Take-Two: 'Review Bombing' Is A Serious Business Risk
Take-Two have commented on the trend of negative review campaigns by disgruntled gamers, insisting they can have a serious impact on business.
Many gamers use reviews as a way to determine if a game is worth their time and particularly their money, however when a large number of gamers negatively review a game in protest, it can have a much wider impact.
Algorithms used by digital storefronts like the PlayStation Store and Xbox Marketplace can be affected by a games review score. Games with a negative score are less likely to be promoted or recommended to gamers, increasing publisher costs on an advertising campaign to get eyes on the product.
While it's extremely unlikely that any such campaign would have an affect on Grand Theft Auto VI's sales, with millions of people expected to buy the game regardless of the advertising campaign or early reviews, it's an important point to note across the gaming industry. A targetted campaign towards a new game could cause it to flop and even put studios or publishers out of business.
Furthermore, obtaining and maintaining high ratings of our games on the third-party platforms on which we operate are important as they help drive players to find our games. If the ratings of any of our games decline or if we receive significant negative reviews that result in a decrease in our ratings, our games could be more difficult for players to find or recommend.
In addition, we may be subject to negative review campaigns or defamation campaigns intended to harm our ratings. Any such decline may lead to loss of players and revenues, additional advertising and marketing costs, and reputation harm.
On the flip side, it's also important that gamers have the ability to voice their concerns, and this can lead to positive changes which benefit players.
As recently as May 2024, Sony wanted gamers to link their Steam account to a PSN account in order to continue playing Helldivers 2 on PC. Gamers rebelled with a massive influx of negative reviews on Steam which eventually persuaded Sony to drop the requirement.
Take-Two also have first-hand experience of review bombing with the PS4 and Switch release of Red Dead Redemption last year. While there was nothing wrong with the game itself, some gamers were angered at the cost and the fact it was a port rather than a full remaster, leading to a large number of bad reviews which may have discouraged some genuine fans from buying the game.
Ultimately there's a fine line to tread for game developers and publishers, creating a product which brings in money while also ensuring gamers are happy with what they're paying for, however gamers should also be aware that their actions can have serious consequences on the gaming industry as a whole.
In my opinion, the biggest potential danger for Rockstar Games with GTA VI would be to hide content or features behind a paywall (such as GTA+), or by making GTA Online 'pay to win' with too much reliance on shark card purchases to progress in the game.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever reviewed a game badly as a protest? Will you buy GTA 6 regardless of its review scores?