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Variety: Sony may be 'too artsy for its own good'
Variety's Ben Fritz ponders why Sony's PS3 hasn't been able to become more of a mainstream success. Obviously, price comes into play, but he offers another option: it may be "too artsy for its own good."What does that mean? Fritz looks at a few examples. He looks at LittleBigPlanet, arguably Sony's biggest game of 2008. While it has been successful, it hasn't become the runaway hit that many have hoped. It seems that the game appeals largely to game critics and those that like "quality, 'artsy' games." Fritz also looks at the PlayStation Network. He notes that Sony is "the only one of the big three console makers that's investing its own money on downloadable 'indie' games." Other platforms have downloadable games, but they feature more ports and more "junk."The PS3's XMB, he describes is "much cleaner and more Google-esque than Xbox Live, filled as it is with ads and other clutter, or the boring grid on the Wii menu." He also notes that the hardware is "smoother, prettier, quieter -- a superior work of art." However, he concludes that these superior features don't add up to a product that appeals to the mainstream. Unfortunately, that's what Sony needs in order to recreate the success of PS2.
Variety judge disagrees with majority of E3 award winners, loves public drunkenness
Ben Fritz writes about video games for Variety and was one of the E3 judges this year -- and he's not too happy with this year's winners. He calls Mirror's Edge "gimmicky" and the Gears of War 2 improvements "minor." He was really pulling for Resistance 2, which he felt offered up a lot more than the original, and we'll admit that's a good point.However, he really laments the fact that Fable 2 didn't win anything. He hated the original Fable, but thinks that "the human interactions, from multiple gay marriages to public drunkenness, seem really fun" in the sequel. He also admits that he didn't care for last year's Super Mario Galaxy and disliked Mass Effect. Which is probably why the second comment from Just A Guy is "You suck."Update: Ben Fritz actually contacted us to let us know he didn't hate Super Mario Galaxy, he just "didn't lavish superlatives" on it. He goes on to tell us that the review he wrote of the game was "positive," but you can judge for yourself right here. With friends like that, who needs negative reviews? However, he did point out (and rightly so) that the headline implied that he doesn't like the E3 awards. In actuality, "I just personally disagree with the majority of the winners." Our bad, and we've fixed that.
IGN responds to concerns over exclusive GTA IV review
Earlier this week, Variety's Ben Fritz expressed concern over IGN's exclusive first review of Grand Theft Auto IV, asking rhetorically, "How can we trust a videogame review when the outlet running it has been given a major commercial favor ... from the publisher of the game?" Well, GameDaily Media Coverage Columnist Gus Mastrapa went the extra mile and asked that very question to some people at IGN. And he even got an answer!"We in no way trade scores for an exclusive," said IGN VP Tal Blevins, adding that publishers have no access to or say in the text of a review before it goes live. That doesn't mean IGN didn't make any concessions to secure the exclusive, though. IGN Xbox editor Hilary Goldstein admitted the site used promotional placement on the site's top feature bar to secure the exclusive. "Our bargaining chip is to basically say, 'I will put it here if you let me have this,'" Goldstein said. Mastrapa likened the practice to an "exclusive cover story" in a game magazine.As for Variety and Fritz, Goldstein seemed unimpressed with with his journalism bona fides. "Nobody from Variety called us and said, 'Hey, would you like to comment about this?'" he said. "He says in blog post, 'If I had the game right now I would have broken the embargo.' To me that goes against your ethics." Nothing like an I'm-more-ethical-than-thou battle to get your heart racing in the morning.
