Ender’s Games

Over the past week or so, a news story has been making the rounds in the gaming sphere concerning a certain gaming magazine (Electronic Gaming Monthly, or EGM) and their withheld review of one of the biggest games of the year, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. For the uninformed, the Metal Gear Solid series is a highly revered action-stealth gaming tabernacle that has served as one of the exclusive reasons to own the Playstation 2 and, soon, the PS3. Metal Gear began back on the original Nintendo, but really hit it’s stride on the PS2, with Metal Gear Solid. MGS2 and MGS3 followed, and both were incredibly popular. Personally, I only enjoyed the first one, but I do have some anticipation for the 4th installment, due out for the PS3 on June 12th.

Back to the story at hand. Apparently, the makers of MGS4 (Konami) imposed restrictions on game reviewing magazines and websites; these restrictions are rumored to cover such topics as the required initial install to the PS3 hard drive of almost 5 GB, as well as the total length of cutscenes in the game (which supposedly constitute almost half of the game’s content). EGM was offended by these restrictions, and decided it was time to take action. Well, actually their action was to not take action. EGM decided that, in lieu of a limited MGS4, they will conduct a “roundtable discussion” in print of the game. (That’ll show ‘em, EGM! /sarcasm off) Here is a quote from EGM concerning this debacle:

“Metal Gear Solid 4 will hit store shelves shortly after this issue of EGM lands in your hot little hands. And four EGM editors — Matt Leone, Jeremy Parish, Andrew Pfister, and Shane Bettenhausen — have already invested plenty of time in the game. So why don’t we have a full review in this issue? Simply put: We weren’t happy with the limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments, and rather than publish compromised reviews in the interest of being the first to rate the game, we’d rather wait until next issue, where we can be completely open and thorough with our thoughts. In the meantime, our MGS4 vets sat down for an informal chat about the game (and remember — [once the limitations are lifted] you can find the full review on 1UP.com!).”

It seems that the purposeful withholding of MGS4’s review only extends to the issue due out during the game’s release. The following month, you’ll still get a normal MGS4 review. I gotta ask: what’s the big deal?

I know writers feel very passionately about their freedom of speech, and don’t take lightly to being told that they cannot discuss or write about certain aspects of a game. Here’s my problem, though: EGM accepted review copies of the game from Konami free of charge, and of course played the crap out of them. It’s obvious that these review copies came bundled with the understanding that they intended for reviewing uses, and the review was to be limited in what it could and could not divulge. EGM happily received these games, and then decided they didn’t like the terms that were placed on the whole deal, so they withhold a review.

While EGM is spinning this ordeal to make themselves look holy and righteously indignant, I think their integrity is at question here. If they really felt so strongly about their side of this story, then would it not be the right move to send the review copies back unplayed? EGM, you still played these free games, and then didn’t hold up your end of the bargain. I think you are actually being dishonest in your spin on this. You can stand on the soapbox all day long, pontificating about the rights of writers and publications, but in the end, the bottom line is that you shirked your responsibility to Konami because you didn’t like what they required of you.

It’s easy to want to rally behind EGM, because it seems like they are “sticking it to The Man”, giving the big game publishers what they deserve for their money-grubbing ways. In reality, though, EGM is as guilty of money-grubbing, and of glory-whoring, because they publicized this situation to gain credibility and fandom when it probably should have stayed a private issue between EGM and Konami. I see through your smoke and your mirrors, Dan Hsu, and I am disappointed.

Readers, I’d love to hear your input on this story in the comments section!