David Braben, Founder and Chairman of Frontier Developments (developer of the incredible Lost Winds on WiiWare), takes reviewers to task when it comes to their assessments on Wii games. Echoing similar recent criticisms from Electronic Arts' EA Sports President Peter Moore on review site Metacritic.com, Braben questions the source of Wii games' bad reviews. Unlike Peter Moore, Braben doesn't necessarily blame the website itself for the Wii games' dismissal.
You nosey lookie-loo you. Okay, get a snootful and read on...
Quote time begins now. Preach it Brother Braben:
"Ruling out a source of information is never a good idea. The main problem he is alluding to is that family games tend to get reviewed poorly, if at all, by many mainstream review sites, typically dropping 10 or more percentage points as a result. Anecdotally, this is because most reviewers are what are often called 'core gamers' - and these family-focused games tend to appeal less to them (us!)."
He continues:
"It throws up a difficult dilemma for those reviewers. Are they reviewing the game for those people likely to play it, or for those people who form the bulk of their readership? Clearly it has to be the latter, as that is why they are writing the review, why they are getting paid, but it devalues the accuracy of reviews as a measure of quality for family games, as most reviews are targeted at these 'core gamers', despite the fact the core gamer is unlikely to play it whatever the score."
Peter Moore made the argument that an game's advertisement in a women's magazine can drive just as much interest and consequently sales as a high review score. His argument is bolstered by numerous comparisons that could be made between high-reviewed but lower-selling games and low-reviewed but higher-selling ones. Mr. Braben explains how Frontier Developments deals with the conundrum:
"At Frontier we also use review scores as part of a forecasting process, but this is an indication of perceived quality, and this accuracy problem for family games is an issue that has to be allowed for. So, though I agree with Peter Moore that there is an issue here, it is more one with family games - indeed any games that do not include conventional dedicated gamers in their main audience - which are very common on Wii."
There's more:
"If there were an equivalent rating to Metacritic that only indexed family review sites, MetaFamilyCritic say, indexing the 'mommy bloggers' to which he refers, then he is not circumventing review sites - simply using a more appropriate collection that better match the audience."
More still or should I say 'Moore still':
"It is not really the Wii that Peter Moore is complaining about but reviews of family games in general. 'Core gamer' games on Wii still track forecasts based on Metacritic scores just fine."
The treehouse becomes that much more sawdust with comments like these. The establishment will have to see the sunlight either by choice or by force. Nintendo's revolution has changed forever how the business is to be perceived. Will reviewers - professional or amateur - adapt to the change?
Common cents exchanged with Eurogamer.net.
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