Transparency

Do you know what’s great about being involved in a videogames publication like No Added Sugar? Apart from getting the opportunity to say what we like about videogames, the industry, and everything surrounding it, we also get the opportunity to get free review copies, paid trips, interviews with developers, and other perks. And if a small site like us are getting these opportunities, then you can be assured that the bigger ones get far more. The reason why publishers have public relations budgets is because they get results; and the reason why they dole out trips and review copies is because they feel it makes a difference to their bottom line. No Added Sugar places a lot of store in maintaining our independence and credibility- and if we don’t have that, then we don’t have anything. So, whilst we do accept review copies and partake of the occasional fully-funded press trip, we never commit to actually writing anything for anybody- and certainly never commit to producing puff pieces or ‘complementary copy’ just to satisfy an external interest.

And what’s more, we believe that readers should know if we were provided with free review copies or perks. Naturally, we don’t think we’re influenced by games companies but we feel that you, the reader, should be the judge- not us. With this in mind, we are committed to disclosing all of this information within our articles, marked out in the following way:

Megabucks Inc. provided us with a review copy of this game, and we swear we haven’t been extra nice about the game in return.

We’d love to see other publications follow suit and inform their readers when they’ve accepted gifts. In the meantime, you’ve got us.