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The Soapbox: Game "journalism" is not journalism (yet)
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Hey folks, welcome back to the Soapbox. Before I get started, let me add a personal disclaimer onto the Massively disclaimer you just read: I don't hate game devs. On the contrary, I hold a couple of them in pretty high esteem. What does annoy me is the way that most of them get a free pass when it comes to tough questions. Another thing that sticks in my craw is the way readers sometimes confuse journalism with game journalism. The two aren't often the same thing, and in fact the latter term is a complete misnomer. So, when you throw together my disdain for PR-soaked reporting and my facepalming at any mention of the phrase "game journalism," you end up with this week's Soapbox. In it, I'd like to take a crack at educating the folks who erroneously refer to both me and other game bloggers as "journalists." To do so, I'll spend some time examining "game journalism," and I'll start by defining journalism itself. Then we can look at how applicable the term is to the current landscape of MMO-centric media (and really, game media in general). Merriam-Webster defines journalism as "the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media." So far, so good, right? Well, look deeper. A more thoughtful, thorough, and instructional definition is provided by the folks at Journalism.org. Rather than quote the entire nine-point synopsis here on my front page, I'll highlight what I consider to be the second most important principle of journalism (the first obviously being truth). Not coincidentally, this principle is one that game "journalism" utterly fails to uphold on a daily basis: "[Journalism's] practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover."
The first 2 years: PSP has sold better in the US than PS1, DS, more
Misinformed reader comments across gaming blogs (such as Joystiq) are becoming increasingly frustrating. As we approach PSP's 2-year anniversary, many gamers seem to believe PSP is somehow a failure. Objection! If we align sales data to look only at the first 24 months of a console's US life, we'll see that PSP has actually done better than most other consoles, including the original PlayStation 1, and Nintendo DS.The numbers and charts are provided by VG Charts, and they document a truth that may be hard to swallow. Please note that these numbers only cover US sales. Regardless, the following data should provide compelling evidence that PSP is not a failure, at least in terms of units sold.
If the DS didn't have a head-start in the US ...
Here's some food for thought: what if the DS didn't have a four-month head-start ahead of the PSP? Both systems have had at least 22 months of sales in America. Looking at cumulative sales, this chart from VGcharts.org shows that the PSP has sold more than the DS in their first 22 months of sales. Certainly, Japan is a completely different story ... but does that really matter for gamers in the US? Americans love their PSP ... even if the video gaming press doesn't want to admit it.
PSP's million sellers
Have you ever wondered how many games on the PSP have earned the Achievement of selling more than a million copies? According to data compiled from VG Charts, there are eight games so far that have sold such a mythic amount of copies. As expected, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories tops the charts, with a whopping 3.49 million copies sold! And that's with zero sold in Japan. Taking a look at the charts, it's clear that the Japanese have very different tastes than the Americans. For example, while Star Wars: Battlefront II did surprisingly well here, it was barely noticed in Japan. Monster Hunter Portable, on the other hand, became a million seller almost by itself in Japan.While the PSP has an impressive share of game sales, it still needs to think of a cross-cultural hit if it's ever to succeed like the Nintendo DS. The rival console has produced 21 million sellers so far, and cross-cultural successes (like Nintendogs and Brain Age) undoubtedly helped a lot.
