February
5
Gears of War 2... Who cares if it has been "announced?"
It's time for the video game industry to get over its obsession with titles being officially "announced."
Let's get real. Barring global catastrophe, there is going to be a "Gears of War 2." I know people who have
seen levels being built for the game. People who work at Microsoft have casually referred to a "Gears" sequel in conversations with me as if it's obvious and not a big deal. But of course we all know it's coming. What are the odds that a multi-million selling action title published by a console manufacturer as an exclusive wouldn't get a sequel? About the same as Mike Gravel sweeping the primary elections today.
Nonetheless, videogame websites and blogs are abuzz today because the latest issue of GamePro teases a "Gears of War 2" story on the cover. "'Gears of War 2' officially confirmed?" is the urgent question in GameSpot's "rumor patrol." Then everyone followed up with "breaking news" follow-ups like this one on GamesIndustry: "Gears of War 2 announcement "complete nonsense.'"
Treating an official announcement as "news" is just another way that the gaming press allows publishers and publicists to control them. Imagine if political reporters refused to say last year that any of the candidates were running until they made their official announcement speech? Or if TV reporters treated it as a big deal when ABC announces that "Grey's Anatomy" will be back next fall. It's ridiculous, so why do we tolerate it in the videogame world?
The working assumption in every story should be that "Gears of War 2" is in the works. It's a fact and should be reported as such. If and when Epic/Microsoft shares details about the game, then sure, that's interesting. And maybe that'll happen as soon as GDC in two weeks. But someone official saying the game is coming, or saying they haven't made any announcements yet, is not news. If game journalists and players want to incentivize publishers to stop treating us like idiots, we should completely ignore the existence or non-existence of an "announcement."
(Oh, and if you're wondering when "Gears 2" will come out, consider this fact: When New Line got the rights to make "Gears of War" movie, producers said they are aiming for a summer 2009 release. Who knows if that will happen given the writers' strike and other development issues, but my guess is they'd love to come out the same year as the game sequel.)
Variety video games reporter and reviews editor Ben Fritz tracks the business of games and their intersection with Hollywood.
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on gears of war it felt like i was doing the same thing over and over again all you do is go on a mission shoot people and then do another and I dont feel freedom in the game ethier even though the souronding area is vast every gamer knows witch path to take.
Posted by: Corey | May 09, 2008 at 03:32 PM
Hey Guys........top news for you people. From a confidential source, I got to know that a Bollywood starrer action - packed game is coming in India this week on the lines of Lara Croft - Angelina Jolie. I will update you with the name of the games and the Female actress in the game in a couple of days to make your weekend more lively and entertaining. By the way, any guesses for the female actresss you would like to see in this game???
Posted by: Rahul Nag | February 18, 2008 at 04:38 AM
The way I look at it, even sure-shot moneymakers that you and I presume upon can get cancelled or postponed indefinitely. I think a minorly iterative Crackdown 2 would be profitable money maker, but it's been shelved since the team got another project and apparently isn't interested in shopping it out.
The important thing to remember here is that when a company makes the announcement and sends out the press release, they are moving to a new level of obligation about that title. It's one thing to can a title that's unannounced and in early development, but it's another thing to kill Juiced and Stuntman. Your financials are going to take a hit in that case. So although market forces push heavily for GoW2, it's nice to get a guarantee of sorts from a publisher.
Posted by: Ben | February 06, 2008 at 09:34 AM
Okay, so talk about the game you know exists.
The press release isn't necessarily news.
Then again I guess we should just assume Duke Nukem Forever os coming. TeamFortress 2 was almost 10 years late. In December 1998, the release was imminent and tournaments and leagues were being planned. Both of these items had press releases back then, and they were worth nothing.
Starcraft: Ghost was announced, cancelled, and may be back.
Journalists should just report what they believe to be fact, based on evidence they gather in investigation. I agree with you that simply treating a press release as news is not worthy of journalism, but then I do not feel the major gaming rags on the Internet are journalistic endeavours anyways. You are free to say "Microsoft did not comment when asked to respond to our report."
Be a journalist.
Posted by: CGomez | February 06, 2008 at 08:14 AM
A decent post with good analysis. I see these days there are many gaming blogs but none of them have any relevant news except for few.Could you please suggest me few relevant gaming blog. Right now I read http://blog.games2win.com/ and find its topic quite relevant.
Posted by: Ashi | February 05, 2008 at 09:32 PM
I see your point, Jeff, but really, if there isn't a single gaming news outlet that readers can trust more than a random rumor on a message board, that speaks very poorly for the state of journalism. In other fields, journalists are capable of reporting things definitively without having a press release. Variety, for instance, reports on movie and TV projects all the time based on talking to sources, regardless of what publicists tell us. There's no reason the same thing shouldn't be going on with video games. I've certainly done that more than a few times with video games I've reported on, and I intend to do so in the future. When I have and when I do, I'll report it as fact, not an " unconfirmed rumor," because as a journalist it's my job to know the difference.
Posted by: Ben Fritz | February 05, 2008 at 04:20 PM
Even you say you're "guessing" at the release date at the end of this post. How is this more newsworthy than an official announcement?
The reason why gamers (and by extension the gaming media) insist on official announcements is because there is so much rumor and innuendo out there about the industry that just turns out to be complete nonsense. The industry being what it is, it's possible for anybody to make up whatever idiocy they want on any internet message board and make it to the front page of a respected "news" site. So nobody believes anything until there's an official announcement.
I also don't know what world you're living in, but the news orgs *didn't* talk about Presidential candidates running last year until they had announced. They asked the "will he or won't he?" question almost endlessly, but nobody talked about "Fred Thompson's campaign" until he actually jumped into the race - officially.
Posted by: Jeff | February 05, 2008 at 11:58 AM