Australian GamePro Magazine Accused of Taking Bribe?

In an article by www.gwn.com, rumors are spreading that accuse a gaming magazine of accepting an bribe from developer EA to give a rival company's game negative reviews.

According to the article, Australian GamePro's website gave THQ's real-time strategy game Supreme Commander a 5/10 review score and said the game suffered from performance issues.

The on-line review had this to say of the game over-all performance:

This could've been the greatest [real-time strategy game] of all time and maybe down the track after a patch it will be. But due to bizarre performance issues with the final release code, as of writing, the game is virtually unplayable. Truly, this is the saddest moment in the history of the genre.

Website www.gwn.com, which released an article, said that there is little proof if the magazine did accept a bribe. The site also stated that there have been rumors of the website being shut down. Neither rumor has been confirmed nor said if they are related to each other.

The website [www.gwn.com] did take the chance to bring in readers by saying that their review of Supreme Commander is "a fair and honest look."

Australian GamePro, although owned by the same company [International Data Group], should not be confused with GamePro magazine here in the U.S.

According to GamePro.com, the magazine gave the game a 4.5/5 scoring, which is significantly higher than it's sister publication.

Seeing as there is no proof or validation of the bribe, no conclusions can be made of Australian GamePro's review.

All that I can say is thanks for bringing journalism down a peg.

"Paid-journalism" doesn't help news organizations reputation no matter how you look at it.
Instead, these acts null the hard work these organizations shell out while trying to stay honest and credible.

We know everyone would like easy money, but to do it at the cost of your readers trust is disheartening.

Some readers rely on reviews to decide if a game is worth purchasing. To give a game a bought-off review not only hurts that game company's sales but also hurts the news sites integrity.

But I'll stop there. No proof has been given if this happened and we should not pass judgement until everything is revealed.

Overall, it is just one negative review of a game and that should not deter you from purchasing it if you're a fan. Remember, only take other's opinions with a grain of salt.

-R

*http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/11566/GamePro_Review_Score_Bribery_Scandal.html
*http://www.gamepro.com.au/index.php/id;1088855173;fp;2;fpid;36
*http://www.idg.com/www/idgproducts.nsf/typeform?readform&type=publication
*Image courtesy of http://defeatpoverty.com/uploaded_images/bribery-793475.jpg