Sony France blacklists the french webzine Gamekult after the zine released Heavy Rain test.
The redactor Poischich who gave a 6/10 to Heavy Rain commented the news on twitter : "Sony is taking distance with the webzine".
We also learn that Sony France asked to a redactor from JeuVideo.Com to modify his review for Heavy rain.
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“I thoroughly enjoy retro-style games and with that, Magic Orbz modernises the classic brick breaking formula and it has held up beautifully.” - A.J. Maciejewski from Video Chums.
BLG writes, "Some of the most popular games have had a rough start, with some of them being downright unplayable.
Despite that, developers have managed to turn it around for them and make their game worth playing. Here are some games that had a rough start but were pretty great."
Sea of Thieves... I'm not disagreeing that the game has improved in terms of content. But I feel that the most significant change between now and its release is actually the public perception. Nowadays, most people are aware that the game is a multiplayer PvP-focused experience first and foremost, and not "Black Flag made by Rare". Consequently, people dismissing the whole experience because the single-player aspect is lacking or the story is plain are much less common.
Days gone! By the end of the game I couldn't drop it down! I went around so many hours killing zombies! It was addictive by the end.
"We also learn that Sony France asked to a redactor from JeuVideo.Com to modify his review for Heavy rain."
They expect to change every Heavy Rain review they don't like? Nobody objected when they gave Mass Effect 2 a 7
Hmmm... I guess you can't have an opinion.
these id!0ts from gamekult are not gamers.
me2 a 7?
heavy rain a 6?
only stvpid people are running that site.
Gamekult and JeuVideo didnt play the full game.
I HEARD that 2012 is the end of days.
For people not being much conscious of the situation, I'll sum up (I used to work for French biggest professional website).
Usually, publishers like Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, THQ, etc... send review copies (or codes for downloadable games) of their games to professional websites so they can write their reviews upon it. For smallest publishers and games, websites must buy the games themselves if they want to review it.
But review copies are usually sent for free, so publishers expect websites to soften their opinion, which explains why games like Fallout 3, Ass' Creed or GTA IV have been critically acclaimed disregard their flaws. Gamekult is the second biggest French professional website and they are known to be hard with their reviews but totally unbiased (if you understand French, you should listen to their podcasts, they're awesome).
And Heavy Rain received a 6/10 mostly because it's boring, there are too much QTEs and some animations are too much rigid. Sony reacted like they did with Kotaku, blacklisting Gamekult, which means they potentially will no longer receive games published by Sony for free, unless both parts find an agreement (re-reviewing the game or changing its score for example).
In USA, a similar case happened with Kane & Lynch, where Gamestop editor Jeff Gerstmann have been fired for having given a low score to the game. I doubt Poischich (the Gamekult editor who wrote the Heavy Rain review) will be fired as well as being hard but fair is a real motto at Gamekult. Yet, partnerships with Sony may be in trouble in a near future for GK, as much for review copies of games as advertising revenues.