the gaming press over the past year and a half, there would have been dire consequences. Scathing commentary would have been written; real investigative journalism would have been conducted. Instead, in gaming, we see behavior from publishers and developers that leads me to believe they really don’t see any consequences for their actions. If they say something truly outrageous, they know their forgiveness is but a few Motorstorm screenshots away.
But why is this? To answer that, I’m going to borrow a quote from some forgotten web site that I read many moons ago: Video game journalists today are gamers first and writers second. Unfortunately, that formula fails the readership because there’s no objectivity in that equation. What constitutes a gamer today is a niche sect of the population that grows even more niche by the day (if that makes any sense). I discussed that ad nauseum in part 1, so I won’t beat the horse armor here. Today it’s gamers writing for gamers, instead of journalists providing objective information to gamers. “Preaching to the choir comes to mind,” and leads me back to my original point about free advertising.
One could argue that there really hasn’t been any real innovation in the industry for a while now (yes, yes, I’ve heard of Loco Roco and Katamari and Puzzle Quest, etc. — exceptions to every rule). Well, in that vein, there really hasn’t been any real innovation video game journalism either. In fact, I’d say things have regressed since the pinnacle of (IMO, mind you) gaming journalism: Next Generation Magazine. Even the material they used for the cover of that magazine kicked ass.
Now, detractors of this post will say, “but gamers know the industry best, so they write the best articles.” And I say, if you believe that, then be a gamer, not a journalist. There are no exceptions to that rule, otherwise you’re in the world of marketing, not journalism. Which is perfectly fine. But like any “job” you need to commit 100% to be good at what you do. There needs to exist some degree of separation between the two. Otherwise, you become a pawn of the industry, and write only about what they push forth onto the table. Again, marketing. Is it a coincidence that as the major competitors to Nintendo’s DS and Wii strategies started their “it’s a gimmick” attacks, et al, the same voice was present throughout the media as well? “I’m sure it looks cool, but is it just a gimmick?” — Who here heard that from someone who was not working for a developer, publisher or manufacturer (meaning a “journalist” said that)? Blinders aren’t only for horses, it seems.
What about Nintendo though. This is a Nintendo blog, so how is Redmond, WA’s other gaming company getting video game journalism back on track? That one’s easy. They’re ignoring it.
This past year is riddled with instances where Reggie, Iwata, Miyamoto and crew have blatantly blown off the “mainstream gaming media” in lieu of a much more receptive, honest, and engaged audience: the public. When a journalist fails to do his or her true job function — accurately inform the public — you must remove them. It’s not entirely their fault — the danger of implementing a disruptive business plan (DS and Wii) is that in addition to taking the industry in an entirely new (and lucrative) direction, you can also alienate the Old Guard that covered it for the past 10 years or so.
I think it was a necessary sacrifice, but let’s take a look at some of those instances, and see what happened over the past year or so…
Wii Ambassador Parties
Infendo had a great exclusive look at one of these parties thanks to mom and Wii aficionado Tracey Clark. With a simple email to her personal blog, I was able to set up an interview with Mrs. Clark and get an insider’s look at one of these parties, of which there were many across the U.S. Nintendo basically found her through her blog, showed up at her house with TVs, Wii consoles and food, and allowed her and a large group of her extended family and friend play several then-unreleased games unabated. From what I gleaned from the interview and my conversations with her before and after, there was little to no pressure or marketing from Nintendo (she could not take pictures however), and the “gift bags” her children and friends received contained cookies — not consoles. I’ll never forget the impact of the event, as told to me by Clark herself: every person who left that house that day planned to buy a console. Can you see the same thing happening with an Xbox or a PS3?
Many people were invited to these parties by their hosts, but do you know who was not invited? The gaming press. They weren’t needed. In fact, if they had attended, I think Nintendo might not be enjoying the same success with the Wii that they are today. I think the system would have been framed quite differently by the press for the court of public opinion. But then again, I imagine Nintendo knew exactly what they were going to say in their subsequent preview and first impressions articles. I imagine they knew it would probably sound a lot like whining and complaining that followed an event from just two weeks ago, actually…
Nintendo’s Media Day
Ridicule. Angst. Dissatisfaction. Would anyone else care to add a word to the pile of adjectives I’m using to describe the gaming press reaction to Nintendo’s recent media day? Would anyone care to guess which games they all decided they deserved to see? That’s right, it was all of the games that didn’t need any coverage because it’s all they talk about anyway.
Metroid. Mario Galaxy. Zzz. All great games, but then again we all KNOW they’re going to be because Nintendo spends 100 years developing them and their core business plan depends on their success. There’s a reason they’re called franchises, and a reason why Nintendo had no intention or reason to promote them at its media day.
What it did need to promote are the games that will EXPAND its business (and by association, expand the industry as a whole). Trouble was, the media’s fly was open and their bias was showing. Many blogs ridiculed Nintendo for showing such artsy fartsy fare. Brain Age? More like Brain Dead! hahahah LOLZ!!11!
The gall of Reggie for not appeasing them! Like an evangelical lambasting the theory of evolution, they attacked games like Brain Age and questioned Nintendo’s “secrecy” regarding its first party IP franchise titles. In effect, and unbeknown to them, they were attacking that which they did not understand. Unfortunately, a rising tide will raise ALL boats, not just the ones you like. When we as a gaming community stop being so close minded about letting the “Others” into the fold, only then will the industry expand and the truly remarkable titles start to bubble to the surface. There are diamonds in the rough out there that come along and surprise us, but it’s still the Rad Racer effect all over again (see part 1).
Nintendo’s media day, ironically, was less about showing anything of any real substance to the media, than it was about exposing (inadvertently) the flaws in the media system.
Miyamoto’s GDC 2007 keynote gets panned
It’s my belief that there came no bigger slap to the face of Nintendo by the media this year than when Shigeru Miyamoto was panned for his keynote at the GDC. It was an embarrassment for gaming journalism.
There he was, the ******* father of video games giving a speech, and the drooling, shortsighted masses in the audience were screaming for screenshots. Honestly, wtf? Talk about failing to see the forest through the trees. Reggie took Phil Harrison out to the tool shed with one of the greatest quotes in video games history that day; I’m thinking he should have taken a majority of today’s bloggers and journalists out there with him.
First of all, my personal belief: Shigeru Miyamoto has earned a free pass for the rest of his life. If he wants to give a keynote about talking bananas at next year’s GDC, he can go right ahead and do it.
Second, there we have on stage one of the most influential people in gaming today, talking about expanding our minds and thinking outside of the box, and people attack him for it?! It boggles the mind at the close mindedness that exists today in gaming. It borders on irrational.
It also shows what a sham the conferences have become, and how the publishers know this. Personal invites to a show? A select audience of only the “best” gaming journalists? That’s not a conference, it’s a huge circle jerk of an advertisement.
Nintendo seems content to ignore the media to a certain extent until it changes or goes away. It would be a risky strategy if the media had any real pull over the industry, but to me they’re more like an extended press release service for the publishers. But hey, at least they get free review copies.
Am I jealous? Not really. I’ve got a fine job and my volunteer work and reader feedback here at Infendo is rewarding enough as it is. My end goal is not gaining “free review copy” status, which is how many of the blogs read today — it’s just plain writing about Nintendo and how it’s going to beat the snot out of the status quo and make everyone’s gaming experience a better one in the long run.
June 5th, 2007 at 10:16 am
If Nintendo keep on doing what they have done for media attention while promoting the Wii it isnt going to harm them in the slightest. By doing things differently they can be reaching a bigger audience.
The problem is, as much as I love all the inovation that Nintendo software brings along – ie pikmin – , they cant not show off their bigger games.
I know you say these are the games that need least media attention, but as long as Nintendo dont altogether stop talking about their Franchise titles Im sure they can keep everyone happy.
June 5th, 2007 at 11:40 am
But, in my mind these gaming websites etc aren’t meant for average consumers.. But hey the same thing applies to music and movie magazines! Thats why we have magazines that go through a lot of media in a more casual way and lately I’ve been seeing a lot more video game reviews in them. So that’s why I’m surprised of your hatred towards specialized video game journalism. It seems like your missing a point,there are different demographics and different sources cater to all of them… I don’t think my mom reads EGM where cooking mama might get a 5,4 but she reads “weekly media magazine x” where it gets a 8,9 because the reviewer is as much a casual person as she is… I don’t think its a smart move to ignore the games media because then you are leaving all the enthusiasts in the dark and that isn’t really great business in any way. And about Nintendo having a “boring” media day, it was just geared towards the wrong part of the spectrum,ie casuals but there were only enthusiasts there…
June 5th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I’m really really enjoying these articles. Thanks for writing them!
June 5th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Much as I love Nintendo, I say Jack is getting way too wound up with this little tirade of his. Nintendo isn’t the Messiah, you know. So ok, they are doing things different than their competitors. So ok, they’re catering to non-gamers now. So does that mean they are going to save the gaming industry as we know it? Oh come on. Are they going to save it by turning away from the gaming press, from the “Lost Boy” hardcore gamers and by creating casual entertainment for everyone? Sure, I love the fact I can play Wii Bowling with my mom as much as the next guy, but is this really the sort of salvation we want for gaming? Don’t we all–and I mean us, Infendo readers, dedicated gamers and Lost Boys–want to play some Zelda or Metroid at the end of the day? After we’re done having fun with our friends, family and significant others, don’t we want to play the stuff they could never play with us?
Luckily I don’t think there’s a serious risk Nintendo will abandon their biggest fans in favor of the new emerging non-gamer player–even though it’s the later that’s giving them more profit. However, Jack, it seems like what gives you the most joy is exactly all the Nintendo actions geared towards expanding the market and at the same time flipping the bird to the tradional gaming establishment. Sure, it’s cool that Nintendo has confidence in what they’re doing and won’t take crap for anyone–but is it really that they’re only ignoring the gaming press? Or maybe more like: everyone who feels like they can tell Nintendo what to do? And yes, that includes the fans as well.
Coming back to the main point, however, isn’t it time to accept the fact that the hardcore gamer and the non-gamer are two different markets, two different demographics with very different needs? Isn’t it the time to understand they both need satisfying? Accept it, instead of criticizing it. And instead of venting frustration. Nothing good has ever come out of that. Like I said, I love what Nintendo is doing by expanding the market and bringing people together over games–but that is never ever going to be the full picture. Not ever. Unless, of course, the Cooking Mamas, the casual web games and the Second Lifes take over completely. But that’s not going to be a happy day for us gamers, and you know it.
So yeah, let’s encourage Nintendo (hell, let’s encourage everyone!) to develop games everyone can play. But that the same time let’s not scorn gaming journalists for being hardcore gamers and addressing their writing to hardcore gamers. Who would you rather see in their position? No, that’s not a rhetorical question–who would do the job better than gamers? And isn’t that at least a bit hypocritical, too? Or are gaming bloggers allowed to be gamers but not the journalists who are paid for it? Let’s face it, if the gaming journalists dance to game developers’ tune, it’s not because they are gamers. If anything, I’d say that makes them at least a little bit more immune to the pressure. The pressure that comes into play whenever products are concerned. Come on, whether it’s games, tech equipment, music, film–big companies have ways of influencing the journalists who review their products. It’s just a fact of life. But still, in all those fields the people who write those article are the people who love and know their stuff: the tech freaks, the music lovers, the film buffs, the gamers. Even if their opinion tends to be biased–would a layman’s opinion be more valid? Or do you really believe an objective information would be better? If so, why do we still look at review scores to give us an indication of what to buy? And even if we’re suspicious of those, why do we still listen to friends and bloggers and people on forums? Those are gamers’ opinions too, after all. Isn’t it because we want to know what people who at least in theory have a similar point of view think about the product? For all it’s worth, that’s what gaming press does, isn’t it?
Finishing up then, granted, you raise a number of very valid points, Jack. Still, you (as well as the guy at GigaOM) make it seem like the “Lost Boys” deserve being ostracized just because they are who they are, while the bright future of gaming, as heralded by Nintendo, is casual games cut off altogether from the opinionated gamer demographic. But let’s face it, from our point of view web games become boring after a while, Second Life sucks to high heaven, and how long can we really enjoy Cooking Mama? I suppose I’m getting wound up myself right now, but I sure as hell hope that’s not the future Nintendo has in store for us. And knowing how they’re geniuses at what they do, I’m pretty confident it isn’t
June 5th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Great comment, Negrin.
“I see Nintendo expanding the software industry with the DS and the Wii in real time, and have therefore decided to support them. Perhaps a bit too blindly at times, but then again you don’t get progress if you refuse to venture out from the middle from time to time.”
That’s from part 1. I’m guilty as charged. I realize my “vision” of the future of gaming is a bit extreme, but that’s exactly my purpose. I want to take the yardstick and launch it an entire football field ahead of us. No one in their right mind would accept that result 100%, but if I can get people to the 30 yard line, when they might have only got to the 10 with our present road map, then I’ve succeeded.
June 5th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Wow.
… You know, I read the first article, and nodded my head in agreement. Similar things have been heard. But this one blew off my socks. You’ve pointed out things about the gaming press, and their relationship to companies, that completely blow my mind. Thank you.
Now… I gotta link this article elsewhere and re-read it again for the second time so that I can provide meaningful feedback. I’ll post again when I have something to contribute aside from a great big heap of THANK YOU for writing this, confronting issues which haven’t been exposed, and rising above the mere “gamership” to attempt some actual, earnest, insight.
~Carmine “Cai” M. Red
Kairon@aol.com
June 5th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Great post Negrin, I agree wholeheartedly with everything you bring up. Oh and btw on building two different markets, one for casuals and one for hardcore.. Oh and here’s a scary thought for wii owners, I heard that sony had pulled their heads out of their asses and are going to drop the price on the ps2 to 99$ and launch a wii-sports/games/play rip off with a new controller peripheral, by doing this they would secure casual attention and still have the hardcore attention with the ps3… All in all I think that would be a genius step by sony…
June 5th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
While Jack brings up some good points in both parts of the post, I have to agree with Negrin’s excellent response comment: the gaming industry today caters to both “hardcore” and “casual” gamers in almost equal measure (I know because I consider myself to belong in both sectors!), and it will be all the better for it.
But, having said that, and as I mentioned in my comment on part 1, I think Jack missed the biggest problem the whole entertainment industry faces today, not just video games but also TV, music, and film: the combination of higher production costs, the limit on how much they can charge for their products, and the fact that consumer’s leisure time is not increasing. This is a lethal combination that the business won’t be able to sustain…
Nintendo had the insight to expand the market, thus temporarily increasing their consumer base, while keeping production costs of their products to a level that they can still profit from them. But that business model only works while you don’t have significant competition (the so-called “blue ocean”), and will again break down as soon as everyone jumps into the band wagon, which is precisely what I feel Jack is advocating in these posts!
Please, let MS and Sony keep churning out their succesful shooters and racers and RPGs, and let Nintendo keep creating wonderful “party” games and “touch generation” titles (as well as their own shooters and racers), but don’t say that any one of these companies posses the map to the only road to great gaming. We need them all!
June 5th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Invis, very true. It may have been garbled in my rants and posts, but I don’t want any one genre to “win”
June 5th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
@Stalis — if that happened, I would expect people to start asking some very serious questions about who, if anyone, is running Sony’s video games division right now. They’ll ask if this is what passes for innovation at Sony. They’ll ask if the PS3 was released too early. And they’ll be right to ask such questions. And all the while, Sony’s worth will tumble.
Ever heard of the Zune? It’s the same price as an iPod, but has some interesting new features too. It’s a failure. This is exactly what you just described with this PS2 price drop/peripheral thing. There’s more to a successful system than a price drop and some bolted on accessories.
If Sony released such a thing, the only thing they’d be securing is more ridicule. Oh, and a failed peripheral.
June 5th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
I disagree: the PS2 has been getting some excellent new games in the last few months, and some of them are VERY original! And I think it is a wise move for Sony to resume support for their winning platform, at least until (and IF) the PS3 gains more acceptance.
And yes, I also think that both Sony and MS brought their products out too soon, but only a couple of years too soon, IMO!
By the way, I’m pleased to read some very insightful and balanced comments for this post, which is a rarity in the blog world! Usually by now comments would have deteriorated into fanboy rants…
June 5th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Regardless of the discussion about whether the Industry will fracture or whether there’ll be a lot of cross-over between non-gamers and traditional gamers, I really like what this article points out about the gaming media.
Hopefully the serious gaming media will emerge from their shell with the new markets being formed around casuals and non-gamers. Movie critics often review all sorts of movies, from blockbusters to art house films, to chick flicks. Hopefully the gaming emdia will find a new center from which they can cater to all gamers, instead of refusing to deal with the outside world and marginalizing the interactive medium further.
~Carmine “Cai” M. Red
Kairon@aol.com
June 6th, 2007 at 3:54 am
A promising start, talking about the sycophantic game press, refusing to challenge the industry players.
… and then you say, “Shigeru Miyamoto has earned a free pass for the rest of his life”.
You don’t see the contradiction there?!
June 6th, 2007 at 7:19 am
“the media’s fly was open and their bias was showing.” – Priceless
You forgot to specify that the intent of GDC is to inspire and teach GAME DEVELOPERS, not another excuse for blogs and the game media to have an E3 without the fanboys and freeloaders. Miyamoto’s conference to th developers was awesome, and those who didn’t have our blinders on could really appreciate the contents of what he was saying and let us learn a bit of how his crazy brain works.
There will be times for screenshots, videos and info, but the gaming press isn’t deserving of ANYTHING. They aren’t the ones that keep the industry alive, they’re merely a tiny part of it but would like to feel they’re entitled to more.
To those like Robert, whining on the “hypocrisy” of your comments, you never once claimed to be a journalist and as such, there exists no contradiction.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Robert, I do. But I’m not the “gaming press” and don’t hope to be. For now, I’m perfectly happy throwing stones.
June 6th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Ah Jack, I know that Sony would be ridiculed by “hardcore” gamers and press alike for such a shameless copy/paste job but the general public would be pretty oblivious to the thing and eat it up like candy… Sony sees the value in casual gaming and it has the perfect platform to put it on, not the ps3 but the ps2, a well proven system that is outselling their newest system.. Oh and the zune being a total failure, it has what,? 5% marketshare of hard drive- based mp3 players out there, considering that the iPod has total market dominance and Creative is eating their leftovers I think Zune made a good impact, but it’s by no means a success but neither total failure..
June 6th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
I think the article does prove that nintendo is letting the hardcore gamer take the backseat to the casual gamer, but thats entirely okay, what hardcore gamer doesn’t participate in some kind of forum/gaming site? Every diehard fan of Zelda/Metroid/Mario/Smash Bros. already knows every (albeit few) details leaked onto the internet about the upcoming nintendo franchises. Guess who didnt have a clue before now? Your moms. But now, if I talk to my mom, she knows something about upcoming games that appeal to her/my dad, and that makes all of the difference, see they dont HAVE to tell the gaming media anything, theyll find out everything anyways, so tell people who dont know yet, casual gamers. So while I wish I could see more Metroid screen everyday, I know theyre coming down the pipe eventually.
June 9th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Nintendo Power?
* Great article overall, yet I’ve a question: Are auto magazines that different from game magazines? Don’t they also deliver inside the “echo chamber”?
Also I wonder if publications like Nintendo Power should be held accountable for this kind of journalism, where fans created content for fans (at least when Nintendo Power was first created)?
Nontheless you’re 1000% spot-on with your assessment that the video game journalists are laughable at best, I currently can only name a few persons who really have the right to bear the name “journalist”, e.g. N’Gai Croal or Steven Kent.
* “I cover software companies for a ‘real’ living outside of Infendo, and let me tell you a few things about lying to the press. Even just in the software media circle, for example, if a company displayed the bravado and outright dishonesty that Sony shoveled upon the gaming press over the past year and a half, there would have been dire consequences.”
Ah-ha! I remember MS-DOS 5.0, Windows 3.0, Windows 95, Windows ME etc… and Vista right now – following your reasoning nobody should write about Microsoft right now, or? *snickering*
* “Now, detractors of this post will say, “but gamers know the industry best, so they write the best articles.” And I say, if you believe that, then be a gamer, not a journalist.”
While I get your point and sympathize with it a lot, you basically just said: “Madden should not comment NFL football games, because he was a player.” Hmmm?
I really really miss high quality journalism in gaming but on the other hand (a bunch of enthusiasts like myself run a private games website: userrankings.com (German)) when I look at our traffic statistics all that matters the most for people are pre- and reviews. It’s sad but that’s what people read. I use our editorials and forums to write articles that are outrageous and thought provoking (ok, I hope they are!) and we get letters from publisher that ask us why we scored a game the way we did… but nonetheless if I analyze what people right now want from our website it’s reviews.
Whereas I personally like to read opinionated articles, features or editorials – I find myself to be a minority…?
* “What about Nintendo though. This is a Nintendo blog, so how is Redmond, WA’s other gaming company getting video game journalism back on track? That one’s easy. They’re ignoring it.”
Great point, and I really don’t like what Nintendo does right now. They simply don’t tell anything until it’s too late. And it’s not even a bad practice because a lot of games or publishers get FLAKed when they release previews or work-in-progress-media. Nintendo does it very slyly but ultimatively nobody gets real information from the company – except Matt-IGN who seems to be best friends with Perrin Kaplan *LOL*. Nintendo does give out information but only to people they know they like them. Not very cool in my book.
While I can understand Nintendo, and it works great to limit journalistic events and resources… I like other companies where you can visit them as a “normal person” much more than Nintendo, where you get special screenings of Zelda:TP for a select few.
* A point from myself.
Am I the only one who is puzzled by how strange Miyamoto is portrayed over the media? Iwata is great at all the times, but what Miyamoto said in the last two years almost always got me angry/confused, e.g. the statement about “If I wanted to do Halo, I could do it, but I don’t want to…” Straaaaaange things…
* The myth: Wii Ambassador Parties: “every person who left that house that day planned to buy a console. Can you see the same thing happening with an Xbox or a PS3?”
OK, right now, how many out of “every person” actually bought one?
The “Wii Ambassodor Parties” are a myth to me because in theory they sound great, but it again leads to information wholes with potential customers. A lot of people I know, know what “Wii” is, but they don’t know anything more, how does it work, what do controllers and games cost, how much internal memory has it, what there’s a missing RJ45 only wireless etc…
Nintendo simply does not make “mainstream”-commercials, a few TV spots and now this “live-acted cinema ads” are not what I would like to see to really tear down the wall of ignorance by people who’ve never played video games before. Wiis were only bought by people I know that they are hardcore games (and/or Nintendo fans). I know no single person that has never owned a console before and bought a Wii. Do you? Do you truly??
Small is beautiful, but when Nintendo really wants to get forward, they have to do much more. Sony did a lot more the last five years to promote games to casual gamers.
* Nintendo’s Media Day
Again exactly my point: Nintendo does not give out information on their big titles. No because there is none, but because they have realized that “game journalists” just bad-mouth games most of the time and they intentionally (ok, I guess) show nothing to the public so nobody can write a bad preview or something. Resulting in: everybody buys the game and nobody is really satisfied (as a gamer). I like Wii Sports a lot, but I would give it a 70% score. Too little to do, too much tech demo, sorry mates – that’s what I feel. And journalists can two things: be honest and give it 70% or less or hype it as “game of the year”. Not very funny to me as customer.
It’s that simple: Nintendo doesn’t want to see us previews of games like Tiger Woods, because they know the bad publicity it gets even from the fans about the poor presentation value. So they will never show us more than trailers of Metroid, Mario, Zelda, etc…-franchises. I would say they’re scared by the press right now and bottle up so that only the “correct spin” gets to the people on the street, mainly by addressing them directly and therefor bypassing any real critical voices.
* “There he was, the ******* father of video games giving a speech, and the drooling, shortsighted masses in the audience were screaming for screenshots.”
I absolutely think that Miyamoto is over-rated these days. A journalist wants to see prove and not let the man get away with lip-promises. Where’s the journalistic instinct now?
And please stop putting Miyamoto on a podest… it’s like saying Sid Meier did Railroad Tycoon all alone, please acknowledge that when we say a game was created by Miyamoto that we also mean “a big team of creative Nintendo employees named Miyamoto just for shorthand”.