This is a personal blog and the opinions below do not necessarily reflect those of TheSixthAxis.
Yesterday, whilst scouting the internet for gaming news, I saw that a couple of sites had reported that Official Playstation Magazine UK had the world’s first review for Call of Duty: Black Ops. I had a quick read through the news items and as expected the game had scored very highly – but OPSM seemed to have changed their scoring system this issue as the game was rated as five stars, not an out-of-ten score.
I had been expecting someone to bag the ‘exclusive’ first review of the game and it made sense it would be a high profile publication like OPSM. They are a well respected magazine with strong ties to all publishers.
Now this is may come as a bit of a shock to you all but I do have some morals and I decided if I were to quote OPSM magazine in a TSA news item about their review I really should buy a copy of the magazine rather than just take the quotes from another gaming site. A quick stroll to Sainsbury’s and there’s the magazine on the shelf, the cover featuring the Black Ops guy sitting down with “EXCLUSIVE VERDICT!” in nice big red letters on the front. I dutifully pay my £5.99, throw the useless Blu-ray in the bin and sit down for quick read.
At this point I make a schoolboy error and one that we regularly discuss on TSA – I ignored the text and looked straight at the score, or in this case, scores as OPSM have rated the game on three separate aspects: Technical, Online and Campaign. I am confused and flip to another review and it has the usual OPSM out-of-ten score. I guess they decided that as Black Ops is the biggest game of the year they decided to give it a special scoring system. Fair enough, but lunchtime is over and I have to do some work so the magazine gets jammed in a jacket pocket and I think nothing more of it.
Later that evening I decided to read the magazine properly whilst waiting for dinner to cook. The Black-Ops feature confuses me. It’s laid out differently to a review and has gushing quotes from the games designers and those three separate scores are just odd for a…
Wait.
Backtrack. What did I just read in the top left hand corner of the page.. Feature? FEATURE?! This is a Black-Ops FEATURE and not a review? Why the hell has it got scores? Why is written like a review? Why the hell does the front of the magazine have ‘EXCLUSIVE VERDICT’ on the front?
Then it clicks.
Black-Ops is still embargoed and OPSM have not got an exclusive review, at least not in this issue. They have a preview with scores. They’ve put it on the front of the magazine and boasted about their ‘Exclusive Verdict’ to boost their sales and coax the unwitting public – including me – into buying their magazine.
What is really galling is that in the latest OPSM podcast in which they discuss this very issue they have the nerve to discuss and condemn websites that go “hit whoring” by posting sensational headlines. Pot, meet Kettle.
I feel betrayed by OPSM, a magazine that I have read and trusted for many years. Well done chaps, I will not be buying your magazine ever again and Firstplay can take a running jump too.
I’m sure you are going to claim the writing was never meant to be a review but if it’s got feathers and quacks, it’s a duck. Official Playstation Magazine has Black Ops on the cover, the words “Exclusve verdict” emblazoned on the cover of the magazine and scores for the game.
Quack.
As I mentioned earlier many sites had made exactly the same mistake as myself and read the OPSM feature as a world exclusive review. Activision PR have now contacted these sites and informed them “that the content from Official PlayStation Magazine UK in question was not a review but an extended preview ‘verdict'” and asked them to change any headlines to reflect this.
Dan Lee
I really am surprised. It’s not often I have £6 to spend on a mag, but when I do it’s always been OPSM.
YOURMUMANDME
It’s like the PS3 version of Ok Magazine, apparently (ask my missus), a fabricated version of the truth.
@Tuffcub, don’t throw away the Blu-Ray demos, they make perfect frisbee’s to practice at Sports Champions…
online4ntagonist
Haha, great find. Ironically, TSA is probably one of the reasons they have to pull this kind of fraud to sell any magazines at all! :D
big-nathan22
I was a subscriber of OPSM up until they tried to renew my subscription without telling me. This was the last magazine I received from them. I think the ‘Blacks Ops guy’ is just one of their writers dressed up.
Tuffcub
It is the official packshot but with a new face. Go figure.
stueeeee
I saw this in Tesco and I actually meant to pick it up as I saw the ‘exclusive verdict does it rate against MW2’ and thought well it is OFFICIAL Playstaion magazine, it makes sense they’ll have the first review. Even tho no xbox magazine in sight had a review advertised for it. Lucky PS readers……
Lucky me for not wasting me £5.99!!
AshGraham99
I happened to be in whsmiths about 5 minutes before I came on here. Luckily someone had opened 1 so I had a flick through. Went to the reviews section and it wasn’t there so I knew something was wrong. I’ve bought the magazine a couple of times over the last few months but safe to say I won’t be giving them my £6 for a while now
Dar-Kaus
I used to buy OPSM in the years before I read TSA, nowadays I really don’t see the point in spending £6 on a mag that has news and reviews that are weeks out of date from what can be found on most game websites, similary the Blu Ray has demos that have been available for free weeks or even months via PSN. I understand not everyone has their PS3 connected to the net, but really the disc content is often full of some of the worst demos available. With what you would spend in a year on this mag you could have bought 2 games with.
ToastEggsBacon
Sounds like abit of a stunt alright, but I’ve gotta say, I don’t really know why suhc outrage has been exclusively reserved for OPSM. Similar tactics are used by the media every single day, and just like the media, people should be weary of who they listen to. I don’t read newspaper’s like the Daily Mail for a reason. By a similar token, I don’t read or buy magazines such as OPSM (or ANY official magazine) for similar reasons.
Please don’t tell me anybody actually buys or reads an OFFICIAL magazine (think hard about what that actually means in this context..) for a balanced, reasoned or constructive view on the gaming industry?
OPSM are a respected magazine only in as much as that they’re well known, well enough supported and funded enough BY THE INDUSTRY enough to have their name in the public domain. From a journalistic stand point, there’s no real reason why they’re any more or less respectable than third party publications or websites.
If they want to pull cheap tricks like this then leave them to it. Nobody forces anybody to spend £5.99 (how much?!?) on a magazine for the sake of a review or “verdict”, just like nobody forces an ignorant t*sser to buy the Daily Mail based on a ridiculous headline.
Tuffcub
AS I said over the many years I have always found the OPSM reviews fair and reasonable and they dont pull any punches – for example this issue has a preview for Homefront that is less than complimentary. Why they decided to leave their morals at the door for this feature is beyond me.
Kevling
A pound sign, a digit, and a lot of zeroes?
Tuffcub
You know what, I really hope not. I’m hoping its some senior management decision way above Tim & Co’s heads who decided on this ‘scored feature’.
Grey_Ghost13
Could it have been a decision they didn’t want to do and somebody else put the scores on. I haven’t read it. But would it ahve made more sense as a preview without the scoring?
Sympozium
That’s awful I don’t even get that mag anymore and is lying the best thing to do to interest me?
Ryan1991
How big are your jacket pockets?!
Tuffcub
Thank you for concentrating on the important facts. In answer to your question I have a big, black, leatehr biker jacket. I am 6’5″ and I only just fit through doorways when wearing the jacket. It has very big pockets as it is a very big jacket to go on a very big person.
Ryan1991
I always try my best to concentrate on the important facts :)