UBI demands HIGH review score from magazine (report)

03-01-10, 08:02 AM

Taken from http://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-d...--154456.phtml

""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."

As UBI is also the publisher of the highly controversial SHV title, I thought this might be of interest to our rather impotent community.

Safe-Keeper · 03-01-10, 08:11 AM

Wow. I wonder how common this is, "bribing" reviewers by giving them an early shot at reviewing the game, in return for high ratings?

Ragtag · 03-01-10, 08:18 AM

I've never experienced any distributor trying to bribe us for a good review. Not even Ubisoft. I'm not sure what to believe about this.

Dowly · 03-01-10, 08:28 AM

It's my understanding that it is fairly common, atleast when it comes to big and popular review sites/magazines.

It might not be anything to do from the publisher's side, but more from the reviewer's side to keep the publisher happy by giving the game a good score and thus keep good relations to the big game houses.

You only need to go and read Halo 2 & 3 reviews to see which mags/sites are just brown-nosing and which aren't.

Of course, some of the reviews that have higher score than they should can be due to the huge hype some games have, which then affects the reviewer and instead of judging the game from neutral POV, he rides the hype and sees everything through glasses of awesomeness.

I've pretty much lost trust to any but one gaming magazine (well that and Yahtzee

).

EDIT: Ow and then there's of course the case where reviewer from Gamespot got supposedly fired because he gave Kane & Lynch a bad score. But I didn't follow that so closely, so no idea if that was just a rumour or not.

EDIT2: Here's a link to the gamespot thingy: http://kotaku.com/328244/gamespot-ed...--lynch-review

Turbografx · 03-01-10, 08:35 AM

This is not uncommon. I remember some hoopla about a similar situation with Fable, Oblivion, Kane & Lynch, Arkham Asylum and maybe Fallout 3.

Mostly they target the most popular/common magazines. Which has contributed to reviews from them becoming near worthless imo.

In edition to this, if a magazine gives a game a negative review, they can say goodbye to future review copies.

@Dowly, the K&L story is true, Gamespot sold out around the turn of the century.

HundertzehnGustav · 03-01-10, 08:44 AM

I trust Neal...
fact that he gor a copy long after the others got one tells me he aint bought.
he has got an audience that is very demanding, giving hm an early copy, traded for a good score, would have made me supicious.
He got his one late, for what ever reason, and put it through its paces properly. no quick Job, nothing rushed, and also took a look at the more "difficult" subjects.

Game mags want to sell... its their business.
It aint Neal's.

IanC · 03-01-10, 08:40 AM

Good for that German magazine!

mookiemookie · 03-01-10, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uber Gruber

I thought this might be of interest to our rather impotent community.

Is this kind of garbage necessary?

Onkel Neal · 03-01-10, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uber Gruber

I thought this might be of interest to our rather impotent community.

Speak for yourself

SteamWake · 03-01-10, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uber Gruber

As UBI is also the publisher of the highly controversial SHV title, I thought this might be of interest to our rather impotent community.

Hrm not sure if that was intentional or not

03-01-10, 05:07 PM

Interesting!
This is exactly why I ignore almost all "professional" gaming "journalism" when looking for honest reviews and opinions. Thanks to Uber Gruber for the link.

Shakermaker · 03-01-10, 05:23 PM

How is this news? The story in the OP is from last year, it is not about Silent Hunter 5, and publishers buying good reviews is rampant and well documented. Plus reviews on sites like Gamespot or IGN are rubbish anyway. I prefer RockPaperShotgun and Kotaku because they don't hand out scores. Eurogamer isn't bad either, although they aren't giving the PC as much love as they used to do.

Move to off-topic please.

Capt. Friedhoffer · 03-03-10, 09:43 PM

At least in my opinion. Generally they almost exclusively produce reviews about Xbox and PS3 titles but they do have a section of their site dedicated to PC games. Silent Hunter 5 is listed on that page and I believe a video review is pending. From my experience with the site, I can tell you when they don't like something, they point it out in a big way. Often, they show the bug, glitch or bad game design in the review video. Big game studios or not, they all can become cannon fodder at review time if their product is sub par. I think reviewers should be honest and true. The gaming industry is worth billions of dollars and they should be developing great games with those kinds of financial assets behind them. Each title is roughly $60 whether it be for PC or a console. Replay value is a big factor with games and it should be. The awesome thing about these simulators is that you could very likely play for years. True, you could get burned out but overall, the game is still fresh no matter how much time you spend apart from it. This is especially true of Silent Hunter 3.

03-01-10, 08:02 AM	#1
Uber Gruber Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	UBI demands HIGH review score from magazine (report) Taken from http://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-d...--154456.phtml ""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." As UBI is also the publisher of the highly controversial SHV title, I thought this might be of interest to our rather impotent community.

03-01-10, 08:11 AM	#2
Safe-Keeper Ocean Warrior Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Norway Posts: 3,234 Downloads: 11 Uploads: 0	Wow. I wonder how common this is, "bribing" reviewers by giving them an early shot at reviewing the game, in return for high ratings? __________________ First Strike Mod tester. Hardcore sub skipper.

03-01-10, 08:18 AM	#3
Ragtag Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 654 Downloads: 163 Uploads: 0	I've never experienced any distributor trying to bribe us for a good review. Not even Ubisoft. I'm not sure what to believe about this. __________________ Intel I7-7800x CPU. 16Gb G.skill DDR4 3600MHz. Asrock Taichi X299 mb Palit RTX 2080Ti. Fortron 1000W PSU. BenQ XR3501R LCD.

03-01-10, 08:35 AM	#5
Turbografx Old Stormalong Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The Gret Stet of Loosiana Posts: 232 Downloads: 104 Uploads: 0	This is not uncommon. I remember some hoopla about a similar situation with Fable, Oblivion, Kane & Lynch, Arkham Asylum and maybe Fallout 3. Mostly they target the most popular/common magazines. Which has contributed to reviews from them becoming near worthless imo. In edition to this, if a magazine gives a game a negative review, they can say goodbye to future review copies. @Dowly, the K&L story is true, Gamespot sold out around the turn of the century. Last edited by Turbografx; 03-01-10 at 08:47 AM.

03-01-10, 08:44 AM	#6
HundertzehnGustav Sea Lord Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Lux, betw. G, B and F Posts: 1,898 Downloads: 66 Uploads: 0	I trust Neal... fact that he gor a copy long after the others got one tells me he aint bought. he has got an audience that is very demanding, giving hm an early copy, traded for a good score, would have made me supicious. He got his one late, for what ever reason, and put it through its paces properly. no quick Job, nothing rushed, and also took a look at the more "difficult" subjects. Game mags want to sell... its their business. It aint Neal's. __________________ In conclusion: SH3 is the shizzle, yo. -Frau Kaleun Another negative about using your deck gun is that you are definately DETECTED, which has long term effects on your relationship with aircraft. -snestorm

03-01-10, 08:28 AM	#4
Dowly Lucky Jack Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Finland Posts: 25,053 Downloads: 32 Uploads: 0	It's my understanding that it is fairly common, atleast when it comes to big and popular review sites/magazines. It might not be anything to do from the publisher's side, but more from the reviewer's side to keep the publisher happy by giving the game a good score and thus keep good relations to the big game houses. You only need to go and read Halo 2 & 3 reviews to see which mags/sites are just brown-nosing and which aren't. Of course, some of the reviews that have higher score than they should can be due to the huge hype some games have, which then affects the reviewer and instead of judging the game from neutral POV, he rides the hype and sees everything through glasses of awesomeness. I've pretty much lost trust to any but one gaming magazine (well that and Yahtzee ). EDIT: Ow and then there's of course the case where reviewer from Gamespot got supposedly fired because he gave Kane & Lynch a bad score. But I didn't follow that so closely, so no idea if that was just a rumour or not. EDIT2: Here's a link to the gamespot thingy: http://kotaku.com/328244/gamespot-ed...--lynch-review

03-01-10, 08:40 AM	#7
IanC Grey Wolf Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Running silent and deep Posts: 902 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	Good for that German magazine!

03-01-10, 05:07 PM	#11
Boyarpunk Stowaway Posts: n/a Downloads: Uploads:	Interesting! This is exactly why I ignore almost all "professional" gaming "journalism" when looking for honest reviews and opinions. Thanks to Uber Gruber for the link.

03-01-10, 05:23 PM	#12
Shakermaker Mate Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 54 Downloads: 3 Uploads: 0	How is this news? The story in the OP is from last year, it is not about Silent Hunter 5, and publishers buying good reviews is rampant and well documented. Plus reviews on sites like Gamespot or IGN are rubbish anyway. I prefer RockPaperShotgun and Kotaku because they don't hand out scores. Eurogamer isn't bad either, although they aren't giving the PC as much love as they used to do. Move to off-topic please. __________________ I've tried real-life but the graphics weren't very good.

03-03-10, 09:43 PM	#13
Capt. Friedhoffer Seaman Join Date: Mar 2010 Posts: 39 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Gametrailers.com is Fair At least in my opinion. Generally they almost exclusively produce reviews about Xbox and PS3 titles but they do have a section of their site dedicated to PC games. Silent Hunter 5 is listed on that page and I believe a video review is pending. From my experience with the site, I can tell you when they don't like something, they point it out in a big way. Often, they show the bug, glitch or bad game design in the review video. Big game studios or not, they all can become cannon fodder at review time if their product is sub par. I think reviewers should be honest and true. The gaming industry is worth billions of dollars and they should be developing great games with those kinds of financial assets behind them. Each title is roughly $60 whether it be for PC or a console. Replay value is a big factor with games and it should be. The awesome thing about these simulators is that you could very likely play for years. True, you could get burned out but overall, the game is still fresh no matter how much time you spend apart from it. This is especially true of Silent Hunter 3.