Gamertell

Oh Edios, will you guys ever learn? A majority of gamers still remember the mess that was dubbed “Gerstmanngate” after former executive editor, Jeff Gerstmann, was allegedly fired over his negative review of Eidos’ Kane & Lynch game. Opinions were all over the map about the incident and it looks as though debaters will have another incident with the premise that Eidos - or at least Eidos’ PR company - is trying to get reviewers to hold negative reviews of Tomb Raider Underworld until this upcoming Monday (November 24, 2008), days after the game launch (November 21, 2008).

GameSpot UK writer, Guy Cocker, posted up on his Twitter:

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.

After the story of Cocker’s Twitter post made rounds (probably his highest read Twitter post yet), Videogaming247.com got in contact with Barrington Harvey, a UK public relations firm, to which a representative told VG247 that:

That’s right. We’re trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos. 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.

This as you can guess, is a major no-no.

Not only does this place a hugely negative image on both Barrington Harvey and Eidos but consumer trust is hugely at risk, a consumer trust that has been dampened by the “Gerstmangate” fiasco, despite whatever may have happened. A later statement was made public by Simon Byron, a Barrington Harvey director, that tried to contain any negative perception that may have occurred as a result of the slip-of-tongue representative:

Barrington Harvey is not in the position of telling reviewers what they can and cannot say. We love Tomb Raider and believe it merits a score of at least 8/10, but if someone disagrees that’s entirely their prerogative. No problem at all. Seriously: no problem.

Our original NDA stated that in order to receive an advance copy of the game, reviewers agreed not to post reviews ahead of 5:00 pm, Wednesday 19th November 2008. Nothing else. No further obligations whatsoever.

As you can clearly see from the scores posted so far, Barrington Harvey has no issue with scores of below eight out of 10 being posted online. The Eurogamer review in questions caused “problems” in so much as it originally contained a couple of minor factual inaccuracies which, to its credit, the site has quickly rectified and addressed (without, quite rightly, changing the context of the review).

Any site, be it Gamespot or whoever, is entirely within their rights to post whatever score they want and no-one is under any sort of obligation to delay any review.

As an ex-journalist myself, I firmly believe in editorial integrity and the right to express an individual opinion. As an agency, we never - ever - make demands of the press in terms of awarding scores; at the end of the day, they are free to score as they wish.

Barrington Harvey has been working hard to ensure the launch scores of Tomb Raider Underworld are in line with our internal review predictions over the launch weekend - but to suggest that we can in some way “silence” reviews of the game is slightly overstating our influence.

As 1UP points out, the fact that the firm merely asked rather than demanded that outlets hold potentially negative reviews is still fairly fishy and probably doesn’t help to raise consumer confidence.

Not only do readers have to worry about gaming companies pull these kinds of stunts but what about media outlets? Most outlets have their reviews out already but what of the outlet whose running behind or received the game late? Will reviews posted this upcoming week be scrutinized because of these events?

It’s a mess that becomes too hard to clean up and despite not happening too often, stunts like these are a big deal in this industry because they affect everyone and in a time when reader and consumer confidence are shaky, this helps no one.

Read [Videogaming247.com] Also [1UP] Also Read [Shacknews] Also Read [GamerTell]