spankyNspronkle said:They have a vested interest in getting views...It's the same thing.
I also think that it's even more unlikely that three different companies heard from three different sources, yet there still seems to be speculation on whether its rumor or not.
Not even the same. If a site like Kotaku, Polygon or Eurogamer reports something from their sources that they claim is a fact and is not, they lose any and all credibility, and with it, readership. People go to those sites to read video game related news, so you can bet they'll abandon ship if these websites report things as facts when it turns out to be false.
People go to YouTube to be entertained. YouTubers don't have nearly the same standards as websites like Polygon, Eurogamer or Kotaku, nor should they. Their primary goal is to be entertainers. So if a YouTuber reports something as fact, but it's not, it doesn't carry that much weight because they aren't this establishment with the expectation that they'll tell the truth.
Meanwhile, Kotaku, Eurogamer and Polygon are
expected to tell the truth. So them reporting something as false is a really big deal, because we expect them to only report something if they can verify that what they say is right.
Jason Schreier of Kotaku has stated multiple times he will not report something unless he can corroborate with multiple sources, because you can and do get conflicting information. Same goes with Brian Crecente of Polygon and others at Eurogamer.
The only reason this is still regarded as 'speculation' is because the US has been having a war against news sites for some time, most notably with GamerGate and its complete misunderstands the purpose of 'anonymous sources', and because people don't want to believe it, so they won't unless Treyarch or Activision officially come out and fess up.
I mean, we could go all day. If this is indeed just 'rumors', why don't Activision and Treyarch just say "Actually, contrary to rumors and speculation, we have a working campaign."
Or here's this: Kotaku reported that they'd receive word from their sources that Camp Santo was acquired by Valve. Sure enough, Camp Santo confirms the report. Eurogamer reported about the Switch (such as its detachable controller) long before Nintendo announced it. Polygon reported about the Xbox One X (then codenamed Scorpio) back in May of 2016, long before Microsoft announced it.
The point being, these websites have a vested interest in only reporting things that they are confident are true. The fact that all 3 have independently confirmed that Black Ops 4 has no campaign...means that Black Ops 4 has no campaign.