I’m sure most of us right of the bat would say no. We’ve seen a lot examples proving that wrong “Beyond Good and Evil” being one of the best. On all 3 consoles it scored higher than 85% and yet sank like a stone. Psychonauts was another.
The results of a five year study have been released which looked at if there was any correlation between a high review score and reflective sales and came to the conclusion that really, there wasn’t any. A game’s review has no direct affect on its sales performance. Obviously there are a lot of factors that can skew numbers like these holidays, game releases etc… but still the truth is out there look at these numbers
Franchises:
Title Publisher Released Rating Units/M Madden Madden 2001 EA 10/26/2000 91 0.92
Madden 2002 EA 14/08/2001 94 1.99
Madden 2003 EA 13/08/2002 95 2.68
Madden 2004 EA 11/8/2003 94 3.4
Madden 2005 EA 9/8/2004 91 3.18
GTA
GTA III Take-Two 23/10/2001 97 4.16
Vice City Take-Two 28/10/2002 95 5.47
San Andreas Take-Two 26/10/2004 95 5.8
Halo
Halo MS 15/11/2001 97 1.52
Halo2 MS 9/11/2004 95 4.82
Now those are just the franchises they looked at in all they looked at 270+ games, now I would argue that with sequels you get a critical mass going which would explain the increase in sales for each sequel. Halo 2 had online multiplayer, which also raised it's numbers too methinks but for the fact that only 1 in 20 Xbox owners are online.
The report goes on to compare racing games, sports games in which they found regardless of how highly rated your game is, if you drop it to $19.99 you'll get an increase in sales. It closes with the next time someone says their top rated game will boatloads take it with a huge pinch of salt.
Now I'm not one to take reviews as gospel but if every site I check out is giving a game 1's or 2's I'm passing on it other the other hand if a title scores straight 9.5s and it's a genre I could care less about like the latest on-rails WW2 shooter *cough*COD2*cough* I'm still not picking it up.
Growing up (before the internet) I used to hold off buying titles till the monthly gaming magazines were released so I could check the reviews because you were just buying blind otherwise. Like when I bought my copy of Pit Fighter for the SNES. Now with the amount of resources we have today I can find out if the hype is justified or if it's a dud from other people like me and I no longer have to rely on publications that refuse to grow up like I have and address issues I have about being a gamer choosing instead to rely on tree-house prattle.
If I'm interested enough in a game I buy it regardless of the ratings and most of the games I've truly enjoyed have scored no higher than 6s or 7s while games I've played that score 9s or higher certainly don't blow me away as their rating implies it should. I fail to see the difference in a game rated 9 to a game rated 9.5 or 10.
This makes the whole Driv3r fiasco even more amusing, if you're not familiar with it Atari had embargoed websites not to post reviews and shipped nothing to the gaming magazines other than a few select Future Publishing mags and sites who promptly gave it scores in 90's. Draw your own conclusions at that. The average score from gamerankings has it at 41.4%
Franchises:
Title Publisher Released Rating Units/M Madden Madden 2001 EA 10/26/2000 91 0.92
Madden 2002 EA 14/08/2001 94 1.99
Madden 2003 EA 13/08/2002 95 2.68
Madden 2004 EA 11/8/2003 94 3.4
Madden 2005 EA 9/8/2004 91 3.18
GTA
GTA III Take-Two 23/10/2001 97 4.16
Vice City Take-Two 28/10/2002 95 5.47
San Andreas Take-Two 26/10/2004 95 5.8
Halo
Halo MS 15/11/2001 97 1.52
Halo2 MS 9/11/2004 95 4.82
Now those are just the franchises they looked at in all they looked at 270+ games, now I would argue that with sequels you get a critical mass going which would explain the increase in sales for each sequel. Halo 2 had online multiplayer, which also raised it's numbers too methinks but for the fact that only 1 in 20 Xbox owners are online.
The report goes on to compare racing games, sports games in which they found regardless of how highly rated your game is, if you drop it to $19.99 you'll get an increase in sales. It closes with the next time someone says their top rated game will boatloads take it with a huge pinch of salt.
Now I'm not one to take reviews as gospel but if every site I check out is giving a game 1's or 2's I'm passing on it other the other hand if a title scores straight 9.5s and it's a genre I could care less about like the latest on-rails WW2 shooter *cough*COD2*cough* I'm still not picking it up.
Growing up (before the internet) I used to hold off buying titles till the monthly gaming magazines were released so I could check the reviews because you were just buying blind otherwise. Like when I bought my copy of Pit Fighter for the SNES. Now with the amount of resources we have today I can find out if the hype is justified or if it's a dud from other people like me and I no longer have to rely on publications that refuse to grow up like I have and address issues I have about being a gamer choosing instead to rely on tree-house prattle.
If I'm interested enough in a game I buy it regardless of the ratings and most of the games I've truly enjoyed have scored no higher than 6s or 7s while games I've played that score 9s or higher certainly don't blow me away as their rating implies it should. I fail to see the difference in a game rated 9 to a game rated 9.5 or 10.
This makes the whole Driv3r fiasco even more amusing, if you're not familiar with it Atari had embargoed websites not to post reviews and shipped nothing to the gaming magazines other than a few select Future Publishing mags and sites who promptly gave it scores in 90's. Draw your own conclusions at that. The average score from gamerankings has it at 41.4%
