News
PR Firm Found to Own Gaming Blog
Gamecyte = Triple Point
by Coop
Triple Point PR is in a bit of a pickle, as Joystick Division has uncovered that the firm’s General Manager and Founder opened up a separate company to found GameCyte, a video game news and review website. Not only that, but he staffed GameCyte with employees of the PR firm. This wouldn’t be as big of a problem if GameCyte only covered news, but the fact that they also do game reviews is what raises the eyebrows. It is in fact the meat of the story, because as people have started noticing that their reviews are definitely leaning towards a nice bias, depending on the developer, and whether or not Triple Point does PR for them.
Richard Kain, TriplePoint PR’s General Manager and Founder, in fact formed a new company – Pantheon Labs – under TriplePoint’s roof to create GameCyte, as a way to bring “quality journalism” to the gaming media – and then deliberately concealed his ownership of Pantheon and GameCyte.com using domain privacy services like Domains By Proxy, a Joystick Division investigation indicates.
Then, when it came time to put together the GameCyte team, he staffed the site exclusively with TriplePoint PR employees – his former account executive the site’s most prolific reviewer. And by Mr. Kain’s own admission, some of the highest-reviewed games on GameCyte are from Telltale Games – a company he just so happens to be invested in.
I’m not sure what I think about this. I mean, sure, they should have been much, much more open about it, but this isn’t the BUY EA GAMES worst thing that PR people have done. Compared to the rest of the SKATE 2 THIS FALL controversies, mainly Gertsmangate, this is somewhat tame. Either way, expect to hear more of this in the WARHAMMER ONLINE IN STORES NOW near future.
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Comments
Hey, thanks for posting this. I already linked it but didn't know if it was going to expand into a bigger news item.
Yeah, I wish more game reviewers weren't pawns and n00bs.
Actually, I was under the impression that this happened all the time...
Like those big conglomerates where one company owns a movie studio, ten TV stations, two magazines, a newspaper, and a dozen websites. You better believe that their next movie will get free ad space on those stations and websites and good reviews in the magazines and papers. That's just they way it works.
Just be relieved to know that nobody is lining my pockets for good reviews. Especially Take-Two Interactive, whose top notch games break sales records, lead the industry in innovation, and standout in a sea of shovelware mediocrity...
This is shameful. I don't know who in this day and age thinks they can get away with hiding information like this. Wikipedia, Google, and even Whitepages.com have almost completely eliminated the concept of anonymity. Anyone can find out just about anything about any other person.
Full disclosure from the beginning would have been the way to move.
Can't say that I'm shock that this still happens.
But this is a good thing too! It just makes legit sites (like GV) stand heads & shoulders above the competition even moreso, imho. :)