The Insomniac Hack Reveals The Ugly Truth Of Video Game Hype - Aftermath - eviltoast

The games journalist debate over covering the hack is a look in the mirror

  • MudMan@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    The actual article here gets to a great, very accurate conclusion: that information about unfinished, upcoming games is really not that valuable for users and an entirely artificial hype machine that insists on only paying attention to games before they exist. This is true.

    There is very little genuine value in exploring a game in development, that is mostly a commercial concern. Which is fine, this is an entertainment industry. All parties here (publishers, journalists and audiences) are willingly engaging in a bit of a commercial transaction.

    But journalistically and in terms of art criticism, the moment that coverage matters is after a game exists, not before. Really, leaking publishing plans or greenlit projects shouldn’t be a big deal because publishing plans and business deals should be insider stuff that end users don’t give a crap about. The relevant Insomniac game now is at most Spider-Man 2, not Wolverine or any later games they may or may not have deals to make. Mostly because there’s no guarantee those games will ever exist or in what form.

    But also, screw leaking personal info of game developers.