While it does bode ill for a publisher to be able to control the media so much, I think the problem with Kotaku was the NDA agreement they were legally bound to adhere to. They weren't doing it. It's not necessary to get a game early in order to review it, and since they would not follow instructions, they had their privilege revoked. Even if they fear that buying a game will influence their opinion of it, there's ways to get around that. Maybe Kotaku as a company should begin budgeting for purchasing games, and that way the burden of cost won't influence their reviewers. Smaller gaming news sources get by just fine without special free copy privileges. I think it would actually be pretty healthy if things changed in the gaming industry, and the first week of release people were cautious of a game until reviews hit. Reviews that were not free to publications with NDAs and other things attached. That's probably not going to happen, but still.