Sega De-Listing Poor Sonic Titles
See Full ImageUpdate: This has been misinterpreted in several places. As it turns out, Sega isn't de-listing reviews from Metacritic; they're "de-listing" in terms of retail. They just won't make their low-scoring (i.e., the Metacritic reference) titles available to the public anymore. Sorry for the confusion.
Original Story:
You know how little kids cover their eyes after doing something bad, as if to say, "it didn't happen! If I don't see it, it didn't happen; it's not my fault"?
To get a look at how critics receive a particular title, fans flock to sites like Metacritic and GameRankings. It's basically doing your homework before opting to drop the cash. ...but what if the game you searched for wasn't there? In order to "increase the value of the brand," Sega has actually de-listed certain low-scoring Sonic games at Metacritic. You know, so they don't "confuse the consumer." This according to MCV citing Sega Senior Vice President, Jurgen Post.
"Any Sonic game with an average Metacritic has been de-listed. We have to do this and increase the value of the brand. This will be very important when more big Sonic releases arrive in the future.
We could make a lot of money on back-catalogue Sonic titles, but let’s keep the number of Sonic games available under control. Otherwise you can have cannibalisation. If there are ten Sonic games on the shelves, with people seeing Sonic Rush DS or Sonic Rush Adventure, this may not help our overall strategy."
Sega is preparing to launch a few new Sonic titles soon, including the more old-fashioned downloadable for the PSN/XBLA, Sonic 4, as well as Sonic Colors and Sonic Free Riders. Basically, Sega says they want to cater to both old and new fans of the speedy blue icon, and they don't want past failures tainting the new projects.
But...you can't erase your past. You did it. It's there. They're really going to take crappy Sonic games off Metacritic just because they were crappy? What if that starts to be the vogue thing to do...? Honestly, we didn't even know you could do this.
Tags: sega, sonic, sonic review scores, sonic games
10/7/2010 10:38:06 AM Ben Dutka
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Comments (35 posts)
Temjin001
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 10:59:48 AM
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Sega is such a disgraceful company. They survive because of their past legacy, yet today the majority of their games are some of the most poorly designed and lowest reviewed in the industry.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 10/7/2010 11:00:14 AM
1 up, 2 down
coverton341
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:02:29 AM
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My one big concern is, if this is possible; taking a game off of metacritic, then what is to prevent any publisher from removing low scoring games and then marketing it as the best thing since sliced bread?
In this man's humble opinion, I don't think Sega should be allowed to remove those games from metacritic. Like Ben said, some people read trusted reviews then go to sites like metacritic to see the overall opinion of the game before making a purchase. This reeks of BS.
1 up, 1 down
spiderboi
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:05:53 AM
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1 up, 1 down
frostface
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:10:05 AM
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0 up, 0 down
mexgeo86
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:14:58 AM
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0 up, 1 down
LimitedVertigo
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:30:13 AM
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What Sega has done is hurt their brand name far more than any rating on that site was hurting the Sonic name.
3 up, 1 down
coverton341
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:46:07 AM
2 up, 1 down
Jawknee
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:54:10 AM
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This reminds me of Charile Christ.
0 up, 0 down
jigokunohoono
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:58:27 AM
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i guess they feel bad about about how much these games suck
1 up, 1 down
RobiinzZ
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 11:59:30 AM
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i will judge the game being released, not there past games, and if the new one looks good, i will buy it Simple.
Unless every game they have made is awful,
which for sega, isn't the case.
1 up, 0 down
Snaaaake
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 12:08:23 PM
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And the best thing about it?
The relaxing and sweet BGM, I still remember exactly how it sounded lik.
0 up, 0 down
556pineapple
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 12:09:03 PM
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If it was published after Sonic and Knuckles, it's a bad Sonic game.
Hope it helps!
(here's hoping Sonic 4 will prove the exception)
1 up, 0 down
Ergi
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 12:58:10 PM
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Besides why would Metacritic even allow something like that?
Funny thing is they thought it would be better to not be sneaky about it and came up with these reasons.
1 up, 1 down
Lotusflow3r
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 1:43:55 PM
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1 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 1:51:32 PM
"it's the best Sonic since.....3!"
You make it sound like that's an accomplishment.
1 up, 2 down
Sol
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 2:09:32 PM
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0 up, 1 down
McClane
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 2:40:21 PM
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Anyway, I always wanted to try a good Sonic game, someone can recommend one?? I downloaded the demo version of the game where Sonic transforms into a werewolf, is that game good??
0 up, 0 down
Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 2:59:45 PM
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1 up, 0 down
LimitedVertigo
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 3:01:14 PM
0 up, 1 down
coverton341
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 4:42:18 PM
I think it's better to stop selling the games than to refuse to acknowledge they did poorly in reviews.
1 up, 0 down
Ergi
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 3:01:31 PM
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Last edited by Ergi on 10/7/2010 3:03:28 PM
2 up, 0 down
GuyverLT
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 3:51:32 PM
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Last edited by GuyverLT on 10/7/2010 3:54:41 PM
1 up, 1 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 4:00:01 PM
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4 up, 1 down
WorldEndsWithMe
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 4:48:05 PM
1 up, 0 down
Underdog15
Friday, October 08, 2010 @ 10:37:50 AM
Metacritic scores:
Final Fantasy VI - 91
Final Fantasy VII - 92
Final Fantasy VIII - 89
Final Fantasy IX - 93
Final Fantasy X - 92
Final Fantasy XII - 92
Final Fantasy XIII - 83
See the problem? It's 10% WORSE than it's predecessors! It doesn't keep up with the pace.
Guess which 2 FF's may SHOCK you as better metacritic entries?
Final Fantasy X-2 - 85
Final Fantasy XI - 85
Yeah... even the online game and the sequel to FFX did better... and spin-offs like Crisis Core and Tactics scored better too!!!
So.... there.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 10/8/2010 10:42:16 AM
1 up, 0 down
Alienange
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 4:07:23 PM
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2 up, 0 down
hadouken
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 9:15:06 PM
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0 up, 0 down
Lotusflow3r
Friday, October 08, 2010 @ 7:52:58 AM
0 up, 0 down
___________
Friday, October 08, 2010 @ 4:10:56 AM
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ill be buying sonic 4 next week, but sega better prey its the best thing since sliced bread, because if its not i swear to god it will be my last sega game for life!
0 up, 0 down
Beamboom
Friday, October 08, 2010 @ 4:13:14 PM
0 up, 0 down
WolfCrimson
Reply
Thursday, October 07, 2010 @ 10:54:31 AM
Last edited by WolfCrimson on 10/7/2010 10:54:40 AM