Im sure the gam will be very good, but any negatives will be either ignored or downplayed by the reviewers, they dont want to have another Redfall disaster.
ReviewGate: Bethesda and Microsoft are micromanaging Starfield's review MetaScore - in the open!
- Thread starter KnittedKnight
- Start date
Scumbag tactics… it shows that they are wary and have doubts about the presentation of the game.Over the last couple of days several gaming media outlets and Youtube personalities have expressed concern, bewilderment, and anger at the fact that Bethesda and MS have withheld sending them review copies of the "highly anticipated" game Starfield. The list of outlets and youtubers being left out is numerous and by no means niche and unknown. Many are staples of the gaming press and community. The known so far include:
Link Eurogamer
Link Guardian
Link Axios
Link MetroUK
SkillUp
Link Edge
Link RockPaperShotgun
Link Dexerto
If you know of others leave a comment below to add to the growing list.
There is undoubtedly many other reviewers that have yet to publicly speak out. Many outlets and youtubers may refrain from letting their voices be heard for fear of burning bridges with Microsoft, a prominent known sponsor in gaming. Moreover, access, the name of the game, keeps the light on for many.
Naturally the first thing that comes up to people's mind is that this may simply have been the case of someone at Bethesda or MS fucking up somewhere along the pre-release rollout. However evidence that has come forth suggest the contrary. The evidence suggest that there is a careful cherry picking of outlets that receive the codes and those who do not. The list of reviewers being left out include so many notorious names that theorizing and chalking this behavior up as Bethesda/Microsoft simply withholding reviews from a couple clickbait sites or console warrior shills, that do not deserve the codes, goes out the window. Ironically, well known console warrior Youtubers and Xbox shills like ColtEastwood, Parris Lily and others are getting review codes.
The notable of firsts to break ranks and open the floodgates on what was going on was Eurogamer. After Eurogamer mustered the courage to speak out, many others also started to come out to add their name to the list and express their frustration.
Here's Eurogamer regarding the situation: https://www.eurogamer.net/eurogamer-and-bethesda-starfield
So the situation is as follows. Digital Foundry, an Eurogamer partner and off-shoot gets priority access to a review copy of the game but Eurogamer staff itself is not given a copy nor allowed to share with and use DF’s copy of the game for proper review purposes - explicitly requested by Bethesda itself.
Bethesda and Microsoft here show the explicit intent in locking out Eurogamer’s reviewing team from access, despite plenty of abundance and availability of review copies/codes.
What is clear here is that DF’s shilling for MS/Xbox over the years, spearheaded by Richard Leadbetter, has paid off in spades in terms of priority access. So much so, that in the shilling pyramid, Eurogamer itself is at the bottom, while DF is at the very top.
Since the posting of the article by Eurogamer, Bethesda and MS quickly provided a review code to Eurogamer. MS/Bethesda did this to obviously stamp out the PR damage coming their way. Due to the nature of reviews, it's unlikely that Eurogamer staff will have a review ready in the short span of two days before the review embargo is lifted and reviews go live – which is exactly the whole point of the exercise.
The strategy comes to the fore:
Goal: Improve Starfields Metacritic/Opencritic Score.
#1: Shrink the pool and number of potentially negative reviews (or objective reviewers if you suspect your game has several clear flaws):
#2: Ensure that initial embargo day reviews are mostly positive:
- Withhold review copies for selected outlets/individuals. This usually drives up the MetaCritic Score of a game provided the reviews that do register on MetaCritic are positive.
- If outlets and individuals complain of being left out, correct the issue on a case by case basis. By the time those outlets and individuals complain and receive review copies, most, if not all will miss the critical embargo date. Thus, the initial metacritic average score that goes into making a first impression on consumers, as well as serving as ammunition for marketing hype will be largely positive and unaffected by the potentially suspect reviews that trickle later down the line, post embargo day.
- Limit exposure to outlets with a 5 star review ranking system. 5/5 = 100. 4/5 = 80, 3/5 = 60. You get the point.
All of this smells of desperation. Desperation by Microsoft/Bethesda to provide a media darling and hit after a decade + of mediocrity and failures.
- Send review copies to sites known to have a positive or compromised relationship with Microsoft/Bethesda regarding coverage, whether that be gaming media sites, say IGN, Polygon, etc, or Youtubers and influencers like ColtEastwood, Parris Lily and the other members of the MS/Xbox cult. Cultivate that relationship - via access or other means. Sometimes a group photo, or lunch can do wonders.
- Play dumb, stupid and innocent all throughout.
- Cash in.
For MS it's imperative to land a hit when console sales of Xbox Series are declining YoY % wise at the prime of a console's lifecycle. It's specially pressing when Sony's PlayStation 5, the direct competition is breaking sales records and gobbing up market share. Heading into the holiday season with a good step forward is an absolute must for Xbox.
Bethesda on the other hand is pressured to deliver for MS, after the acquisition, to show the new bosses their worth. This is specially true after a string of duds, including Redfall's disaster. The duds (underperfoming games - critics reception wise, sales wise or both) were part of the reason Zenimax was in trouble ....troubles which had Zenimax accepting exclusivity deals with Sony or whomever was willing to pay - ultimately accepting the generous MS buyout.
Defaulting to such poor strategies like micromanaging MetaScores to fake the hype, to manage perception and create a false perception of reality is not the answer to MS or Bethesda's problems.
A bit more on the shenanigans: https://hitpoints.substack.com/p/159-gaming-the-system
What is a MetaScore? https://www.metacritic.com/about-metascores
Him and a few others are like the only ones focusing on this.
Remember when Phil Spencer attacked reviewers over poor reviews of Recore
www.vg247.com
Xbox boss Phil Spencer thinks some bad reviews are written just for clicks
"I didn't try to tell anybody that [Recore] was a ten."
www.vg247.com
This controlled crap from MS about Starfield must backfire if there's some justice.
Is there any doubt after the 87 meta of halo infinite?
Jup Microsoft did it with Halo Infinite and now doing it with Starfield. Halo Infinite never deserved those high scores at all.
I don't care. I'll be too busy playing Baldur's Gate 3 during all my free time to even look at other games' reviews.
Lol WTF? Is this list correct?
Lol WTF? Is this list correct?
Giving out review codes only to paid shills is a massive red flag for the publisher, and for the game.
I wonder what the delta in metascores will be between the review embargo date and 2 weeks post release.
I wonder what the delta in metascores will be between the review embargo date and 2 weeks post release.
Correct. But Nick's site does, but usually they literally only dew xbox titles. Like they gave redfall a 8.5? Yet gave a none first party title Armored Core a 6?
Kidsmooth literally has spewed racists remarks towards Lina KHan because FTC apposed ABK deal. And Coleastwood literally spews misinformation.
Meh, they likely just all have connections.
Redfalls hot trash. Idk how anyone could give it an 8.5
No it's been documented Colteastwood, Cog from iron Lords podcast among others were flown out this year for Xbox's E3. They also were the same people who went to the redfall preview back in March and only ones who spoke up about issues was Giant Bomb.
They straight up are getting some kind of close relationship treatment from Microsoft.
Mystic is to me the #1 non podcast format for Playstation youtubers. ANd guy does not get anything from Playstation.
Microsoft has a history of doing this with toxic channels, and publications. Knowing they will get good coverage/press.
Phil spencer went on Kinda Funny Xcast main reason is there's cross connections with old IGN. On top of Parris literally works closely with Xbox. And go watch them they literally sound like they just spew stuff from a pre-made script.
Any one from Greg Miller's side has very little integrity. I have literally video from pax east 2013 of him shilling for EA, and then during a summer game fest he was paid as a presenter by EA the same year fallen order came out.
This girl who works for ign is getting roasted
Even though she hasn't played the game, her takes are something you could only have if you've either played/seen the game your self or spoken to somebody who has played it.
But she backtracks here saying her opinion was from reveals. How could you have those takes just base of the reveals? She's probably seen it as ign have it or spoke to the reviewer and now damage controlling.
Even though she hasn't played the game, her takes are something you could only have if you've either played/seen the game your self or spoken to somebody who has played it.
But she backtracks here saying her opinion was from reveals. How could you have those takes just base of the reveals? She's probably seen it as ign have it or spoke to the reviewer and now damage controlling.
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Already has. She's protected her tweets, no doubt because the xbox cultists are attacking her.