Yes, Jez is here, he’s a good friend of the staff here. The site is still young and hopefully we can get eyes from bigger outlets here, that will come in time.
My point in making the point with Microsoft is that the narrative has already changed in regards to it in media that I have seen and it’s based on how they have been approaching this next generation. And also, they change their narratives before, I gave the PC example, but they changed the power example with One X. Now they are trying to change the 1st party narrative. These things take time and it is ultimately up to the business to convince people moreso than us speaking out. We can affect things sure, but those outlets will look at the market and the business.
We also have to understand that media, aren’t hive minds either. Some people think that reviews are biased. It is usually how a specific Reviewer feels about a game. It’s really a difficult thing to figure out. Everyone is human and without bias so… Lol.
Take for example if it were Microsoft were the ones locking down 3rd party exclusive instead of Sony? How do you think the majority of the gaming community would respond - including gaming journalists? Let’s say for example Microsoft acquired WB studios with licenses exclusive to the Xbox brand only? Or even if Minecraft were pulled from Sony’s console? Would the general gaming public applaud Microsoft for being pro consumer, or, would they be burned at the stake for screwing gamers out of major first party games and placing them on Gamepass exclusively?
Let’s just keep it 100%. We all know how the overwhelming majority of the gaming community would respond.
Now compare the aforementioned to the response, if say, it were Sony or Nintendo. That is what I refer to as media bias. The Internet would turn ablaze and Microsoft would be the reason for it. Just my two cents…
I’ve been a part of the gaming community for long enough to know better. Its as predictable as the rising sun.
You can look at things Sony did this gen that barely got any Media flak as further examples of this
*Denying EA Access for years
*Lack of mod support
*Shutting MP servers down very quickly
*Dumping their indie initiative after around 2016
*PS Pro being less powerful than the X ( the media shifted focus away from power as soon as Sony had the less powerful console)
*Denying Cross play for years
*PSN security issues, (Seems everyone already forgot about the PSN data leak disaster)
The media handled these issues with Sony with Kid gloves or just ignored them altogether. The Xbox division never gets that kind of benefit of the doubt from the media. They get raked over the coals for each and every indiscretion in the division.
Now we have media types like Jason S swooping in to defend the honor of the PS5 after the Cerny talk revealed it would be much less powerful then the Series X. Gaming media never does that type of damage control for Xbox.
That was embarassing. Funny that he claims to have sources telling him that, but he got everything wrong about Xbox. He doesn’t seem to have contacts on the MS side of things. That would explain the lopsidedness of his coverage. The people feeding him info are Sony people or 3rd party with some deal with Sony.
Saying "media bias doesn’t exist " is so disingenuous. Especially when you have more than one game journalist who have come on Twitter and flat out said, "they don’t strive to be objective ".
Fact is most of these people grew up with Playstation and do in fact have a preference for it, others latch onto what’s popular for hits. Frankly these so called "respected journalists " shouldn’t be feeding into console wars, but thing’s like credibility seem to mean very little to them.
While a discussion about media bias in game journalism is perfectly acceptable - and interesting - please walk that line between genuine conversation and being mad that your favourite corporation isn’t given a fair shake.
They go where the clicks are…more folks use Playstation. Hence, they will cater to that audience more often than not.
Doesn’t mean there’s a bias, it’s business. .
[/quote] So you mean just cause there's lower fan base on one side platform tht site with million followers who also does journalism has the Right to ridiculed and laughed at other platform....Smh.
Jason Schreier himself admitted that it was “fun and easy” to make fun of Microsoft on his Twitter account a while back. He’s also admitted to being intentionally subjective when it comes to reporting.
He seems to be incredibly petty and vengeful from everything I’ve seen from him on various places. I even remember seeing that both Cory Barlog and Neil Druckmann got into it with him on Twitter recently.
I mean, I don’t know Jez, I think we can agree Xbox has been walking in the edge since XOne reveal, any Xbox questionable move is subject to no a precedent nitpicking, all the doom and gloom article galore and everything good is put on the trash can. For example, scoring preview games, like Ign and GameSpot did with Grounded, why they want to put a mark in game that will evolve with time? To be clear I’m not against reviewing it, but giving it a score now is nothing, but a attempt to bash the game, to cut the hype, because it is Xbox I believe.
Yeah, journalists are humans, but humans can be jerks and with professionalism comes responsability, something that a lot of journalist don’t know what it is. A exemple of a jerk is Jason Schreider. Not matter how influent he can be or not, the guy doesn’t like Xbox and use his position to devaluate the brand in every opportunity.
I’m not generalizing, there is good journalism and WC is an example of it, but I think we can’t close our eyes to the bias against Xbox, because it is real and yourself already acknowledged that in your twitter.
Media bias against Xbox it’s real, I won’t post the link here, but the latest example is from IGN twitter account, go there and you’ll will see a very toxic Gif based on Ghost of Tsushima with Xbox and PS logos.
No, it’s not disingenuous. It’s the truth. Bringing up a handful of journalists who aren’t objective doesn’t prove media bias exists. Media bias is when the entire outlet leans more favourably towards one platform regardless of circumstances. That just doesn’t happen with multiplatform outlets like IGN, GameSpot etc. These same outlets were consistently negative about the PS3 last gen (rightfully so), was that media bias? No, it wasn’t. Xbox hasn’t had a great generation so obviously there would more negative news, similar to the PS3. However, Xbox has been praised when it’s warranted such as with Gamepass, the accessibility controller, backwards compatibility and great releases like Forza Horizon, Ori and Cuphead. PS4 has also been heavily criticised when they deserved it such as their initial stance on crossplay, their timed exclusivity deals, their comments on backwards compatibility etc.
Making the claim that most journalists grew up with PlayStation is a bit silly. You really have no way to tell what most of them grew up with. Plenty could have grown up with Nintendo, Xbox, Sega or even PC. Nintendo certainly seems to be very popular among journalists. Age really isn’t a determining factor in what someone grew up with. For example, I grew up with consoles that are older than me.
As for preferences, there’s nothing wrong with having one, everyone does. It wouldn’t be surprising if most preferred platforms other than Xbox. I’m sorry to say but Xbox just generally isn’t as popular as PlayStation or Nintendo when it comes to consoles so naturally there will be more journalists who prefer other platforms. Having a preference doesn’t equal media bias.
It pretty much sums up this ridiculous topic of “media bias”. People only bring it up because they’re too emotionally attached to their favourite console, as the OP proved when he took this meme as ridiculing Xbox fans, and have this weird idea that it’s being picked on unfairly when it never really is. People just can’t handle their console isn’t being praised as much as others, but journalists are under no obligation to praise each platforms equally. That doesn’t mean it’s media bias, it’s just the reality of how things go. Xbox had a bad gen, they were fighting an uphill battle from the disastrous reveal event and it’s taken an entire generation to recover, some people just need to accept that, it doesn’t mean you didn’t this gen. Things are looking much brighter next gen and I guarantee there will be no complaints of media bias when Gamepass is constantly praised, multiplat performance is praised, and eventually their new 1st party games are praised.
But the press don’t automatically favour the highest selling TV make or coffee machine though do they? This is the bit I find a bit dubious. Whilst one can understand that sites go with where their audience is this is almost entirely the opposite of enthusiast media across other forms of tech. For example, often the highest selling TVs are derided by the media. The most popular coffee machine system, Nespresso, is continually mocked and ridiculed in mainstream media and enthusiast media. List goes on. Yet in the console space we are supposedly having to accept that the console that sells more will be given preferential treatment because that’s the way the press works?
Because it’s something consumers have to pay for so they deserve to know what they’re paying for. They’ve been reviewing early access games for a while, and that includes multiplats.