Squid of Man

So today, I visit The Australian's IT section, and I see something that I was fully expecting, but hadn't expected to see so soon.

The PS3 hype machine is already rolling into top gear.

I'm not talking about advertisements or demo booths or anything like that. No, i'm talking about something far more sinister. It might be journalistic ignorance (perhaps), or it might be the pulling power of Sony's PR people (more likely), but the gaming section of The Australian today ran a lead story titled, "PS3 tipped to take next-gen crown".

It's source? Japanese games magazine publisher Enterbrain President, Hirokazu Hamamura. I don't find the man's opinion alarming - in fact, he makes some valid points, comparing the PS3's projected slow start to a similar mountain the PS2 overcame against the Dreamcast. It's the paper's decision to focus solely on his opinion I find distasteful.

There's an analyst report released approximately every four seconds claiming some mystic, arcane knowledge of who will emerge victorious from gaming's battle royale. So why the fuck did The Australian post this one? Did that article win a ballot, an electronic chook raffle held between analyst predictions, the winner of which was published? What could possibly have compelled the writers to pluck one of what must literally be hundreds of credible, serious predictions and publish it as though it was newsworthy?

Ignorance or Money. It's either one or the other. And either way, it means if you want credible coverage of the games industry in Australia, you'd best stay the fuck away from The Australian.