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Resistance: Burning Skies: The Kotaku Review Games for Windows: The Official Magazine (formerly known as Computer Gaming World) has announced that the publication is pulling from the printed market to be hosted at 1UP.com. Games for Windows itself only made it through 17 issues before ceasing traditional publication.
1Up Networks today unveiled the super-secret list of speakers for their upcoming 11th Annual Electronic Gaming Summit which includes headline Dr. Oren Harai. Yeah, I’ve never heard of him either.
Harai, author of ‘Break from the Pack: How to Compete in a Copycat Economy, will be joined by a slew of other industry folks and journalists. Yes, game journalists:
Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Nintendo of America, Inc Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft Peter Moore, president of EA Sport Michael Pachter, managing director, research, Wedbush Morgan Securities Jason Holtman, director of business development, Valve Software N’Gai Croal, Newsweek Daniel Sieberg, CBS News Geoff Keighley, Spike TV Brian Crecente, Kotaku.com.
Hey! I know that last guy! I sure hope everyone knows to not say anything around him, I hear he’s a blogger.
Simon Cox, Vice President of Content for the 1UP network, writes in his official 1UP blog that parent company Ziff Davis filing for bankruptcy isn’t all gloom and doom. It’s not like the staff of 1UP and EGM are going to be working out of refrigerator boxes when and living off government cheese. Business is, well, business as usual and bankruptcy can be a positive thing. How’s that again, Mr. Cox?
The publisher of EGM, Games for Windows: The Official Magazine and 1UP.com has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Manhattan court today, in an attempt to restructure its sizable, long-term debt. Ziff Davis has, according to Bloomberg’s report, filed papers indicating it has somewhere between $US 500 million and $US 1 billion in debt, with previous reports pegging the debt at around $US 400 million.
So, yes, the 1UP team (including EGM and Games for Windows) have ditched the 1-10 review scale. Whew, good! As we previously posted, in their place will be a school-like grading system, with titles ranked between A+ and F. The changes will take place during March on 1UP, in the April issue of EGM and the April/May issue of GFW. So if an “A+” is a “10″, what is a “B” or a “B-” on 1UP’s previous scale? Says 1UP Network editorial director Dan Hsu: We’re not publiciding the conversion scale because we want our readers to go with our new scoring system and not be constantly translating the new letters back to our old scores. We also don’t want our reviewers to be thinking about how they translate. It’s just easier for us to have everyone move forward and accept the new ratings. But most people can figure it out. Our old “average” in the 5 range roughly translates to the C letter grades (with plusses and minuses), for example.
Smart of them not to make a conversion table. What would the point of switching over be then? Shoe Interview [Level Up]
Scoring games using numbers? Sucks. It’s a total mess. So it’s probably with great pleasure that the 1UP team (including EGM and Games For Windows) have today announced that they’re done with numbers. For good. In their place will be a school-like grading system, with titles ranked between A+ and F. The changes will take place during March on 1UP, in the April issue of EGM and the April/May issue of GFW. Best part? 1UP will be trawling through their reviews archives and updating the scores for every game they’ve ever reviewed, replacing the numerical value with a letter. 1UP’s newly-promoted Editor-in-Chief, James Mielke, says: …it’ll more accurately convey how we feel about a game. I mean, we knew a 5 out of 10 meant ‘average’ to us, but no one else seemed to get the clue. So we’re changing things around so that anyone who’s gone to school will instantly know how we feel when they see our letter grade on a game review.
Smart move! Well done lads. Editor-in-Chief? E tu, Milky? [1UP]
1UP are running a little ditty on Wii Fit, and how it’s already sold a whole lotta units in Japan. But that’s not the interesting part. No, that comes towards the end of the article, where they pen: Wii Fit is expected to be one of the year’s biggest sellers both in Japan and abroad. North Americans can expect to see the game on May 20th… by which time presumably they’ll have that ‘plus-sized’ Western balance board properly stress tested and ready for use.
May 20th, hmm? Of all the things we previously knew about Wii Fit, a North American release date was not one of them. Could be a mistake, but in case it’s not, thanks for the (accidental?) heads-up! Wii Fit Sells 1 Million in 1 Month [1UP]
Everyone’s been buzzing this weekend about the Gamespot shakeup involving Jeff Gerstmann and there’s been plenty of talk flying around in various places. Gamasutra, for instance, has a good editorial up entitled Numerals, Game Reviews, And The Game Media on some of the problems with the review structure in the gaming industry; Destructoid has a brand new look to let us know exactly what they think of Gamespot; people are planning a boycott of Gamespot and other CNet sites; our very own Crecente posed a question to all the reviewers out there: Have you been forced to rewrite a review due to advertising pressure? We’ve been inundated with examples of bad journalism, bad bosses, and big, bad, mean companies. And of course Mark Wilson wrote his own take on the problem with game reviews.
There are a couple of themes from all of this, both the personal accounts that have wound up in our inbox and the wider discussion as a whole: this is nothing new and the ramifications are a little further reaching than a single reviewer, game company, or site.
In the growing wake of the controversy surrounding GameSpot’s alleged firing of editorial director Jeff Gerstmann comes a little bit of surprising solidarity.
A bunch of Ziff Davis staffers (including 1Up) made a banner to show their support for fellow game reviewers and marched it the two blocks to the GameSpot building on Friday. The banner, and impromptu march, shows that despite being competition, what may have happened at GameSpot could have wide-spread implications in the game publication industry.
We’re also told that the Kane & Lynch user reviews on Gamespot have been, at least temporarily, disabled and there are rumours that people are cancelling their Gamespot accounts “en masse”.
I’m not sure how Gamespot is going to deal with all of this since I’m pretty sure they’re not legally able to talk about why Gerstmann is no longer there. I’d assume that at some point Gerstmann might talk, but I’d guess right now he’s trying to figure out what to do in the way of a job.
What about you? Do you work as a game reviewer? Have you been forced to rewrite a review due to advertising pressure? Feel free to email us at tips if you have or to editor. Remember, you can remain anonymous.
The 1Up Show [Flickr]
From the folks at 1Up comes this clip of SSBB featuring a battle between Link and the newly announced Sonic. The fight takes place on the StarFox level so we get to see some nice wormhole action as well as getting an explanation form the narrator about some of the weaponry and special moves. It’s looking really good, it’s just a shame that we are going to have to endure another four months of teases like this before the actual game comes out. Let’s all just hold hands and pray it doesn’t get pushed back again. Just don’t finger my palm or I’ll punch you.
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