Everywhere I go I see the same h... uh, screenshot.

I subscribe to too many videogame magazines.

That is not meant to be me bragging at all. As a matter of fact I would say that spending the money I spend on Edge and Games alone is a bit ridiculous, and when you add in Play and Nintendo Power which I really only ever give a cursory glance then you really get game magazine overkill.

Add onto these another three mags (Official Xbox, Playstation, Game Informer) and you can imagine that I read a lot of articles each month on the same games over and over again. While that the point of subscribing to that many magazines is seeing the different approaches different writers take when talking about the same game, what I notice even more than the differences in writing is also the first thing you notice when you turn to a page in any magazine- the pictures.

What I have noticed, and is becoming more of a problem in recent times than I remember it ever being before, is that each magazine seems to be using the same 5 or so screenshots that every other magazine is using.

Take this picture from IGN.com Here it is on 1up.com as well.

While this is a great screenshot that does an absolutely perfect job portraying to the viewer that they will be playing through the Predators eyes and be able to make minced meat out of Colonial Marines, after about three times seeing it in different magazines it has really started to lose its impact, for me at least.

Who is to blame for this then? Well, I would not really blame the magazine writers and editors. Unless they had some means of obtaining different screenshots other than just the stock ones the publishers and PR provide and refused to then they are free of guilt. As a matter of fact this is simply the best available screenshot which gets the idea of Aliens vs. Predator out in one solitary image.

Really the people to blame for this are the PR and publishing representatives who do not take the time to get together a variety of images to send out to different sites.

While there are too many available sites to do this for all outlets, I think getting specific screenshot galleries together for the top 20 videogame media outlets is more than just a possibility, it is a must to keep the interest of today's over-stimulated and informed videogame audience.

While most gamers are probably not going to be as voracious a videogame magazine reader as myself, there is a good possibility that they will subscribe to, or at least read, more than one videogame magazine a month. In many ways spending all the time and money hosting videogame writers for sessions of game play can be totally nullified if the writers and artists creating the magazines we love to read do not have all the tools they need to make their article stand out next to the hundreds of other possible stories about games in development.

So EA, Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and anyone else working hard to develop and publish games that gamers will buy on day one- Maybe just take a little bit more time to get together more than just one sceenshot of your game to show before you announce it.

Battlefield Bad Company- I am looking directly at YOU!

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Aaron Thomas

July 22, 2009

Yeah, the problem for the websites is that they don't get their hands on the game to take their own screens until right before it's released. Even then the publisher often has rules about what you can and can't take, and even when it can be posted. I have more of a problem with the screens being BS and not really showing gameplay than I do all the sites having them.

Frank Anderson

I just don't understand why publishers would not want to put out as many images of their work as possible. Maybe I have no idea how much work goes into making a screenshot, but it seems like people are really neglecting the most visible aspect of PR before a game come out.
Wouldn't having a ton of images out there for the different sites to choose from be a good thing?

Toby Davis

When a press release is sent out the pr people normally send it ou to every one and they all get the same picture to use.

Keith Schloemer

I totally agree with this point. I know that some of the pr peoples blast out the same photos to many, many people, but that's just LAZY.

I mean, how difficult is it for the pr knucklehead(s) to send split up four or five distinct, unique screens to four or five known competitors?? The more great shots I see, and the more intrigued I become.

I don't buy any argument against this. If this is a game worth my spending dollars, there should be a multitude of great shots available, and no one screen should be better than the others.

That is their job, after all.

I think what writers and PR people need to think about is if it is better to have a similar story and image layout across a ton of sites, or to have fewer stories but more original takes on these stories.
One of the biggest offenders that I am seeing right now is write-ups of the Halo 3 ODST demo. They all literally go through the same demo experience and just write what they saw with very little personality in the piece at all.
It really is a shame.
Of course I can't say too much because other than my personal commentary most of the articles on my site are ripped off from other sites (with magnitudes of references and links of course).
Screenshots are just the most visible ways videogame coverage is become too homogeneous.

On occasion they will give different screens to different outlets, but yeah, it's pretty rare. The problem is, they want those screens to be seen by as many people as possible. If you send 4 to IGN, 4 to GameSpot, and 4 to 1up, most people are only going to see those screens at the one website they go to. Sure, some blogs will show all 12, but that defeats the point of sending out 4 unique screens, doesn't it?

Jon Porter

I think you're underestimating how difficult taking screenshots of a work in progress game really is. I would totally link you to the story mentioned in this article, which talks about how hard the process actually is.
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8737848&publicUserId;=5443146

But I can't find it anywhere on the Insomniac site unfortunatly.

Man, I wish we could dig up that article... I freaking love Insomniac!
I am open to the idea that it can be hard to capture screens, but you would also think that would be a pretty big priority for PR. Of course that might be overestimating videogame PR, whom I suspect have more than a small sum of contempt for the products they are representing.

July 27, 2009

I'm on Frank's side. I am not saying it is not difficult putting together screen shots showing amazing visuals of a still somewhat broken product. I do get that a screenshot is not nearly as simple as point-n-shoot print-screen magic.

My job is not easy either, but somehow I manage. That's all I am asking of these PR guys. The good ones could mean the difference between creating increasing word-of-mouth and interest leveling off in so-so land.

I would be interested in seeing that article. I am sure it is interesting, challenging stuff.

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