Reviews Matter, Study Shows

A new study by industry analysis firm EEDAR shows that videogame reviews do influence sales, and that influence even extends to people who haven't read the review -- because people who did read the review would recommend the game to a friend. Now, the study was only based on one game (Plants Vs. Zombies), and there are holes in the methodology. But it does seem to be another indicator that reviews are important to sales.

Also found in the study is that a demo of the game, if it's good, can overcome a negative review. Which argues for releasing a demo of your game (assuming, of course, that it's a good game and a good demo).

As a game publisher, you should strive to get your game widely reviewed. You should know the web sites that review games like yours, even if they only cover such a game occasionally. Find out how games are chosen for reviewing, and submit your game. Be prepared to use quotes from reviews, and ratings, in your marketing materials.

Of course, I'm assuming here that you get some good reviews. If you don't, you can just ignore them, though in the long run you're better off trying to figure out why you were criticized and fix those issues in a future release. (The real contrarian strategy here is to feature the bad reviews... "Find out why this game rated 65! So bad it's amazing!" Good luck with that...)