Metacritic: High Score Alone Doesn't Equal High Sales

[Logan Westbrook]

Metacritic: High Score Alone Doesn't Equal High Sales

It's great when your game gets a swarm of high marks from reviewers, but don't expect score alone to sell it for you.

Marc Doyle, the games editor for review aggregator Metacritic, says that the influence of Metacritic scores - and reviews in general - on videogame sales has been overstated, and that it's simplistic to say that a high score equals high sales.

Doyle said that it was impossible to isolate the effect that Metacritic had on sales, and that while there was often a correlation between a high score and high sales, it didn't automatically mean that one led to the other. There were simply too many factors in play to pick Metacritic out as the deciding factor for a game's success, he said, and that a mediocre game with an established brand and a decent marketing campaign could succeed, while a strong game with little promotion would simply fall off the radar.

As Doyle suggests, marketing plays a significant role in a game's success. Analyst Jesse Divnich said last year [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96177-Analyst-Marketing-Trumps-Reviews-in-Driving-Game-Sales] that marketing was three times more important than critical acclaim, and that the idea that reviews were the most crucial thing to getting good sales was a myth. Even ignoring the persuasive quality a marketing campaign might have, simply informing consumers that a game exists is going to make a big difference to sales, as people don't buy things they don't know are available.

Source: Industry Gamers [http://www.industrygamers.com/news/metacritic-metascores-alone-do-not-directly-impact-sales/]





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[More Fun To Compute]

Metacritic scores are more of a sign of the scale of a marketing campaign anyway.

 

[Fredrikorex]

Bikini zombie slayers!?

I don't care about the score that sounds awsome.

 

[carpenter20m]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/correlation.png


I just had to...

 

[the Dept of Science]

While things like Metacritic are far from perfect, I think its a shame more people don't pay attention to it. The great thing I like about Metacritic is that it takes all the marketing, trailers and preconceived notion about it and gives you a generally quite clear cut "yay or nay", based on things that you couldn't possibly know before playing the game. That way, on Metacritic a good indie game like World of Goo or Braid will get the same seal of approval as, say, Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock.

While this probably doesn't make a massive difference to the AAA titles, I'm guessing it does bring needed attention to some of the more obscure indie titles.

 

[JEBWrench]

As Doyle suggests, marketing plays a significant role in a game's success. Analyst Jesse Divnich said last year that marketing was three times more important than critical acclaim, and that the idea that reviews were the most crucial thing to getting good sales was a myth. Even ignoring the persuasive quality a marketing campaign might have, simply informing consumers that a game exists is going to make a big difference to sales, as people don't buy things they don't know are available.

This just in!

Find out more on the Morning News. Also, our special report on the sky - Is it really up there? And part two of Night: Morning's Precursor.

 

[V8 Ninja]

Umm...big surprise? Didn't we know this about 5 years ago?

 

[Crazy_Bird]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/correlation.png


I just had to...

You can use this for most studies published in every field ever. So you (XKCD) are onto something.

Keep spreading the word.


And this is once again a study which proves what we already know. Either quality is neglected for more marketable products or the rating itself measures nothing but the marketing hype.

 

[inglioti]

I can't remember a mediocre game selling millions of copies though. And it seems like the game creators are always quoted saying they are aiming for a "low 90's" aggregate.

Demon's Souls is another tricky one - a brilliant game with a high aggregate, and no marketing. It's been wildly successful.

 

[Corpse XxX]

Creating hype is what it is all about.. Some cool sequences and photos in a commercial on the telly and people will buy it almost regardless of critics..

To me it seems like its only EA that has understood this to some extent.. Many of their games beeing only average, but hyped as hell making people excited, getting big sales.

Im guessing ive missed bussloads of good games due to them not having been marketed at all..

 

[aldowyn]

One thing to note is that review scores have a MUCH higher impact on sales than they do in any other genre. Look at movies! It's actually fairly common that movies with bad review scores are top at the box office for weeks at a time. (I'm looking at you, Transformers!)



P.S. Hmm, I didn't get the most nerdy score on that quiz, did I? *shrug* I still like being a Geek to the Core, though!

 

[More Fun To Compute]

While things like Metacritic are far from perfect, I think its a shame more people don't pay attention to it. The great thing I like about Metacritic is that it takes all the marketing, trailers and preconceived notion about it and gives you a generally quite clear cut "yay or nay", based on things that you couldn't possibly know before playing the game. That way, on Metacritic a good indie game like World of Goo or Braid will get the same seal of approval as, say, Mass Effect 2 or Bioshock.

While this probably doesn't make a massive difference to the AAA titles, I'm guessing it does bring needed attention to some of the more obscure indie titles.

Nobody goes to metacritic to look up the score for a game they have never heard of.

 

[Iron Mal]

Umm...big surprise? Didn't we know this about 5 years ago?

Some of us did (hell, quite a lot of us did) but that doesn't mean that what is being stated here is completely true and still has a huge impact.

The only reason I started getting Call of Duty games was because myself and a friend kept getting bugged about it by random people every time we went into online games on Halo 3 (which we also got because of the sheer public attention it had), as a result we finally thought 'fine, if this many people keep telling us to get it then I guess it's worth a look' (we have both gotten every Call of Duty game since 4 as a result).

The Armored Core series is something I've always had a soft spot for (I just like it) and at one point I religiously played the third game (Exile was a pain) but I wouldn't have even known that the series existed (never mind that I would have liked it) unless the friends I stayed with in the US a few years ago had it.

It's easy for us to say 'obvious fact is obvious' but there are a huge number of people out there who aren't as knowledgeable about games as us, advertising and marketing is usually all these people have to inform them what games are even avaliable out there (anyone who's ever had their mother try to buy a game for them as a birthday/xmas gift will know what I mean).

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

One thing to note is that review scores have a MUCH higher impact on sales than they do in any other genre. Look at movies! It's actually fairly common that movies with bad review scores are top at the box office for weeks at a time. (I'm looking at you, Transformers!)



P.S. Hmm, I didn't get the most nerdy score on that quiz, did I? *shrug* I still like being a Geek to the Core, though!

Money, if your sinking a largish chunk of money in something your going to want to know it's good, so you only buy once your informed the bigger the cost the more information. If the games a sequel and the first was good then that might be enough but a new game has to have a good score.

As for the movies, trivial money, trivial attitude.
"hey, transformers were cool,right? There's a movie just come out about them." "well it's only a fiver and and we aren't doing anything..."

 

[MasterV]

Metacritic's scores only touch the minds of the category-savvy in the many forms of entertainment it presents aggregate scores for. The grand majority of consumers don't know or even care for aggregates and scores to buy something. They like it? They buy it.

I use it when I want to make a game purchase, because it makes it much easier to read many different reviews from many sources, saving me the hassle of looking for them and see what reviewers thought of what was good or bad about a game. Whoever looks only at scores is a sad person indeed. But, as V8 Ninja said, this is common sense, known for quite some time.

 

[DTWolfwood]

It certainly doesnt hurt but we all knew it wasnt the end all be all in sales.

You can probably sell a lot of a really shitty game if you spam the internet/TV with commercials for it.

 

[Uber Waddles]

*points to Okami and Psychonauts*

Point proven. I cant tell you how many games Ive seen burn out just because they werent as well advertised as, say, Halo or Call of Duty.

Just because a game is good doesnt mean it sells well, it all has to do with marketing, demographics, and word-of-mouth. Kinda a common sence thing, atleast I think...

 

[Lordmarkus]

On the news: The Sun shines in Sahara!

Grim Fandango 94 %
System Shock 2 92 %
Planescape: Torment 91 %
Psychonauts 87 %

Terrific scores but no sales, at least they are considered cult classics in the medium.

 

[cerebus23]

Metacritic's scores only touch the minds of the category-savvy in the many forms of entertainment it presents aggregate scores for. The grand majority of consumers don't know or even care for aggregates and scores to buy something. They like it? They buy it.

I use it when I want to make a game purchase, because it makes it much easier to read many different reviews from many sources, saving me the hassle of looking for them and see what reviewers thought of what was good or bad about a game. Whoever looks only at scores is a sad person indeed. But, as V8 Ninja said, this is common sense, known for quite some time.

this pretty much your average person just looks for games they are interested in playing, they may read a review or two but they are not going to goto metacritic and make sure the game they might buy is rated great. and if a game is pretty obscure then they might not ever hear of it even if it is a 10.0 on meta.

i think the fact that casuals are getting more and more into games also factor into this stuff, since casuals are going to be drawn to specific types of games in their interest area, then it locks out other games no matter how great they are. hence the sims 5 and farmville 2 will sell a billion copies even if they are a -10.0 on meta.

 

[fmatthew5876]

I'm not so sure that high scores will bring more sales but I think low scores will certainly hinder them.