This is normal.

Promoting a game system and games on a gaming website. Almost every game site does this. IGN is the largest game site so it makes sense to target them for marketing.

Kotaku also get sponsored by gaming companies as well however that doesn't mean the reviews are effected DIRECTLY but they are getting money from adverts, so its not a direct impact, but its still there, its gaming journalism you should learn years ago that its all bullshit, why do you think there is obvious bias for western/big name companies/rising indies?

Holly Sh*#% a video game company advertising in a video game related site!!

Gaming journalism is a tough gig to keep things balanced. On the one hand I totally understand why you'd want such a site to never be paid advertising dollars by a gaming company because that could taint their judgement. But then again people need to be paid for their work and the companies that are going to be most interested in advertising on a gaming website are going to be by and large gaming companies.

In a large site like IGN I'm sure the department that deals with these advertising decisions is well separated from those that actually write the articles so I don't think it's going to have any appreciable affect, but personally if I could pay my writers what they deserve without getting money from the gaming companies we're meant to critique that would be best, and I'd really love if I could, but I don't think it's possible.

Don't give M$ all the credit. Sony does this too. It's well known even if ignored that reviews from these gaming media sites are bought. Which is why arguing over review scores is quite silly.

Why is this such a big deal if we know that Xbox One is coming in less than 4 days?

Xenoblade 2 Vita exclusive confirmed.

I usually feel ok with IGN's reviews of PS games, yet I do notice how they more often than not OVERRATE Xbox stuff in comparison.

This kind of stuff makes that feeling even more validated. KZ Shadow Fall is brobably a solid 8 like they scored....But Killer Instinct(with only 7 characters and lacking modes) and Dead Rising(good but c'mon) being rated higher just seems....wrong. I expect Forza to get about a 9 which might just be appropriate.

It means Microsoft is very good at marketing. And it also means that they are not "paying" the reviewers per say, it is just a advertising thing (like Google Ads, etc...) but people are going to start a lot a conspiracy threads about it, fun time ahead :).

This is what it means to me.

When I watched PS4 video reviews on IGN they all had XBO preroll ads.
When I watched XBO and 3DS video reviews on IGN they all had PS4 preroll ads.

IGN makes $$ through ads. Game companies use ads or site sponsorships to sell games/systems.

Looking at the review scores for both the XBO and PS4, since none of them are that high, I don't think either company has money hatted the reviewers.