I think COD sold well because its sadly the best MP game on vita. There's a massive gap in the market of a good MP on vita and know ones taking it not even Sony with killzone only supporting 4v4

You have to remember that yes the may have sold well with bad reviews but they would have sold better with good reviews.

It's all aout brand power and how the games look, plus advertisement if you ask me. Reviews is a plus, and cod on vita would have sold much more with good reviews. Thats just the way it is sadly. The best games don't neccecarely win.

I reckon that CoD Vita would have sold 3 million by now if it averaged 90% reviews

I said nothing about the reviews, but the games themselves. The only thing that can be said about reviews is that reviewers don't bring up points which can't be felt by gamers. While review scores may not matter, the cause of the bad review scores can matter. And that cause is a bad design. If a game is buggy, glitchy, looks horrible or barely functions gameplay wise, people will realise its bad. You don't need a review to tell them that.

But it can be easier for publishers to lure in the uninformed gamer through some good marketing. That has most certainly been the case for Declassified and Aleins CM from my own personal experience. In fact my jaws dropped to the floor when I saw one of the most important undergound stations in London had an entire interior redesign in the escalator area with an Aliens theme. I have NEVER seen any game that was advertised so heavily. Same with declassified but not as crazy.

So yeah you can't take marketing out of the equation. Many good games on the other hand have little to no mainstream marketing.

you forgot what about good reviewed games that doesn't sell well? i felt more sad for those...

CoD was heavily promoted even in small contries (from videogame market standpoint) like Russia. It also pushed with Vita in hardware bundle. Just a shitty shit game... You're wrong with your theory about journalism.

The fact that no one cared about these reviews leads us to think that no one cares about any review. And that's where you are only partially right. People don't care about reviews at all. They may look them up. They may see the score and think "Wow, good review, I want this game even more!" or "Hm, bad review. Still gonna try it out."

People just don't care about someone else's opinion on a game. It doesn't sway any average consumers purchase. Also, the fact that good reviews may spur more sales is, in the end, wrong. We've seen many highly rated games flunk and you all wonder why. It's because they were never meant to sell well. They were niche. Then we get games like Halo that get good/okay reviews and you all think, "Well deserved" or "Sheesh, what an opening." Do you know why they got such great sales? Not because of those shining reviews, but marketing and brand power.

I don't think anything has changed. There has always been a certain group of people, whether it be in film, literature, or games that simply don't read reviews. Either because they don't care what the score is because they want the product anyway, or because they purchased before they had a chance to see the reviews.

Unfortunately, you are exactly right.  Assassin's Creed III was a flawed game, and one could argue much better games were available last holiday, but it sold because Ubisoft has turned it into their flagship console IP, and they put an enormous amount of resources into making sure the game is seen everywhere. 

There's also the matter of the legacy of the brand, in which people are automatically drawn to sequels of popular franchises regardless of review scores or game quality, simply because of the name on the box. 

Then you have the "CoD/Halo effect", in which more people are drawn into the brand with each passing year because more and more people they know buy the game, so you're either left in the cold by not having it, or you buy it even though it isn't your first choice just so you can continue playing with your friends.

After the release professional reviews don't matter as much as word of mouth does.