We mentioned this earlier today as Borderlands 2 was officially unveiled, but it’s perhaps worth further discussion in a slightly wider context. Basically, Gearbox head Randy Pitchford called out Eurogamer’s Borderlands 2 scoop (which the rest of the web quickly picked up on) in a public Tweet.
“I have long maintained that we will do more with Borderlands,” he said. “Shoddy journalism is not an announcement.” It’s clear what he’s referring to – EG’s “Borderlands 2 confirmed – source” article in which Wesley Yin-Poole posted that the site had heard from a source “close to the game” that a second Borderlands game was to be announced soon.
As it happens, that announcement was today, via US magazine Game Informer, who (we assume) have the exclusive.
It’s an odd situation, though. Eurogamer – we presume – weren’t privy to any NDA or pre-arranged agreement and so picking up on gossip and getting the news out there is hardly “shoddy journalism”. It’s an interesting reflection on the direction some commenters feel the games industry is heading: sites like Eurogamer aren’t simple PR mouthpieces and shouldn’t be – why would they hold back when there’s no real reason to?
Of course, this isn’t the first time the site has been the subject of a bit of a backlash, with them being allegedly ‘blacklisted’ by Take-Two, as mentioned by the editor of the respected UK-based outlet. But can Pitchford, who was also involved in Duke Nukem, be justifiably annoyed at the leak? Well, yes.
But – and it’s a big but – it was a) only a single day early and b) hardly an unexpected announcement, as Pitchford himself alludes in his tweet.
Sure, it would have been one hell of a surprise if Game Informer had just hit everyone with the reveal today without any expectation or anticipation, but it was still impactful and – besides – the game got another day’s free press anyway. Being annoyed is one thing, but calling the report ‘shoddy’ is, in my humble opinion, another.
Have Game Informer been negatively affected by the leak? No, it’ll probably sell more copies as a result of all the press. Has the game? No – if anything it’s attracted more attention, and once the rest of the press get their hands on it then perhaps we’ll know even more.
You can read more about this situation over at Ars Technica, where Ben Kuchera sums up the whole thing rather well. “If you get a scoop about a game before an exclusive reveal at another publication, you’re going to be called out for ‘shoddy journalism’,” he said. “Having a story before you’re allowed to have it makes you a target.”
Of course, there’s always the argument that asks if reviewers can call a game shoddy, can developers say the same about the people that review those games? That’s probably a whole new blog…
Update: Pitchford has since tweeted again about the story.
cc_star
I hate the fact that publishers expect gaming sites to serve as an extension of their PR machine.
Sites exist for their visitors & members and not to be in the pocket of the companies whose products they report on.
Uhyve
Hell, it just gives me more respect for Eurogamer, they don’t seem to give a crap whether or not they piss off publishers, which is interesting, since they really do rely on them, not just for early access to games but for advertising revenue. It’s always nice to see that SOME games sites can’t been bought…
*cough*GAMESPOT*cough*
jbni
Having worked as a journalist for years, this has always been the case, especially with politicians: they love you when you’re doing their PR and call it ‘shoddy journalism’ when you begin to question them.
We just laughed at the comments.
Hoopiness
Sounds like good journalism to me. It’s hardly shoddy when he comes out the next day and confirms their original scoop. Sounds more like he’s upset they did get the scoop…someone’s burst his baw and he’s taking it home in a huff. Diddums.
Lord_Gremlin
Exactly. But you know, nowadays it’s easy to determine a good videogame site – the one that gives shitty game from big company a shitty score it deserves.
Deathbrin
So, so true.
BIGAL-1992
I’d only reserve calling a journalism piece shoddy, if the piece was badly misguided or was clearly biased in the subject. I’d say Eurogamer only posted the story, as they presumed it was from the rumour-mill, which is always in full-swing even in the most quiet of times.
colossalblue
EG got the story from a source “close to the game” apparently. Most likely a Gearbox employee leaking info. It wasn’t a rumour, although sometimes outlets pretend it is just to avoid getting their sources in trouble… but then we get in trouble for posting rumours ;)
The facts are: EG sourced the story, trusted that source and published it. That’s a scoop. Randy said it was shoddy journalism and then less than 24 hours later, confirmed that it was, in fact, very good journalism. If I was Eurogamer, I’d be demanding a public apology.
jbni
Absolutely spot on. If journalists weren’t allowed to use sources to get scoops Watergate would never have happened.
colmshan1990
Wouldn’t Eurogamer contact Gearbox before running the story anyway?
I know you guys contact devs for comment often enough- the famous Sony line of ‘we do not comment on rumours or speculation’ is possibly the most repeated sentence on this site!
Anyway, if they did contact Gearbox, why didn’t they say to wait a day or whatever?
colossalblue
I don’t believe EG did contact Gearbox’s PR dept. before publishing. Their source is supposedly “close to the game” though, implying that they are within Gearbox and are leaking information.
No reason why EG should contact Gearbox PR, either, just to be met with “No comment” followed by a probable “and we’d rather you didn’t publish that”. They got a story through a source they trusted and they ran it. Simple.
teflon
EG didn’t in this case, but quoted some previous statements. What would Gearbox have said about it anyway? “Fair cop, you got us!”
Not a chance, it’d have been a flat out denial or a no comment, and EG would have run the story regardless, with that denial/no comment much more likely to ADD to the belief that EG were right on this.
Rocket_345
Because telling them to wait is practically announcing it. It wouldn’t do anything different to Eurogamer if they had reported it today or not at all.
BLAGGER
Have the TSA considered phone hacking? I hear that’s fashionable ;)
moshi
That’s so last month now.
nemesisND1derboy
Firstly, nice piece Alex :)
Secondly, I can see why Eurogamer ran it, they’re a site and they want hits, fair enough, but as a /gamer/, it kind of took the wind out of it for me.
I liked the first game, really enjoyed it on co-op, so I wanted a sequel, naturally. Unfortunately, that excitement was kind of knocked out of me by a leak. Call me crazy, but I prefer the unexpected announcement for a game I should be excited for, something we don’t get in the industry anymore. Nobody can keep their mouths shut.
Now I like to know new stuff is incoming, but the Starhawk announcement and even, to an extent, the Vita announcement weren’t as awesome as they could have been.
We all remember when Gabe Newell appeared at Sony’s E3 conference a couple of years ago. Now that was an awesome surprise. Final fantasy XIV’s announcement? Awesome. Even the Vita pricing had everyone stunned, for different reasons maybe, but it was a nice surprise.
Their is feck all of that anymore, to be honest, and it saddens me as a gamer. It’s great as someone who writes for a website, more clicks and readers, but as a gamer. I just hate leaks.
You can see why Pitchford is annoyed, I would be too. If my game that I had been working on in relative secrecy had been inadvertently announced before my big announcement, I would be devastated. Whether it’s part f the marketing train or not, it’s his creative piece. He would have wanted something awesome for its unveiling, not to have it leaked on a website by, presumably, one of his own employees. That would suck.
One thing’s for sure, this certainly won’t improve EG’s standing at Gearbox…
nemesisND1derboy
*There is feck all, derp.
Kovacs
I see where you’re coming from but sone quick points.
1) Regardless of the fact that there was a leak, Randy’s comment was uncalled for.
2) Gearbox have hinted at BL2 a *lot* (it’s hardly much of a surprise)
3) BL sold 4 million (see point 2)
4) The leak merely stated the game existed. No details of the game were released (GI have all the stuff about new classes etc.) More free press, on other words.
5) It may suck for Pitchford but EG (who obviously love hits) are in the business of breaking news. Would you expect EG not to publish this for fear of pissing off a publisher? Should gaming sites fear publishers? That’s not a rhetorical question by the way.
nemesisND1derboy
I see where you’re coming from too…
1) Agreed, but I can see why he made it. It’s not nice and was uncalled for, but he was clearly an angry man and you can see why.
2+3) Yeah I know what you mean, but hints are hints and not really confirmation. The fact that this announcement could, realistically, have come out of the blue would have been great as a fan. There haven’t been much rumors recently, so it would have been more surprising than most.
4) Aye, the press is good for them, but from the point of view of a fan, I would have preferred to have all the details in the announcement, not a vague-ish *our sources confirm” thing. Again, it’s my inner gamer wanting details and screens etc. when I hear about it.
5) No, I’m not saying that at all, just merely musing that they won’t be in good favor with them. At the end of the day, like you said, they are in the business of breaking news, hat’s their job. Although it may have been netter for their PR with Gearbox if they held back, but it’s their job not to. And in no way should a site be in fear of a publisher, not saying that at all :)
Really, like I said, I;m coming from the point of view of the selfish fan who wants to be wowed by announcements like I have been before. There just isn’t enough of that anymore. I like a nice surprise.
skibadee
I can see how it would be annoying it is there game which they had a date ready to tell the world someone leaked it.
nofi
I’m not saying Pitchford shouldn’t be annoyed, Nem, I’m saying he shouldn’t call EG’s piece ‘shoddy journalism’. It’s working with leaks and moles that outed all this NotW hacking initially… It’s how ‘proper’ journalism works.
If you don’t want leaks, stick to GamesPress… ;)
KeRaSh
I’m a huge Borderlands fan myself but I’m not bothered by the leak since it was clear for a long time that Borderlands 2 was “a no-brainer” (Gearbox quote) due to it’s commercial success. So a simple announcement that the game will come doesn’t bother me, no matter who announces it. Give me facts, screenshots, gameplay and you can spark my interest.
bunimomike
I’m with Phill on a couple of points. I wish this alleged insatiable appetite for titbits would just go away. I really do want the wonderful surprises where people aren’t doing to the digital equivalent of going through the bins to see what they can find.
However, regarding Randy Pitchford… he’s just annoyed at what’s happened and he really should be looking to blame the person who broke the NDA. Simple as that.
If an employee loses their job over breaking an NDA I can guarantee you other employees would behave a lot more. Equally, if a gaming website carried out some sort of illegal activity then they deserved to be sued for it.
Kovacs
Reading Pitcgord’s latest tweets, it sounds like an NDA was broken. He explicitly states that a journalist was trusted and that trust was broken.
If that is the case and EG just decided to post about Borderlands 2 despite Gearbox sharing information with them and insisting they sign an NDA, that actually is shoddy journalism.
I guess it comes down to whom you believe. The site who say they have a trusted source, or the publisher who claim there is no source and an NDA was broken.
KeRaSh
I think the NDA was for the inside tipster who probably works for Gearbox. Could be possible, right?
anthro
I don’t really understand why the announcement of a game garners so much importance anyway, really. I personally like hearing about games being ‘in development’, but I don’t see the need for the “impact” of a formal announcement.
I assume that Pitchford is unhappy because the impact has been lessened, but I doubt that this will reduce game sales – in my experience, as long as a game is publicised, it will sell copies to people who want to play it regardless of the form that the announcement takes.
nofi
Jim Sterling’s got it bang on, really, IMO: http://www.gamefront.com/borderlands-2-and-shoddy-journalism/
hazelam
i totally agree.
just because there’s a deal with one publication, and i assume there was some financial incentive involved in that exclusivity, and they ignored everybody else, they can’t attack others when they post information about your unannounced game when they’re under no obligation to wait.
if they had been taken into the fold so to speak and they’d agreed to any embargo or nda, then it would be shoddy journalism, but they didn’t so it seems like pitchford is once again throwing his toys out the pram because the media isn’t doing what he wants.
well if he wants a games site that only says what he wants, then he should set one up.
jbni
Jim’s article is superb.
Starman
The fact they revealed nothing more than the game exists makes pitchfords reaction pretty over the top. Maybe they were worried the magazine with the detailed exclusive (which i presume they paid for?) would have felt there exclusive was already gone. Whats next a exclusive that they’ll be a new fifa, CoD & madden next year?!