Editors Note: Recently, Rob wrote about the "The Seven Signs of the Video Game Apocalypse". One of one these signs was the recently unveiled strategy by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy its way into the gaming industry. Rob felt that this was a horrible development, because he feared it would lead to media conglomerates dictating game content, and turning development into an assembly line-like process focused on profits instead of quality. Aaron, meanwhile, disagreed with Rob, believing that Murdoch is a brilliant businessman and that News Corp.'s effort could be a good thing for gaming. The two editors duke it out in the following exchange.

Slide Show

Aaron McKenna: Hello Roberto, 'tis I, the sane and balanced one. Amid the general confusion and awe at the big bad world that pervaded your recent MMR on "The Seven Signs of the Video Game Apocalypse", I couldn't help but notice that we (pluralis majestatis) don't really like Rupert Murdoch these days. If I may be permitted to surmise the general thrust of your argument, you think he's a right wing reactionary bigot of a businessman, with the potential to completely ruin the video game industry by consolidating some of the already major publishers into his News Corp. Empire.

Quite a loaded set of charges you threw out there; well, allow me to say that I disagree with you whole heartedly. I neither think that Rupert Murdoch is a despicable businessman, nor that if he were to make a sawyer into the video game world-which he may well do-that it would be the end of the universe as we know it. Indeed, I don't see why it couldn't be quite a good thing for the industry. Just look what happened when Microsoft turned around one day and said "let's pour billions of loss-making money into the games industry." Two Xbox's later and I think the vast majority of gamers would not tell you that big business is always bad for gaming.

I think that your attitude towards Rupert Murdoch, and big business in general, is not based on sense and facts, but on vague liberal bias and notions that anyone approaching an industry with money in his hand is a very bad thing. Sure, there are examples of big business doing bad things. For example, EA has often been accused by many-myself included-of going too far in a particular consumerist direction. Still, at the end of the day, these big businesses also produce the best games. You like "Call of Duty", don't you? I know you had an addiction to "Halo", and I'm a big fan of games like "Battlefield" and "Black & White." In order, that's Activision, Microsoft, EA and EA; or, E-vil if you prefer.

Don't write off those riders of the apocalypse just yet, Roberto-they have a lot to offer us.

Rob Wright: Mad Dog, I didn't actually write that we don't like Rupert Murdoch these days. I did write that I didn't care for his politics and Fox News, and I also gave him credit: he's a shrewd businessman who's created a media empire. But that's not what I complained about in the column. Instead, I focused on the issue at hand: News Corp.'s interest in gaming, which I don't see as a good thing for several reasons.

When big corporations decide to acquire game companies without understanding what gaming is, I believe this hurts the gaming industry. Why? Big corporations are focused on big profit; they have no love of game development, and are only interested in gaming as a money-making machine.

Electronic Arts has often been accused of buying great developers only to burn out the staff, rush games out the door and then eventually cancel new titles and scuttle the entire company. Well, whether we like EA or not, it is a games company and it does understand gaming (although EA chief executive Larry Probst has said he's never played video games). Can you imagine what would happen if a large media conglomerate did what EA has done, and bought up Pandemic/Bioware, Bethesda Softworks, Valve and maybe EA, too? Dear Lord, I don't even want to imagine how many MMOs would be cancelled and how many half-baked games rushed out because some corporate bean counter said to do it.

Yes, as you point out, many of the big games companies produce a number of hit titles (although I actually don't like Halo, Aaron; I've frequently called it one of the most overrated games ever). And yes, Microsoft did make a huge investment to get into gaming, but at least Microsoft knows technology, and built their gaming business up from the ground up. What we're talking about here are companies like News Corp., with no prior experience and no understanding of the art and science that is game development, taking over the games industry. Soon there will be no more independent developers, and that will indeed be the apocalypse.

Rob