We hear about these situations far too much, where a publisher is accused of attempting to broker a guaranteed favorable review from a press outlet. The latest to face such allegations is Ubisoft, having been named and shamed by German magazine Computer Bild Spiele for demanding a high score for Assassin's Creed 2. SCANDAL!
"Our reviews are tough, but fair. We will not give up our independent scores for the sake of a timely review," explains the magazine in its latest issue. "This holds true for Assassin’s Creed 2. The publisher asked us to guarantee the score 'sehr gut,' otherwise we would not receive a review copy, thus we will publish our review in next month’s issue. We’d be more than glad to give the game a ’sehr gut’, but only if it deserves it."
Sehr Gut is essentially Computer Bild Spiele's version of an A-grade, meaning that Ubisoft was only willing to trade a game copy for an incredibly positive review. Of course, asking an outlet to guarantee something like that before they've played the game is asking them to trade in every ounce of integrity they've worked to build, and if these allegations are true, it's a shame that Ubisoft felt the need to barter against someone's self respect like that.
In any case, Computer Bild Spiele has probably ensured that it won't be getting any more games from Ubisoft. Good for them, and let shame rain down on any writer that actually agreed to such shenanigans.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
9:00 AM on 11.08.2009
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but i felt like i was playing the first AC which IMO wasnt that great from the start...man AC1 had so much promise until it was killed by repetitious gameplay..
well done UBI, this game has now slipped from a probable "day 1 purchase" to a "wait and see" for me.
I've been meaning to resubscribe just because I did like the excessive amount of previews and occasionally there was a good editorial but god do I hope those reviews have been toned down.
Recap: Paid off reviews bad! Grr!
I wonder if it's just the power of suggestion, or the Kane and Lynch review firing BS, but I feel like Gamespot, which used to have tough as nails reviews for even big budget games, also hands out 9.0-10.0's like Chickletts anymore. I remember back when Tony Hawk 3 and Zelda were the only 10's. It's only a matter of time before the huge grain of salt that I need take when reading GS reviews raises my blood pressure to the heart attack zone...hio?
it doesn't surprise me at all that they'd try to buy some scores here and there. Ubisoft's got a ton of money invested in AS.
Quite often the games in question are really good anyway and will likely be getting a high score (Batman: Arkham Asylum is the last game that I recall something like this happening with). When the games in question are not good, it does not exactly take a genius to notice that the game has been reviewed by some outlets much earlier than others and that the early reviews are far more favourable.
It amuses me that publishers still attempt this tactic. It's immoral to begin with but gaming fans do so love the "righteous stands" and all they've accomplished is making a villian of themselves and a madre of the magazine.
Hell, I remember the greta Kotaku Sony Blacklisting. They reported on someone breaking embargo, Sony asked a pull, Kotaku refused, Sony blacklisted and demanded a return of debug kits, and it was all "Poor Kotaku, Sony is teh evil." Meanwhile, to this day, Kotaku regularly pulls content under the request of outside parties. But sure, Kotaku sure is Teh Hero thanks to that. Lik_Sang! LIK-SANG!
More power to Computer Bild Spiele though. Imagine a world where a game's success depends on its gameplay, not the number of zeros in its marketing budget.
Back during the run of Electronic Gaming Monthly, they didn't give a shiningly perfect review of the first Assassin's Creed.
Ubisoft blacklisted them. They never sent them any games to review again. EGM stood by it. I'm still sad that magazine's been canned.
It's absolute bullshit. Ubisoft makes decent games, and I want to like them. However, I can't do that when they pull this sort of crap. There is absolutely no excuse for it.
I do have to agree with you on the absurdity of what they do with reviews but it has not kept me from enjoying Assassins Creed 1. I will most likely not be getting AC 2 as it appears to be more of the same with a guy that dresses just like Altair.
Anyway, the first game was great as a Third Crusade-era Jerusalem/Acre/Damascus simulator, but horrible as a videogame. I've yet to see anything that suggests Ubisoft learned anything about making a half-decent game since the first one ("ZOMG 2 hidden bladez! lol!!1!")
P.S The game will probably suck.
Honestly, it actually looks like it'll be a genuinely better game, with a lot of better thought-out gameplay and an environment that looks way more interesting to explore. The character's costume seems designed that way just to maintain a recognizable motif--all reports say he's got a different personality and motivation, for what that counts for.
But, yeah. It still doesn't excuse that...boycotts really have no power beyond effectively consoling one's own sense of integrity, but it doesn't feel right to feed that kind of egotism. There's a lot of nonsense throughout the game industry, but we don't need more of it.
What REALLY bugs me about this is how truly senseless it is. As said, Ubisoft's games aren't bad. Not PERFECT, but all their big-name titles are consistently worth a go. If they made consistently mediocre games, reading news like this would feel different--it'd be a laugh. But Ubisoft doesn't NEED to bribe/threaten the press for good reviews, given their good track record, yet they do--why? There's something inherently slimy about it.
And BTW im pretty sure Eidos had nothing to do with this, I feel bad for the devs that the c*** publishers are giving their work a bad name.
I'm pretty sure the pubs are the one with the problem here, not the devs. Maybe splitting hairs a bit, but I'll hazard a guess that the developers wouldn't feel the need to stoop to this level, probably because they feel they HAVE made a game that can score well on its own merits.
Yeah I remember being a part of the GameSpot community and they started dishing out 10s. The thing that sucked about that was after they started being more lenient about their reviews a whole new influx of fanboys rushed into the forums to brag. It sucked. Even user controlled boards weren't safe and they didn't have nearly the amount of mods to handle it or the right system in place to promote mods. Even mods were dicking around in flammatory arguments.
I have to say regardless of this story I'm still looking forward to AC2. Ubi has one hyped title this holiday season AND it's going up against MW2. Not saying I condone their actions but I'm not in the least bit surprised.
Like Im OK said even with Arkham Asylum they tried to pull this and that was an epic victory. Publishers don't know much about the quality of their game like a hands-on dev does. Publishers just know they need it to sell well. I don't think this move is Ubi saying it'll suck. Just Ubi saying they need the sales.
Some people don't know the meaning of the word, but I'm glad to see that someone had the balls to say "Fuck You" to Ubisoft. However, you would think that after talking about the game as much as they have, that Ubi would like to see that work pay off with some good reviews, but apparently even they aren't that confident in their own game.
Shame on you, Ubisoft! I'll stick with my Destructoid review, thanks (can't wait to see Anthony throw a fit about it again :P)
But I am nonetheless optimistic about this game. I liked the gameplay in Assassins Creed, but what made it suck so much was it's repetetive open world structure. It seems like they're fixing that in this game. Hopefully it also has subtitles this time.
I agree the sheeps on the internet are at an all time high it seems,
not on this though man. They have every right to 'abandon ship,' I was already in the process, my ass already found land after this.
Simply, This completely destroys any integrity I USED to think Ubisoft had. Hell they used to be my favorite dev./pub. after playing Beyond good and evil.. kinda sad, and pathetic. Montreal can go suck it though.
I wanted this game much like i wanted the first one, intensely but of recently started slowly climbing up the fence. I'm already 10 miles on foot past it now. Thank you destructoid and of course thr germans for bring this to light.
guess that glowing review that just came out of that ps3 magazine came out another end as well. shame we won't be able to distinguish if there's any truth to it or not.
and what's more if they aren't confident that it will get high, favorable reviews, then how can we be confident the game's worth our 60 bucks?
after the disappointment in the first one, plus this? Really, how can you say business is business? Are you kidding me? that's not business it's exploitation.
I honestly doubt AC2 will be an A. The first one was a C at best and I'm honestly not that excited for the sequel. The story intrigues me, but who knows what the end result will be now that Ubisoft wants to pay for high scores. If IGN jumps on and scores 9.5, then you know this game isn't quality.