The lead-up to the PS5's inevitable launch is going to be a wild ride, but not just because of the hype that'll no doubt be generated. The next 12 months or so are going to be incredibly important for many gaming sites -- Push Square included -- as we all attempt to provide the most up-to-date coverage on Sony's next-gen machine.
Of course, the issue is that the internet at large has no shame, and you're going to see a lot of misinformation and, dare we say it, "fake news" be spread over the next year. In fact, there's plenty of reason to believe that it's going to be something of an epidemic.
The gaming media landscape has changed quite a bit since the launch of the PS4 back in 2013. Perhaps most notably, now more than ever, gaming sites rely heavily on something called Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO for short, and this is where a lot of problems are already beginning to take root.
In case you don't already know, SEO is the process of making content appealing to search engines such as Google. Essentially, by creating articles that house a lot of keywords, the likes of Google pick up on them and push them to the top of your search results.
For example, if you type a popular search term such as "PS5 release date" into Google right now, you're going to be shown articles that hit those keywords and more -- it doesn't matter one bit whether the information within them is accurate. Needless to say, sites that manage to get their content high up on the search results means increased traffic. As always, it's all about the hits.
In many ways this is the new "clickbait". Exploit SEO well and you stand to gain a lot more traffic. Now to be clear, SEO isn't in itself a bad thing -- just about every site that you can think of will use it in some capacity. It's obviously entirely possible to write high quality articles and then use SEO to push them out to as many readers as possible -- and there's nothing wrong with that. But again, you can exploit SEO without ever providing useful or accurate information, and that's exactly what some gaming websites are already doing.
The reality right now is that the gaming media at large barely knows anything more about the PS5 than you do, but that certainly won't stop sites from writing articles that are designed exclusively to farm your clicks. Just earlier this week, our own editor Sammy Barker wrote an article about supposed PS5 images that were doing the rounds on social media. These images were picked up by several gaming sites and framed as though they were genuine leaks, when clearly, they were renders made by fans.
Naturally, the images were slapped into makeshift articles that contained all of the relevant keywords, and so you can still find them on Google's front page. A lot of people searching for PS5 information are going to find these articles, and you better believe that they're going to take them seriously.
That right there is the problem, and there's not much that can be done about it. Chances are that if you're reading this very website on a regular basis, then you're probably knowledgeable about games in general -- but we're ultimately a hardcore minority. The vast majority of people interested in something like the PS5 are simply going to hit up Google, search for information, and be presented with content that can only be described as utter guff.
And so we thought that it was worth highlighting the situation with this article. Do we think that the aforementioned majority are going to read this? Not at all, but we think that sharing our perspective as games writers is important, and hopefully you found this article relevant, or even educational.
The bottom line is that, again, the next 12 months are going to be telling of which direction the games media is headed. As you'd expect, we'll be providing in-depth coverage of everything PS5 here on Push Square, but we will always aim to to bring you well-informed and reliable content.
Comments 47
If anyone's got any questions with regards to how we do things on Push Square or the topics that are mentioned in the article, let us know!
They are skipping PS5 and going straight to PS6. I have an uncle that works for Sony. Trust me...
You guys seem to have a pretty good bull**** detector. Where other sites write things as fact, it's nice that you take a more sceptical approach to rumours!
@Splat Typing up a story now.
hey until Sony actually show the thing at event then every piece of news about the PS5 i will take with this
This article here is yet another reason why I love Push Square and it has become my no.1 PlayStation gaming news website. Thanks for the sterling work @ShogunRok and @get2sammyb
@ShogunRok I pre-ordered my PS5 on eBay, it will arrive next week with four games in VHS.
@Splat nah it's going to be called the sega genesis.oh wrong forum and wrong decades.my bad 😂.word up son
@PS_Nation and a copy of v the final battle.yo mtv raps.miami vice .the a team.and knight rider on VHS 😱.word up son
No problem, you guys do what you gotta do.
I always enjoy the rumors and speculation leading up to the reveal of a new console. Especially the outlandish ones. PS5 will release with four skus ranging from $400-$800, one will feature no disc drive and run games at 8K and rock solid 120 fps.
I'll just ignore the rumours and apparent leaks and wait for official news. Even if the leaks are accurate, I'll still avoid them since I like to be surprised from official announcements.
@Gamer83 The problem is if they're not based in reality then they're not even really rumours — just fairytales. I know what you mean the speculation can be fun, but some sites take it too far and deliberately mislead.
Unless Taylor Swift pays for it, I don't want to see any fake news on this site.
@Splat Gran turismo sport next for ps5 already showed by sony, it's on twitter with 8k and 120 fps
It's crazy how PS5 is going to double as a panini press
Speculation should be for forums where it is fun to do but unless the source is good, rumours are just rumours. Realistically, not much is going to leak other than some vague ideas. Can you remember all the Nintendo NX rumours and while a hybrid device was a strong rumour it took some time for that to be THE rumour.
Oh wow
Im sorry to sound jaded but people need a lecture about deceiving news on the internet ?
@get2sammyb
I agree about other websites. That's why I only use this one and NintendoLife for my gaming news.
Don’t you mean, we’re in for a long week, as the PS5 is being announced at the game awards? Walmart Canada said so 😉
@ztpayne7 Here we go!
@get2sammyb
Thing is respected game sites like Pushsquare tend to blame unknown sites but every site gets a taste of such tales even most respected ones. It's become very difficult to distinguish speculation from deliberate misleading. More often than not, maybe because of time constraints or else, gaming sites post news they don't seem to care of basic verifications. Sounds like copy paste from one site to another and I get it. It s up to the readers to be aware of it, is all. Im just surprised so many people seem so naive.
Regardless of silly rumours and misinformation, it's gonna be great fun following all the build up over the next year or so.
Push Square <3
And if you needed to be told any of this, you're part of the problem. 🤣
This site included
@CK97 @Paranoimia Lol thanks for the feedback lads.
always love push square for their honest reports.
they may not be the biggest site out there but still the best imo.
anyway those fake rumors remind of that picture of that "ps4 controller" with 100 buttons and joysticks
https://img.ifcdn.com/images/6cd2e54613f0814c744132b53e773218b0a98931151bf92dd9b2d28647868393_1.jpg
Before Launch Rumors. After Launch everyone says they got it right. Even when they didn't even come close.
Nice piece. Hope you ran it through your SEO checks!
(Seriously. No sarcasm intended).
I heard it'll be a combination waffle maker and griddle, so that we can have deeply immersive crafting and cooking simulations in games (Sony PS5 food packs sold separately).
@CK97 didn't they post a article about a ps5 rumour earlier? they are not helping the situation.
If I were Sony I’d call it the PS6. A little bit of tippex to add an ‘i’ to all those P S5 consoles in a warehouse somewhere and they could have an incident on their hands....
I had a rumour that the PS5 will be powered by a hydrogen fuel cell rather than using electricity!
I bet 95% of them will come from Kotaku too.
Genuinely excited to see what PS5 can do. Some silly, fake rumours will be good for a laugh.
@playstation1995 remember watching shows as a kid and it would go off and then something like dallas or falcon crest would come on. Thats when i would go to bed lol.
game rant on face book is gunna go nuts.
@Splat source : dude, trust me
@RedMageLanakyn Lol, Kotaku has some of the best reports on rumours Tell me when is the last time they irresponsibly reported on a rumor. Then tell me the last five times they had a really good scoop.
Plot twist: this article ITSELF is fake news and every next article is actually gonna be 100% the truth
....
If only.
arent they on sale on ebay already from honest dave
@Kidfried I don't think you could pay me enough to even visit that site to skim through their articles, but from what gets forwarded here, most stories are created from heresay and "anonymous sources." If you expect me to believe a site of their size and clickbait style isn't going to report on every single rumor regarding the PS5 for the clicks, there's just no way. I'd be willing to bet good ole Liam over at NL will be reporting on PS5 rumors just as much too.
You don't have to tell me. Saw this one website do an article on the top confirmed and rumoured PS5 games (that didn't feature a single confirmed game, and was in fact based purely on wishes and fairytales). Oh wait...
I only follow the official PS Blog for new console news so shouldn't be an issue.
@Kidfried
'Tell me when is the last time they irresponsibly reported on a rumor.'
They keep pretending they are a serious unbiased site. That's irresponsible.
Edit
If you want some specific about PS5 this one is cool:
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2018/05/23/the-next-playstation-is-three-years-away
That's not what Kodera said, AT ALL
I only follow the official PS Blog for new console news so shouldn't be an issue.
https://ps4dns.com/
This blog is awesome, i like to add some points to this,
which i read in the recent blog- http://fixps4error.com/about-ps5/
It has been cleared that,
The eighth generation console from SONY is at the end of its life. Do not forget about one simple fact: the release of the original PS4 occurred as much as five years ago, i.e. in 2013.
Five years is a rather long life span for such products. In this regard, many console gamers are actively interested in Playstation 5.
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