A Peek Behind the Curtain
You may not have noticed as yet, or you may have if you’ve scoured the contents, but this issue of PC Powerplay, the last issue of the magazine for 2016, is missing something. We don’t have a review of one of the biggest, and most spoken about games of the year, and it’s not through lack of trying. Here’s a peek behind the curtain of what goes into making a magazine and some of the frustrations inherent to the job.
From the outset of planning for this issue, we had plans to run three big reviews to cap off the year, with Dishonored 2, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and Watch Dogs 2 taking up the bulk of space in the reviews section. Only two of those games made it in. Infinite Warfare was a no-show and honestly I’m not sure why. We were sent a PS4 copy of the game after requesting a PC copy, but after that, all contact stopped. Despite multiple emails to different Activision staff members, as well as multiple emails to the PR firm contracted to work on the title, not a single response was forthcoming. Nada. My inbox is an Activision ghost town.
I have had run-ins with this publisher in the past, being blacklisted a couple of times for reviews that weren’t glowing or scores deemed too low. Maybe that has happened again. I don’t know. I can only assume that’s the case. There are rumours going around that the game has sold much worse than expected, and that both critical reception and sales in Australia have been especially poor. That could account for not wanting to send us a copy for review, especially given that we’ve been quite harsh on a number of CoD games in the past. What it doesn’t explain is why nobody is talking. If I wasn’t already in their bad books, I probably will be now. Oh well.
Anyway, all that aside welcome to the last issue of the year. I think it’s quite a cracker and a fine way to cap off the year. Have a good Christmas, play lots of games, and we’ll see you in the New Year. Keep an eye out for the PC Powerplay Tech Handbook on sale in January. It’s full of guides and features I think you’ll like.
Daniel Wilks Outcast @drwilkenstein