The Game Boy: TF2's Spy and Cooking Mama Walk into a Bar...

Posted 05/27/2009 at 9:29am | by Nathan Grayson

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What drives a perfectly sane person to become a videogame company's public relations manager? I can't quite be sure, but I'm willing to bet that whatever it is, it isn't pretty. The mission that -- again -- they choose to accept seems simple enough: deliver information into the eager hands of journalists and laygamers alike, in hopes of eventually building your game's hype-tower up to stratospheric levels. What's so wrong with that? Well, nothing, actually. But all it takes is one quick slip-up at the intersection between mission intention and mission execution to turn that colossal hype tower back into splinters and dust. Those things, for the uninitiated, do not typically mix well with the copious amounts of blood, sweat, and tears that go into game development.

Thus, toward the end of a game's hype cycle, we see little fiascos like the one well-respected journalist Tom Chick encountered with Sony's latest second-party effort, inFamous. Chick had received an early copy of the game for review purposes, and chose to divide his criticism into two separate lists: one praising the game's pioneering efforts in the field of electrically charged super heroics, and the other (gently) reaming the game for pilfering from the plot of Kids WB cartoon Static Shock, among other things. No review scores were assigned to either of Chick's lists, but his somewhat brutal -- though justified -- honesty was enough to send the PR machine into a tizzy. As a result, Sony canceled an interview between Chick and the game's developers.

The stunning plot twist? Chick reported Sony's little gaffe, as journalists occasionally do, and readers weren't too pleased with the publisher's Indian-giving antics. The site's comment section rang with cries of "Gerstmann-gate," the PR explosion between website GameSpot and publisher Eidos that resulted in the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, one of GameSpot's senior review staff, for assigning Eidos title Kane and Lynch a 6 out of 10 review score.

In the cases of both Sony and Eidos, publishers' fear of a tiny sprinkle of negative press on their longtime-in-coming hype parades caused them to, ironically enough, bring unnecessary negative press pouring down upon their games. And sure, on one hand, it's understandable -- hundreds of people whiled away years of their lives developing those games, putting millions of dollars and more than a few jobs at stake -- but that doesn't mean PR bully tactics and behind-the-curtain shenanigans are necessary. After all, it's better to fall gracefully than to look like a sore loser, right?

That's where recent PR endeavors by Valve and Cooking Mama publisher Majesco enter the picture. First up, you might remember Valve's recent "Meet the Spy" video. (If you don't, and your day is in severe need of brightening, definitely go check it out.) Here's the thing, though: That video, though undeniably a boon for the series it was promoting, was initially leaked. By Valve, no less, through an employee's goof-up on Youtube. And while such a tiny brush with imperfection might not seem like much, in the corporate world, it's enough to send your head rolling.