There are a number of popular sayings for my present state of despair: between a rock and a hard place; cannot do right for doing wrong; ‘twixt the devil and the deep blue sea etc.
The cause of my distress is video games.
We all know about the gradual demise of the video game; or to be more politically and commercially correct, the readjustment of the amusement market. We have all noted it and written about it regularly over the past few years.
So a distinguished distributor wants to go on the record with comments to the effect that, in Middle East family entertainment centres, the video game now only commands about five per cent of income. He calls for more investment, more urgency, more razzamatazz from the developers. He wants to ginger up their act. He wants to go on the record and summons confirmation of the state of the video games market from major operators in the region who enthusiastically supply it.
Uncomfortable at the severity of the charge, I attempt to ameliorate its impact with some cushioning, but there’s only so much you can do.
Inevitably, there was criticism. A notable and well respected (and friend of mine) in the video games manufacturing business (no doubt alerted to our editorial piece on our website by one of our competitors!) complained to our sales manager. The implication is clear: their already wafer-thin advertising budget is teetering on the brink.
Hence my problem; hence the rock and hard place/right from wrong.
The contracted impact of video games on the bottom line is well known and recognised throughout the industry. It is just that we musn’t say so.
I am between commercial expediency and the risk of sacrificing my journalistic ethics on the altar of advertising. Lofty ideals often go out of the window – I am enough of a realist for that.
But what does the industry want us to do? Perhaps the business needs to sit down and decide whether it wants a trade press at all (don’t all shout “no!”)? If it does want a trade press, then what kind of trade press does it want? One that tries to inject some life and comment into its pages without being totally irresponsible, or one that simply slavishly reprints press releases?
I know which I prefer but it may end up as our epitaph!
