I'd like to know if this is an issue with other specialist press too. There are hundreds, probably thousands of publications on specialist areas - movies, knitting, music, dogs, whatever.
Surely most of them rely on advertising at least partly from the companies they write articles about. Most of them review products supplied by said companies.
I suppose they have to have good relationships with the PR teams of the car/movie/knitting companies in order to get hold of products to preview/review on time and sell in advertising.
Is games any different?
It's a pretty good question. I suspect the nature of the audience also factors into how critical journos can or can't be of the products that they are also advertising.
My feeling is a lot of the PR and bullshit is interwoven into things like exclusivities, previews and early access, which doesn't seem to be as much of a problem with other industries (at least not from the perpsective of my casual observations).
So the nature of the gaming audience is to want to hunt for new information about the latest games, and the importance of this facet; the novelty intrinsic to the hobby is what drives a lot of that behaviour.
After a game has been released, it tends to fade from the gaming press and is picked up by fan sites that disseminate and break down any relevant details of the game in the weeks, months and years following release.
I get that the unslakable thirst for new information and media is just part and parcel of any enthusaist press coverage... but it does seem to effect gaming media more deleteriously for some reason.