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Game Scores Do Not Equate To Sales
Gamasutra reports that a study shows what we all already knew: high game scores do not equate to high sales figures. From the article: "The study ... attempts to find correlations under more specific scenarios, such as with blockbuster games in the Madden, Grand Theft Auto, and Halo series; within the same franchise, and within the most specific example, within sports games concerning the same sport. However, as the authors state in their conclusion: 'After going through multiple scenarios, we believe a game rating, in most cases, is not a reliable tool for predicting game sales.'"
Reviews simply are not reliable. I was a game reviewer and actaully quit writing for certain publications that did not allow low scores for key titles. To me this is why just about all reviews are worthless.
I partnered and created a 100% independent review site. One time I had panned MGS3, and GT3 for being piss poor while everyone else couldn't slap "Must Have" and "Best Buy" and "Gold Sticker" all over them. I called MGS3 out for being as interactive as Dragon's Lair, and GT3 for having no AI whatsoever. I got some of the quickest and angriest calls and emails from the companies and their reps. I explained that the reviews were accurate and were not going to be changed. They said they would not send titles any more and that they would speak to my supervisor... They were infuriated to learn I was the owner and they could do nothing.
My point is that 90% of the reviews out there are biased and inflated for various reasons. Ever notice how big magazines give everything easy passes and then they always dog out one budget title which they aren;t receiving any ad dollars or kickbacks for anyhow to seem as if they are real. It's all rubbish.
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I'm going to have to disagree with some earlier posters who said that there's no news here.
My first reaction was the same as theirs: Of course reviews don't correlate to game sales. Why would they, when most people don't even look at reviews?
But the news story here is not in the results of the survey, but in the *fact* of the survey.
Someone cared enough to pay a company to do this research. Who would have a financial interest in the correlation between review scores and game sales? Who would have an interest in the correlation between *anything* and game sales? It's certainly not the player, because he doesn't care whether the game sells well or not. He only cares if it's fun. No, it's the publisher who cares.
And the publisher only cares about a correlation if it's a high one, and there's some way he can use that information to drive up game sales. If reviews did correlate to game sales, that would still be useless information to the publisher, as game reviews are an independent, objective evaluation of a game's enjoyability.
Unless they aren't.
And there's your story.
What the survey is saying to its target audience is that they're better off spending their money on more direct forms of marketing than on buying reviews.
A film reviewer can afford their own movie tickets, can see all of a film in 2 hours, and has about a century of established canon of both source material and criticism to draw from.