VGKing said:
All the major publishers(not just Microsoft) pay off journalists to give good reviews. It may not be a bank deposit or money exchanging hands, but it is with the free Halo swag and consoles. Even if you don't get payed off or don't get the free goodies, a low review score would get you banned from reviewing future games from the publisher unless they go out and buy it themselves. Did you know that developers get payed bonuses if their game scores a 90+ on Metacritic? This is how the video game journalism works. You should pay more attention to this stuff. Don't trust reviews, especially not for those billion dollar franchises. Go off and play the demo. If there isn't one then look at some gameplay videos or something. Don't go with the hype. I'm not saying you shouldn't buy it. If you played previous Halo games and are a fan, go ahead and do it. I know I've went off and bought games based purely on hype and/or nostalgia before.... |
With all due respect, Your Majesty, that's a load of BS.
Sending out swag and free review copies is common in all media. Film studios send out free review DVDs weeks or months before the film releases along with information packs and swag. The same is true for books. There's no contract or promise of high review scores.
Back in 2002 I went to E3 representing my own made up website. Some of the booths made you give them your business card to collect their press kit. I handed my fake business cards all over the place. For years after that I'd receive free review copies of games because those publishers thought my website was legitimate. I sent them all back, because while I'll lie to get into E3 I would feel like stealing if I kept the games they sent based on a false pretense. But my point is that none of them came with a check and instructions for a high score. They didn't even come with a letter saying that if my score was low they'd stop sending stuff.
As for the fact that devs sometimes get bonuses for high metacritic scores. Yeah so. That's good business. It's a policy to help ensure quality output. Those post review bonuses have no effect direct influence on the reviews. There is NO evidence that reviewers are paid off to give high scores. None. If it were true there would be whistle blowers everywhere. No company can get away with that kind of dishonesty for long, especially the big ones.
I'm tired of people accusing reviewers of taking bribes. It happens every time a high profile game gets a high score or a low score. Reviewers give their opinion, but their opinion isn't unbiased. Greg Miller is such a Sony fanboy he can't say anything bad about Sony games. That doesn't mean he's in Sony's pocket, it just means he's a fanboy. The IGN Halo 4 reviewer is a Halo fan and he thinks it's the best Halo yet. As a Halo fan and based on what I've seen and read it looks like he might be right. Based on what I've read of the minor complaints of Halo 4, if I were him I would have had a hard time not giving the game a perfect 10. I can assure you I'm not receiving any incentives from MS.
