IGN's inflated review scores.

[averyblund]

I've been bothered for years that so many review sites seem to focus only on the top half of the scale. This seems especially true of sites that use a 1-10 scale. Very few titles score below 5. Just today I read a particualrly irritating admission of this on IGN AU:

Instead, the vast majority of Wii exclusives fall in the lower end of the acceptable scoring bracket, between 7.5 and 8.0. Now, I know according to the text below IGN's ratings, that this is the 'Good' to 'Impressive' range, but really, you're not running to the store to buy those titles. They might flesh out your collection, but they're not reasons to own the system. 

 

I think any system where a 7-8.9 game is considered not a winner is pretty broken and inflated. And no this has nothing to do with the Wii, in fact it seems to be the only system reviews are actually comfortable using the lower end of the bracket on thanks in part to the shovelware.

Inflating review scores seems to sort of make the whole point useless in the end. If a 8.9 game is unremarkable and a 9.3 game is phenomenal what is the point of the rest of the scores? IGN seems to be the worst offender, but I'm old enough to remember when average games got 5/10 and really good ones got 7-8s. Is this just further evidence of the friends with benefits relationship review publication have with publishers, and their fear of not getting another handy if they don't give at least a 7+?