RandomNPC – Video Game RPG Reviews, Editorials, and Features

A few days ago, it came to light that Konami was enforcing certain restrictions on reviewers working on Metal Gear Solid 4. Now, this in and of itself is nothing unusual. Most commonly, gaming companies restrict when the press can release their reviews, and as a matter of professional courtesy, most members of the press abide by these restrictions.

However, the restrictions Konami has been placing on reviewers has been reported as being significantly more stringent than simple time restrictions. According to EGM, which has refused to review the game because of these restrictions, Konami has been demanding that reviewers not mention the game’s install footprint and the length of in game cutscenes. Reviewers who don’t agree to these rules won’t be given a review copy. Given the huge amount of hype and anticipation around MGS4, threatening to revoke a site or magazine’s ability to produce a timely review is a serious threat.

The practice in the gaming industry of browbeating critics who don’t abide by rules given by companies may not be anything genuinely new, but this is a disturbing permutation. Embargo dates and requests to remove spoilers are one thing, and I imagine game companies will always exert some pressure to try for better review scores, but a game company requiring what amounts to a line-item veto on a review is quite another.

Entrenched members of the PlayStation3 camp and obsessive fans of Metal Gear games, as well as proponents of opposing companies, may attempt to spin this one way or another, but in my opinion, the game and what system it was on when and why is completely and utterly irrelevant. The real issue is not the game’s loading times or its footprint, nor is the effect these things may or may not have on the overall quality of the game. The issue is that Konami thinks it can pressure reviewers into not talking about things it doesn’t want in reviews.

Whatever their reasoning for attempting to impose such restrictions on game critics, Konami’s attempt to decide what reviewers can or cannot say in their reviews is unacceptable. I’d like to think that, should the same sort of situation arise with an RPG company, RandomNPC would do much the same as EGM did. Refusing to review the game was exactly the right decision. The idea that game companies have any right to decide what critics can or cannot take into consideration in the course of analyzing a game for review is not only anathema to the process, it deprives the gaming public of information. And in this case, given that the public already knew of MGS4‘s long cutscenes and large install size, Konami’s restrictions aren’t just damaging to the credibility of everyone involved, they’re downright insulting of the intelligence of gamers in general.