Do Zero Punctuation Reviews Affect Game Sales?

Logan Frederick

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Aug 19, 2006
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Do Zero Punctuation Reviews Affect Game Sales?



Post-Zero Punctuation sales of Painkiller point to a potential "Yahtzee Effect" for games that get the infamous Croshaw critique.

Charismatic stallion Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw skyrocketed to fame with his hilariously degrading reviews of some of the most industry's most popular games, which tend to unknowingly provide him crappy gameplay joke material. NewTeeVee [http://newteevee.com/2008/11/15/do-zero-punctuation-videogame-reviews-influence-videogame-sales/], intrigued by the Yahtzee's popularity, studied sales data for both Painkiller and Xbox Live Arcade's Braid, two titles reviewed positively by Yahtzee, to see if his videos affected game sales.

"I don't see any real case for Zero Punctuation increasing sales by a lot," stated Braid creator Jonathan Blow on the lack of a Yahtzee-created increase in sales of his downloadable game. "There definitely isn't a visible sales spike or anything like that."

On the other hand, sales data from Amazon seems to reveal a distinct 7,400 percent jump in Painkiller sales shortly after it was given a positive review, if one-liners like "Painkiller is fucking awesome and can kick the ass of most big name mainstream titles and have them for breakfast afterwards" are considered merely "positive" and not "giddy school girl talking about her favorite boy band."

This sales spike was so notable that the great, ruggedly handsome man who provides my paychecks (and also Escapist co-founder) Alexander Macris featured the info in a marketing brochure, noting that, "media companies are always fighting to prove audience engagement and relevance."

As for the difference in sales impact between Painkiller and Braid, Macris noted that the latter "was already a breakthrough hit by the time Yahtzee reviewed it, while Painkiller was a lesser-known title that was given a new look based on his review."


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I3uster

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Nov 16, 2008
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let me say it in his words:
"short answer:no
long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"
 

Twaddlefish

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Nov 16, 2008
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^

That. I think that because internet people like us watch Yahtzee, internet people like us also use Amazon to buy games/music/hedgehogs. Nevermind that the fact that it's bloody hard to find in places. It's an anomaly, I hardly expect GAME to be raving about they have no copies of Painkiller, when they had none to start with anyway.
 

Priderage

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Sep 9, 2008
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One guy made an online review of a game, gave it good marks and it sold 74 times as many copies. That's almost incomprehensible.
 

Tyran107

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Nov 14, 2008
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While 7,400 percent is awesome in its own right. You also have to take into account, how much was it selling BEFORE the review? Cause if it only got like 1 sale every couple of months, while 7,400% is alot I don't think they ran out of stock or something.
 

VeryOblivious

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Dec 2, 2007
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It only affects games with poor sales. Yahtzee's the "indie god". In contrast, mainstream games like GeoW have already good "mindcontrolling media" in charge.
 

Blind0bserver

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Mar 31, 2008
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I do remember a day or two after Yahtzee's Painkiller review that a banner was on the front page of the Steam store for the game that said in quotes "All you need to know is that there's a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning". After that, I think Painkiller was a top seller on Steam for about two weeks.

So, "Yahtzee Effect"? The evidence says so...
 

DND Judgement

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Sep 30, 2008
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with the things he's nice about it possibly makes them go up a bit but not a lot.... but if he's his ussual self it makes no difference...
 

SomeBritishDude

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Hmm...This makes me wonder if Yahtzee has ever been offered any bribes by developers (I seriously doubt he'd escept). God knows they must be paying a lot of game reviewers shit loads judging by some of the reviews of Assassins Creed I've seen.