Wow, dick move!

I think I’m no longer going to support XSEED. It was nice while it lasted, but if you’re going to be like this, blacklisting journalists that try to put their own bit of work to solve the issue of ethics in gaming journalism, then goodbye, you will not be missed by me.

This is really a shame man. It doesn’t make sense for this to happen for no discernible reason.

If this is the company you’re talking about, it does appear that they’re working on things behind the scenes somehow:

http://onepr-management.com/#/id/i8351936

Still, that sucks man. I hope this is a rare instance and not the beginning of something else. You and your team do solid work.

That is not very nice of them.
Then again, I’m willing to wait for the good stuff.

Well once you guys make it big then just think about all the copies they’ll be wanting to send. You can just remind them of this. Still though, that sucks to hear and if anything, it’s a bit confusing as to why the ‘PR’ agency black listed you so suddenly instead of trying to talk it out. I mean, what several times your requests have been flat out ignored only for this to be the outcome, Something stinks here.

That just makes no sense. Why would they do that to a gaming news site that’s specifically meant for niche games like the ones XSEED puts out? It seems like a bullet in the foot they don’t need, so to be honest, it’s more likely that something’s fishy right now with One PR regarding Niche Gamer and they chose to blacklist Niche Gamer for whatever reason. I know you said it’s not #GamerGate-related, but I can’t think of anything else it could be, not unless some people at One PR has a thing against other people on Niche Gamer.

“I want us to eventually be able to purchase every game that we review,
to remove any lingering concerns of ethics with receiving free review
copies”
I think this is a bit much. There’s nothing wrong with review copies as long as it’s disclosed. It means you get the games early to review them and the audience isn’t left waiting for you to play a full-length game after it’s released and everybody else has put out reviews and videos.

This assumes that such complaints aren’t routed to OnePR as well (which the article seems to imply happens).

Still, it’s worth a shot.

They wwebsite ere on the internet, etc etc and so forth.

http://www.oneprstudio.com/contact.html

OnePR’s contact for anyone wishing to put in a word.

This doesn’t make sense. No sane company, PR or Otherwise, BLACKLISTS another company they’ve had a sterling relationship with…and while they say it’s not #GamerGate related…I can’t help but think it is in some fashion.

But then, taking into account Koei-Tecmo is given the OK to deal with you…yet XSEED isnt? I dunno, that just smells off to me.

And why wasnt the XSEED contact allowed to discuss what’s going on with this? If it’s a OnePR issue, then wouldn’t that alleviate them the burden of whether they can say anything on it? Did XSEED change any key positions on their staff recently..?

I dunno, I’m getting real bad vibes around this…something is up and it ain’t good.

So, correct me if I’m mistaking something here but in your correspondence with them was there any mention of GamerGate from either yourself or the P.R. agency?

I would like to know as I feel it would help flesh out the story that’s playing out here a little better. It would also help with the research I’ve been doing trying to keep track of this whole scandal.

PR companies I tell ya, they’re full of it.

Possibly, but…

[email protected]

I’ve e-mailed them at that address before and the person that responded seemed to be part of the XSEED team directly. Still, even if it IS directly routed through One PR, it’s good that they learn the customers of the people they’re representing are unhappy, right?

On the one hand, I follow XSEED everywhere. They have my undying love. It’s not such a huge blow, since I’m eager to see their news. But on the other I guess this means no cute interviews and such on my favorite gaymen website.

Yeah this is really weird. I hope it gets sorted out, at least for a proper answer and not this vague ass BS that only serves to hurt their public image. Blacklisting your own die hard fans? That’s low.

(also fuck disqus pls get something better)

Instead of OnePR, contact XSEED (or contact both).

>Not GamerGate related

Yeah, wait, I’m gonna listen and believe that, sure that’s not the reason

Your reviews and support for the series were convincing me to buy Senran Kagura games, but after this I’m not so sure anymore. It’s not necessarily the dev’s fault, but if they continue to work with this One PR then I’ll know whether or not they need my business.

you guys are one of the few places i go for gaming news since i washed my hands of those socjus sites. if xseed dosnt want to to give you the news i guess that means they dont want me to be informed and/or care about their games

Completely baffling.

I guess it’s not XSeed’s fault. I’m still going to buy the new Senran Kagura game. Blame the shitty PR company.

It seems so strange, since I don’t think Senran Kagura would get much press anywhere else.

Gotta be honest – I don;t really buy XSEED games (nothing against ’em, just don’t make the types of game I fancy), but surely they rely on sites like this one for good word of mouth? It’s “niche” gamer, after all. Won’t sales decrease a little? And a PR company – not the actual dev – can call this shot? Suspicious…

I tweeted them. May also send an email as well.

“Please do not attempt to communicate
with anyone from XSEED Games directly for PR matters, as we serve as
their agency of record for all media relations.”

Wow, eat shit One PR. That could not have sounded any more totalitarian if they tried.

XSEED clearly knows about this since NG said they tried asking one of their employees who was acting dodgy about it. That means they knew something but weren’t allowed to say jack.

No I totally agree with you. Having games early is what gives us more exposure, and gives you guys, the fans, the advantage to come to our site as we’ll have the first word. Ultimately I want to always think of you, the fans and gamers, with any decision I make with the site.

I dunno what will come of this, but we will get other games before release as other PR folk and or PR firms see the value in our burgeoning audience.

Contact both, Xseed especially, onePR might just have one bad apple doing this. Either way, contact both.

Now, this is only my personal speculation but i think that that decision could be related to the fact that your site covers alot of ecchi/hentai and other _niche_ games. Those PR guys must have decided that they do not want to be accociated with the “dark side of the gaming undergound”. They probably want to get coverage only on the “serious and respected” portals like kotaku.

You may think that such a thought process coming from the managers of the company working with the ecchi titles like Senran Kagura is absurd and impossible, but belive me from my personal expirience – this is quite possible. Corporate managers thought process becomes very strange and twisted, as soon as there is a bit of eros involved.

Also – do not apologise for the review copies. Only a complite moron would blame a journalist for getting a free copy. This is your right as a journalist to recive them, otherwice how the hell we will get coverage on the freshly backed games?

That’s a bad move, One PR and XSEED. These guys shill their asses off for you (with ethics intact might i add) and you go and stab them in the back? have you not a single properly working brain cell in your collective bodies?

…God people can be stupid when it comes to business decisions.

XSEED is a very small company AFAIK, it doesn’t a board of corporate suits ruling over it to make stupid decisions like that.

This. As consumers (Consumers of both XSEED and Niche Gamer’s content), there is nobody better suited to try and fix this scenario than us. Request info from XSEED. Express your desire to see this decision reversed. Don’t just throw the chips in yet.

Please don’t do that! XSEED may not be behind this! Even if they are, for now we should just be trying to find out why this has happened. We should take the time to email XSEED looking for answers and expressing our desire to see this fixed. Politely contact XSEED to show that we support them and Niche Gamer working together!

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @XSEEDGames

Damnit I’m so dissapointed in that PR guy.

> blacklisting the best video game site on the Web
This is some shenanigans.

C’mon now, can you really go without playing Senran Kagura? I know I can’t.

Don’t worry, Brandon, we got this. We’ll ask them to set the record straight to us, their actual fans, and revert this.

I could understand blacklisting you if your site was, to use current buzzwords, “toxic” like, I don’t know, Gawker, but all you do is celebrate gaming culture and provide great coverage to games that usually get the short end of the stick on the old guard of gaming media. Not only that, but your site is especially focused on exactly the kind of games XSEED localizes.

I smell foul play from their SanFran based PR.

XSeed gets blasted by press for “Trap.”
XSeed PRrs up.
PR blocks the only site on the web that caters to the people that didn’t give a shit about that.

This would be hilarious if it wasn’t so sad.

I’m glad you posted this Brandon. Even if it burns bridges, it has to be said.

Now, as someone who has reviewed XSEED games here, and will undoubtedly do so in the future, I won’t let my disappointment in them color any opinions I have about their games.

Shame though. I always thought XSEED were cool folks. We even stuck up for them in the “Trap” controversy.

Well that’s super lame. I’m not gonna stop buying Xseed games or anything (They’re pretty much the anti-NISA in my eyes, and that’s not just about how they handle localizations. They actually bring over stuff I’m interested in and don’t ruin it in the process) but I do hope they (or their PR guys, I’m not 100% sure what’s going on here) change their mind/get this sorted out.

“They probably want to get coverage only on the “serious and respected” portals like kotaku.”

I know you put that in quotations for a reason but still, that’s rich.

Can XSEED intervene on this? Like, can we email them, too, apart from One PR?

This is just really unfair, and while I don’t want to think this is issue is colored by GG, stranger things have happened in the warp.

We got your back guys, you’re one of my few gaming sites, and thats not gonna stop now. Love U guys, keep doing your thing. <3

Techraptor also covers eroge and they still get keys from XSEED.

Disappointing…

One less customer if Xseed doesn’t do something also don’t fall under the pressure and don’t stop writing about about AO games or anything you want.

I’ve sent an email to Xseed, I am prepared to adjust future purchasing decisions if this isn’t adequately addressed.

Huh. This seems odd.

Im not sure if beginning a boycott is a smart move, until Xseed is given a chance to perform their rebuttal. Im pissed off too simply on the principal of blacklisting, however there’s not enough information to really go on.

Email sent. Also let them know I intend to hold off on any purchase until this matter is clarified.

I agree with Fenrir007 you need to let the devs know too, cause eventually the devs will have to speak to MARVELOUS. For some reason Im under the impression that as a publisher, MARVELOUS wont take bad PR well.

This sucks peeps. We hope this goes well for you all.

~Attack On Gaming team.

Man this is fucked up.

Well you don’t need to make sense to be dicks I suppose.

To anybody who is advocating for a boycott or discussing about starting a boycott on Xseed games, I ask that you think things thru rationally. Like most of you Im upset about this turn of events as much as the rest of you. However as things stand right now there just isn’t enough information to go on at this time. I strongly advice that we follow Sanic’s example and focus on contacting and tweeting Xseed for answers:

[email protected] -Asking if they are aware of why Niche Gamer is blocked from receiving press releases and if they’ll continue to use One PR considering Niche Gamer is one of the few that gives games like the senran series a fair chance (maybe mention there’s 2 articles on the series right now

[email protected] – Same as prAxseed above

I do not recommend or encourage anyone from contacting OnePR as it should be clear from Brandon’s example that these people mean business and could care less for our opinion. We should prioritize and focus our efforts on Xseed as we are ultimately there customers and they will have a greater interest in what we think or have to say.

I sympathize with you guys for being blacklisted, but you’re doing more than just presenting the facts. Hell, you don’t even know why you’re blacklisted. Judging by the comments, people are already villainizing XSEED and the PR company for it. Is that what you were hoping for? I would guess not, but that’s how the internet works. Good journalism doesn’t mean posting everything that goes through your head. Some things, no matter how unjust, are better left unsaid.

I would hardly say XSEED is being made out to be a villain. Yeah, there are a few people letting their emotions get out of check, but many people here are mostly questioning the motives at play with this PR firm. It’s a confusing situation that is difficult for any side to handle.

For all the people freaking out and immediately suggesting and “XSEED BOYCOTT!” there are many more people advocating polite inquiries into the whole ordeal. Many of us are trying to show XSEED that Niche Gamer belongs on their mailing list.

Niche Gamer is a site we’ve come to love. The staff does a lot of work on our behalf. For how many articles they pump out compared to how many people are on staff, I’d say they’re working their asses off. They need our help now. I don’t see this article as an attempt to incite or misrepresent anyone. I think NG has displayed all the facts they know and are just making us aware of the situation. As Brandon said, XSEED comprises a large portion of their news. It’s not a poor assumption that many readers come here for XSEED related news. Rather than let this go quietly, we’ve been informed that as it stands, there will be no more XSEED news on NG. It’s us, the NG fans that have taken it upon ourselves to find out what is happening and what we can do to fix it.

We need to help NG maintain a healthy, respectful relationship with XSEED.

Unfortunately, we’re unsure of who exactly made the decision. All we can do is be polite and ask what’s up. Hopefully XSEED or One PR will have details soon.

I haven’t acted on any of it, I sent an email but if I don’t receive any type of reply and simply get shrugged off I am prepared to make the best possible decisions for myself that I feel comfortable with. I haven’t started any boycott and certainly not advocating for anyone to join me. If they pretend this never happened and just carry on I will certainly be more inclined to not purchase future titles. If they address my concerns in the email I will probably be content. If you are worried about seeing commentary that falls into something you don’t want to hear maybe an internet comment section isn’t for you.

I disagree, while its true that it isn’t business smart for Brandon and company to publicize this, the fact remains that only public pressure will get Xseed to even comment on this. Plus it doesn’t bode well for their future as a publisher if they are partnered with a bad PR company that is distancing them from their audience.

Xseed is one of my fav companies, this is quite shocking.

The frirst thing you should do is to find out the truth, and you don’t do that by screaming like a madmen over people.

Reach out first. Ask politely. Based on the answer, you choose how to act.

Every user has the right to individually e-mail them with their concerns. If they don’t wanna answer them all, they can simply send a copy-pasted e-mail to everyone pointing them towards an official statement made on the issue.

That’s purely an assumption, no? XSEED seems like a pretty cool company, and I have a hard time buying that they’d ignore it because there wasn’t enough public pressure. As far as I’m concerned, adding the public pressure this early on isn’t a smart move because it shows the staff here doesn’t trust XSEED to correct whatever has gone wrong without making it known to the internet first. I stand by the fact that it’s unprofessional.

my reaction to this is the crying anime picture up top

Really sad how things turned out. Really weird considering you’re the only site where I’ve seen coverage about most XSEED games. I hope things will be resolved soon.

I don’t buy into the thought that the consumer needs to tiptoe around the person who wants the consumer’s money. If a lot of people email XSEED/One PR, I think that is the consumer showing genuine interest in their product.

if they get angry from a ton of polite emails expressing concern about their product, then they would have some very dire issues in need of addressing.

I guess XSEED wasn’t satisfied with the ridiculous boycotting of Akiba’s Trip and wanted to try their own hand at alienating fans and consumers.

Maybe you’re right. I really can’t tell. The “damage” is done though and the consumers have the right to show concern over the issue.

We know XSEED is neutral on the GG thing so I doubt it’s to do with them anyway.

I’m sure most xseed audience don’t care or didn’t boycott and if someone didn’t buy the game that because they didn’t want the game in first place also we don’t know the sales number for the game and we can’t know if the game successful or not unless Xseed makes a statement about it.

We need to hear Xseed’s part of the story before we judge. The have a good worker called Tom and he is anti-censorship and let’s hope that he will comment soon to stop all this drama.

This is bizarre. XSeed can ill afford to cut off sites that provide the crucial coverage they need to niche markets.

And not even telling you the reason? Pathetically unprofessional.

This is completely unacceptable behavior. Just when I thought I had found a permanent home for my niche title news coverage, too.

I’m sending them an email right now. I’ll definitely stay on NicheGamer for the forseeable future, it just hurts to see one of my favorite sites being blacklisted from covering titles from one of my favorite publishers.

I’d like to politely disagree Niche Gamer. Blacklisting is a Gamergate matter. Whether anyone likes it or not.

One PR is San Fran based and it’s founder has “causes she cares about” as “Civil Rights and Social Action” on her linkedin. Haha.

This is weird. The only reason for blackilisting is writing bad reviews about games from the publisher, especially when they expect lot of money from them. (while knowing they’re basically not very good)
Xseed has always been good, their CM’s even replay on twitter, etc… Not really nice hearing that

It must be an issue specifically with XSEED, either a mistake that nobody notices and they’re assuming its legit, or somebody somewhere has a problem with something Niche Gamer said or did. I can’t imagine what though. As for the XSEED contact, One PR probably advised them not to discuss it, whatever it is.

I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t somebody on the inside who’s against #Ggamergate or something, except XSEED is one of the companies who’s games are being blasted for “ruining the industry”.

I don’t know what, but something’s fishy.

Game companies don’t like people asking questions… even more when it is hard to answear those.

Well… but that’s nothing compared to how they hate when people point out things they are doing wrong.

(banned from Marvelous Europe)

Yes, XSEED is very much at fault, here.

Please stop pretending otherwise, to nourish your fanboyism.

“If you want to boycott certain games based purely on the company behind it, so be it.”

You must be fucking joking.

What better reason to boycott a game *is* there, than to get at the developer behind it?

That says a lot, right there. SJW cunt.

I just sent an email as well. I like this site. I hope it can keep as wide and up to date coverage as possible on all the games we enjoy.

If anyone should be blacklisted by Xseed it’s the ‘tards at kotaku – they have done nothing but shit on the Senran Kagura series. Meanwhile, NG does nothing but praise it. What gives?

I’m totally late to the part here, but you can always sign up with GamesPress.com and still gain access to XSEED’s press releases. Not ideal, but it’s better than being late to the party.

This is exactly what I was afraid would happen. Did you even read the article? XSEED has nothing to do with this, there’s a middleman involved in the communication between Niche Gamer and XSEED called One PR, and they’re the ones who blacklisted Niche Gamer for reasons unknown. One PR MAY be the dicks, or maybe they had a legitimate reason for doing so, but at this point in time, no one knows what’s going on, so let’s refrain from jumping to conclusions, kay?

Once again, it’s not XSEED. With the information we have, it’s their PR company that did the blacklisting. Please read carefully before jumping to conclusions.

Please don’t blame Xseed. I’m sure it’s not their fault. They just don’t seem to be the sort to do something like this. We just have to wait and see what they say.

This PR company job supposed help the company improve relations not screw over XSeed.They are paying you money to do your job so do this is terrible PR.

Ridiculous of XSeeD of all people to blacklist Nichegamer,they’re a fucking company which makes niche games

You do realize XSEED isn’t a company that develops games, right? They localize. People boycott games for all sorts of reasons. You may not like the content, in which case you’re trying to send a message to the developer. You may not like that the localization company censored things. The translation may be half-assed. And so on. Generalizing all those reasons as “to get at the developer behind it” is deceiving because you’re ignoring the *why”, as in what the developer did in the first place.

1. XSEED’s PR company, a completely separate entity, blacklisted Nichegamer, not XSEED themselves. We don’t know why, so there’s no reason to point fingers yet. The only playing the blame game are the ones believing in baseless speculation.

2. XSEED doesn’t develop niche games, they localize them.

There’s still no freaking reason to blacklist them…

Oakland isn’t SF, yo.

Any reasonable person will agree that this article was published because the author took One PR’s actions personally. He didn’t have enough information and it was an unprofessional thing to do. A proper following wouldn’t be afraid to criticize the staff when they’ve done wrong, and all I see here are people blindly agreeing with Nichegamer, some not even reading the article and pointing the finger at XSEED. It’s so obvious that there are misunderstandings here. I don’t frequent this site too much, and if this comment section is
indicative of the community this site has fostered, then I honestly don’t want anything to do with it.

I don’t think I ever called anyone angry or unreasonable, but you seem to be bent on calling me out rather than trying to see the points I’m making. And if your next response is yet another jab or something that tries to paint me as delusional, don’t bother.

Revving up the emails.

This is so suspicious. I would not be surprised if thee was someone from one of the corrupt gaming media or GJP tied to this.

I’m not interested in circling the wagon on most of this again, I just don’t think we are making any real progress. I don’t usually think it’s productive to treat this comment section like a message board, they are different beasts and not particularly suitable for an endless back and forth. Anyways, I hear everything you are saying, but it may just be that we will both have to accept that we have disagreements on this topic. I thank you for your perspective and wish you the very best.

I like Xseed so l am not going to witch-hunt them over this but it does seem odd that their PR decided to blacklist a site that caters to their demographic, you would think they would appreciate more western exposure.

I do hope this is just some form of miss-communication or something.

It is in their best interests to answer, because we want answers. They are a PR company, after all.

It’s their job to manage the image and impressions of the companies they represent.

Again, it would be in their best interest.

More to the point, there is a very clear consumer concern in regards to XSEED as a company, which is a big deal no matter who you are. I’m surprised there hasn’t been an official response already.

That is very unusual, especially from XSEED. I would suggest trying to get in touch with the guy who used to run their twitter (Tom I think his name was) a top geezer by all accounts and this is something that would piss him off to no end. I don’t think he’s one of their higher ups but he might at least be able to get you an answer.