It seems that in this business, review scores aren’t really all that important. Sure, they might influence a few sales, but some critically acclaimed works has failed to shift the units they deserve, while a load of real drek can make millions. Ubisoft knows this, and CFO Alain Martinez has claimed that a review score isn’t everything.
“It’s not ratings that mean everything, but we think quality and innovation are the key,” claims Martinez. “To be honest, when Assassin’s Creed launched and got 82 percent, we were desperate, and we thought we were going to die.”
First of all, since when did an 82% mean anything bad? See, now this is why reviews aren’t taken seriously by people — the vast majority of them are utterly meaningless. When you’re dishing out nines and tens like candy to the point where an 82% score average means “death,” then there’s something wrong with games media.
That absurdity aside, Martinez is right. He also points out how Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time garnered great reviews but failed to meet sales expectations. This is the fault of the market, something we discussed yesterday, as consumers fail to latch onto a game unless it’s a sequel and encourage publishers to churn out safe, but utterly mediocre, garbage to people who are too stupid to make a new purchasing decision.
So in closing — f*ck 99% of game reviewers for dishing out high scores too easily, and f*ck the rest of us for not buying Sands of Time enough.
