Wal-Mart: The Dr. Evil of Game Development?

Escapist magazine reports today that of all things, that Wal-Mart plays a very important part in the development of video games: “Publisher sales reps inform Wal-Mart buyers of games in development; the games’ subjects, titles, artwork and packaging are vetted and sometimes vetoed by Wal-Mart. If Wal-Mart tells a top-end publisher it won’t carry a certain game, the publisher kills that game. In short, every triple-A game sold at retail in North America is managed start to finish, top to bottom, with the publisher’s gaze fixed squarely on Wal-Mart, and no other.”

Looks like they have their own underground layer full of people controlling what gets published. Check out the full article over at The Escapist.