9 Crippling Problems With The Gaming Industry’s Future

3. Press Embargoes

This is actually slightly related to number five in this list but is beginning to become a big issue for gamers and the press as publishers try to keep information about the big name games under wraps for as long as possible ahead of review. It's a phenomenon which is becoming more and more prevalent as websites, YouTubers and even TV shows are winding up on the strong end of a non-disclosure agreement until a certain date has passed. The reason for this has been speculated time and time again but it largely comes down to pre-orders. Big, blockbuster triple-A games need to make a return on their hefty investment and the first two week's sales are crucial to determining if a game will make a return or not. It used to be that reviews would be printed in games magazines up to two months in advance of a game hitting the shelves and if the review was bad, pre-orders were guaranteed to be affected. Even if the game was mildly disappointing or it hadn't lived up to the hype, people would have cancelled orders and the sale would be lost. Fast forward to the internet age and in attempt to stem this loss of sales, publishers are shackling press with NDAs meaning that reviews cannot be published until the day of release. It happened for Dark Souls 2, it happened for GTAV and it's currently happening to Watch_Dogs and a lot of people are becoming suspicious about it. With reviews not coming out until the day of release, if there is an issue with the game or it receives lower scores than it's marketing campaign would suggest it should get, most people's pre-orders would be paid for and in the post and there's nothing gamers could do about it. It's cynical market manipulation at it's worst and it's becoming more and more prevalent across the gaming industry.