Oh Eidos...
Posted by Jeremy M. Zoss at 3:49 PM Nov 21, 2008
Sigh.
It seems that Lara Croft's bosses at Eidos are at it again. Reports began trickling out this morning that Eidos UK's PR representatives have asked reviews of the latest Tomb Raider game to be held until Monday - but only if they are less than 80%. Gaming public, I know you know why this qualifies as a terrible move on Eidos' part, so just continue looking at the pretty ladies above. Those of you who need a history lesson can learn about "Gertsmann-Gate" here, and anyone who's interested can read the post from Gaming247 that broke the news below the jump.
From Gaming247:
Eidos UK PR firm Barrington Harvey has confirmed that British sites are being asked not to post Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews with scores lower than 80 percent until Monday.
The game releases today for 360 and PS3.
Gamespot UK journalist Guy Cocker revealed the tactic in a Twitter post on Wednesday that said: “call from Eidos–if you’re planning on reviewing Tomb Raider Underworld at less than an 8.0, we need you to hold your review till Monday.”
Said a Barrington Harvey rep on the phone this afternoon: “That’s right. We’re trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos.”
When asked why, the spokesperson said: “Just that we’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.”
British site Eurogamer has already gone live with a 7/10 score, an act the rep said had caused “problems”.
OXM UK has also posted a 7.0 score.
The news is unlikely to go down well. Eidos’s efforts at controlling review scores are still fresh in the mind: it was a row over Gamespot’s 6/10 review of Kane & Lynch that cost popular US journalist Jeff Gerstmann his job.
Tomb Raider: Underworld’s Metacritic average stands at 78 percent.
Comments
Consumers are hurt most by this, it hinders a person's ability to get information on a product.
Why not a consumer rights movement in gaming?
Posted 11/21/2008 at 05:38:29 PMMaybe they should said not to review it all...
Posted 11/21/2008 at 06:00:25 PMThis is really quite chicken shit. After hearing about this I won't even rent this game.
Posted 11/25/2008 at 03:08:50 PMWhat a slap in the face of the consumer!
Maybe these gaming companies should focus more on not releasing terrible pieces of shit and not trying to rig the reviews.
Isn't this akin to the payola (sp?) contraversies of the 90's? Didn't the FCC or someone step in to stop that nonsense? Shouldn't someone step in and stop this crap too?
Good thing Eidos hasn't released anything decent in a decade, so they won't have much leverage against the media outlets.
I for one am glad that we have JD to give us the real story on these happenings!