According to Take Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick, the scores reviewers give games can have serious effects on their ability to sell. He asserts that the influence of Metacritic and other reviews mean "making good games just isn't good enough," saying that to sell, "games need to be great."
Zelnick was speaking at a Wedbush Morgan conference, covered by Gamasutra , where he said that "Unlike many other entertainment business ... ratings by Metacritic and others' reviews really can influence the success of a newly-released title."
"In fact, if your ratings go below a certain level, it can really hurt your ability to sell the title, and above a certain level can make a real difference in your success."
Last year Metacritic found that Take Two were the highest scoring publisher, ahead of EA and Nintendo. Take Two are the company behind games like Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto IV and Red Dead Redemption.
Zelnick says that in order to sell well, games need to stand out, and be better than before. "I believe good is the new bad. ... Games need to be great." What do you think? How much attention to you pay to reviews ?
