Are all the bad reviews going to kill FFXIII before it even comes out?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

HappySqurriel said:

Kenryoku_Maxis said:
I'd say the vast minority (something like 10-15%) of people who play games even read game reviews. And less than that percentage read those reviews to have them influence their gaming purchase. Factor in that Final Fantasy has always been a game that has a pretty solid fanbase and most people were already hyped for the game, the only people who would really be swayed by 'reviews' were people who would have most likely been leaning towards not getting the game already, and the review was just an excuse not to get the game.

Most likely, they would have put off getting the game in the first place until a 'friend' or 'another game' gave them an excuse not to get it. In short, I don't think reviews are a mjaor factor to the sales of FFXIII.

I’m not sure ...

For most games, the first week or two of game sales are heavily driven by people who are committed to buying the game; and unless the reviews are abysmal it is unlikely that they will have much of an impact on these sales. With every successive week after that word of mouth and media coverage becomes more and more important to drive sales; and if people read a review from Google news that gives it a low score, or their friends are talking about how the reviews were right and it was a let down, this could have a fairly major impact.

With that said, it all depends on whether the media people are paying attention to is negative or positive about a game; and whether their friends think the reviewers are correct or wrong. It is likely that games like Just Dance (as an example) got more positive press from non-gaming focused sources and the people who bought it would disagree with the negative reviews the reviewers gave it.

It is possible that negative reviews will impact it, but I just don't see it.  Like I said, the vast majority of people who wanted the game will be buying it reguardless.  Because its a Final Fantasy game.  If it was something like Fire Emblem or Mario RPG, then they might hesistate.  But this is Final Fantasy and they made their minds up based o nthe name of the game, not what a reviewer said.  Long term however, it could be impacting like you said.

However, on the flip side, the majority of scores are stil reviewing the game bwtween 8.4 and 8.9.  So the game is still getting 'good' scores.  So unless you are a major fan of the series or trying to compare the games score to past titles, you probably are going to look at the score anyway and say 'it looks good'.