this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2025
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“For quality games media, I continue to believe that the best form of stability is dedicated reader bases to remove reliance on funds, and a hybrid of direct reader funding and advertisements. If people want to keep reading quality content from full time professionals, they need to support it or lose it. That’s never been more critical than now.”

The games media outlets that have survived, except for Gamespot and IGN, have just about all switched to this model. It seems to be the only way it survives.

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[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 days ago (11 children)

But weren't game reviews essentially ads paid by the publisher? Because that's what it looks like from the outside, since the reviews are increasingly poor quality that largely focus on positives and ignore negatives. Some games that completely flopped due to technical issues got glowing reviews by journalists, probably because they were paid handsomely for that review.

I think game journalists should avoid advertisements as much as possible because once they rely on it, the temptation to allow their content to be colored by whatever attracts advertisers is too much. They should be solely focused on attracting readers, which means they need to be reader supported.

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (7 children)

In America, they are legally required to disclose paid reviews. If the company pays for the review they legally must disclose it

If you receive free products or other perks with the expectation that you’ll promote or discuss the advertiser’s products in your blog, the FTC Act applies to you.

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking#ftcactapply

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Is that actually enforced? If so, what's the explanation for reviewers giving suspiciously high reviews to AAA games?

[–] Daxelman@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

As someone who's done this before, let me tell you it'd be much easier for Toby Fox to pay me to give Undertale a good review than it would for Ubisoft to pay me to give Rayman a good review.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Are you talking from a regulatory standpoint or from an "I like indies so I'd give it a pass" standpoint?

[–] Daxelman@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 days ago

I'm talking about how easy it is to deal with a singular party than a developer/publisher duo and their rotating marketing and engagement departments.

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