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Game Informer defends GTA IV 'exclusive' coverage

Kevin Gifford's Game Mag Weaseling is a column run on GameSetWatch where he discusses coverage by the game magazines. In a recent article about Game Informer's "coverage" of Grand Theft Auto IV, Gifford said the piece was full of "glorified feature lists enhanced with developer quotes and insulated by hundred of words of filler."

Well, Game Informer's Editor in Chief Andy McNamara wasn't going to take that lightly, writing to the site, "I fail to see how getting world exclusive content that you can't get anywhere else isn't offering our readers something unique and worth the price of a magazine?"

Essentially where Gifford and GameSetWatch stood their ground was that the coverage felt managed by Rockstar -- well, of course it was. Rockstar gave GI the pictures, quotes and whatever else they wanted to. It's not like GI infiltrated the Rockstar building and retrieved the information for their readers. There was some deal made and GI got the exclusive -- good for them, it shows the muscle that comes with 2 million hard-sold Gamestop customers subscribers.

If you're happy with that ending and don't want to hear a potential spoiler, enjoy that ending for this post and don't look after the break!



Now, the real fun comes if rumors end up being true that the "main character" Nikko Bellic, who Game Informer splashed on their cover and has all that exclusive information on, actually dies early in the game (a la Psycho) and the main character is actually his cousin Roman. If true, that's some exclusive information and you can have it for free.