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this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2024
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Valve gives you access to a game and tells you not to spew your mouth off. A gentleman's agreement if you will.
You spew your mouth off and valve takes access away.
shocked pikachu face
This is a non-issue of you ask me. A person, who happens to be a writer, got access to the game through a steam friend and was asked not to talk about it but thought they could just not agree to a warning and write about it anyway? I got access too and i didnt write about the game. I get to go back and play it today, they cant.
So what. They already have their article and it will be out anyways within like two years latest probably. The value of talking about deadlock is much higher and valve profits from this advertising as well.
The so what is that this writer for the verge will likely never be trusted with NDA type pre-release access for any other games going forward, and this may even impact all of the Verge.
This isn't just a one and done kind of issue, this will be seen by the entire industry as a "can't trust that guy with pre-release access"
The Verge isn't pulling the article and they are currently backing their journo. The whole site is blacklisted at this point.
They didn't get an NDA.
Sure they don't have any trust from the industry anymore.
It doesn't have to be a legal document for there to be consequences.
The rest of the industry uses embargo agreements with mutual consent if they have private information. This doesn't change anything for other game companies, unless they also want to do private-but-not-private beta tests.
Sure, and they proved that they won't respect valves wishes unless legally required to do so. Valve is now in a position where if they want to do future play tests they will have to manage NDAs for everyone which is probably more trouble than it's worth. The general population is now less likely to get an opportunity like this because the verge wanted to get some easy clicks. It's pathetic of them to sell us out like this.
Except this is a game industry reputation ruined. It isn't just valve, why would any dev ever give the verge access again knowing that they will not only disrespect your requests but bitch and moan if you hold them to it.
It's a full rep killer. They will never have early access again for any company.
That's not how this works. The Verge didn't break an NDA or embargo because they didn't get either of those things. Valve allows random people to invite other random people to play, with just a "pretty please don't talk about this game" warning. There was already people talking about it online and leaked footage.
They didn't break any laws, they broke trust. Random people can leak all they want, they don't have institutional standing and respect. If what you said was true then it'd be pretty weird that every other institutional news, even gaming focused ones, have honored that request. Because doing otherwise is a dick move that kills your reputation, and the gaming industry is legendary for blacklisting for far less disrespectful moves. Downright petty with it.
even if it doesn't, they lose consumer respect as well, I personally won't engage verge anymore because as someone who wants to go into the development trade, it puts a bad taste of any platform to blatantly disrespect a creators wishes like that.
If Valve wants to be shitty about it, that's within their right (unless they want to sue, which would be difficult to defend in court without a written legal agreement). It is also true that other outlets are free to do handshake agreements to not cover the game. The Verge didn't break any rules, and Valve already maintains a minimal relationship with the press, so not talking to The Verge probably wouldn't change anything.
I see you subscribe to the moral theory of "I didn't click okay, I hit escape".
Oh you have access? You got any spare referals? Asking for a friend with the friend code 998621885
I'm sort of confused about why Valve even care that much. Surely they know that "leaks" are the best way to build hype for a game.
Although Valve are making a game again, so I'm not sure how much hype they really need.
Closed playtests are usually with very in-development builds. People post the barely functioning game to social media and the game gets bad press. Release day rolls around and no one buys it because "that was that one game that looked bad a while ago"
This seems like a stupid train of thought but a lot of people think like this
Others have pointed out the concerns around negative reviews of things still subject to change, but the other aspect is just the relations with media.
I'm sure tons of journalists have been playing. And probably even working on content covering the game, but not publishing it yet. Once valve is ready for coverage they'll have polished content ready. And valve can control the timing so that coverage happens right when they want the hype like maybe a few days before an open beta.
By covering it early you encourage other journalists to do the same, rushing out low quality content to get the views before others do. And for valve to not let any journalists see the game early to avoid this.
The biggest thing would be that a game under playtest is likely to undergo drastic balance changes and potentially even changes to core gameplay, a review of a game in that early of a state would likely not reflect the finished product, and is unlikely to be updated or taken down when the game is released, this possibly poisoning public opinion with content that doesn't reflect the actual game.