Game reviews as predictor of sales

[zed]

yes here we go, although it goes against commomsense, its pretty conclusive high rankings != high sales
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10924

statistically disprove a direct correlation between video game review scores and the resulting performance at retail, reiterating that there is little relationship between a game's critical and commercial reception.

 

[AlphaWolf]

yes here we go, although it goes against commomsense, its pretty conclusive high rankings != high sales
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10924

I wouldn't call that survey conclusive.

 

[wco81]

If Halo3 got 2/10, it might still sell well, since there's such heavy promotion and a built-in audience.

But there would be a shit storm about the reviews.

 

[psorcerer]

WSJ has a piece on how game reviews predict sales. They look at metacritic.com.

You can clearly see from the article wording that it's just the Metacritic-praising commercial.
It's not about the scores or correlations it's about how good Metacritic is and how much it does for the industry.
Move along.

P.S. reviews do not have correlation with the sales, it was proved at least a million times before.

 

[PaperThin]

Review scores mean a lot more to people inside the industry than to consumers. I don't think all the attention on scores is a good thing for the industry at all, but the sad fact is that these sites are the easiest and most reliable form of feedback you can get on your game.

 

[Acert93]

P.S. reviews do not have correlation with the sales, it was proved at least a million times before.

Maybe not a direct correlation.

But reviews can (and do) impact sales.

There are always exceptions.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Maybe not a direct correlation.

But reviews can (and do) impact sales.

There are always exceptions.

Exactly. If developers/publishers didn't think reviews affected sales they wouldn't bother to ship out review copies.

 

[ninzel]

There seems to be a correlation.

 

[wco81]

So publishers seem to be more conscious of review scores as they ever been.

An article like this apparently draws attention.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9393&Itemid=50

According to the GameTheory podcast, EA's Riticcello has set the goal for all EA games to reach a metacritic average of 80, which would place them well above the top publisher for last year, which was SCEA with an average of 77 an far above the 71.3 for 2005-2007.

Supposedly various EA studios are being given more autonomy to help reach this goal.