GameFan Head Says The Video Game Industry Is ‘Sad State’. Harumph To You Too.
Diehard GameFan. Best video game magazine of all time. All. Time. It’s still around, barely. It died off, was resurrected, and has toiled around in various forms and names for years. It will never been the beauty it was prior to the Internet killing the video game magazine industry, and head of the enterprise Dave Halverson seems rather disillusioned because of how such things have changed.
If you’re like me, you grew up reading Diehard GameFan. The magazine was as close as we had to a Destructoid back in the 1990’s; independent, opinionated, and more focused on the love of games than getting rich. What a lot of people don’t know is that Gamefan is actually still in print, though finding an issue in the wild requires more luck and perseverance than acquiring a Shiny Ponyta.
GameFan’s Editor in Chief Dave Halverson is rightfully disillusioned over that situation, and he lays the blame partially on the priorities of today’s publishers; particularly their marketing departments. Among other things, he says- “Never has so much money been spent with so little regard. Knowing what it takes to make a great game it kills me to see how they’re treated once they leave the studio. Like these so called “events” that have taken the place of proper objective coverage. Massive parties pilfering 10s of 1000s of dollars from a game’s budget to basically liquor up individuals who, for the most part, could give a rats ass about whatever game happens to be on display–unless it’s one they’re supposed to like.”
As someone who’s been to his fair share of press events, I know what he’s talking about. The amount of money that publishers waste on providing the gaming press with swag, expensive cheeses, and gigantic parties is just ridiculous. Knowing that all that money could have been spent on actually making better video games is painful indeed (but not so painful that I’m going to let that cheese go to waste).
I can appreciate his honey-covered lens when it comes to looking back the gaming days of yore. However I actually like gaming these days. I think it’s been a beast of a generation. Certainly the amount of money spent on frivolity is nauseating, but that doesn’t mean quality titles aren’t coming out.