Statistically Assessing Attitudes in Game Reviews: IGN and Gamespot Scores on Nintendo 64

17 Comments

1. Would be really interested to see the data with Author taken into account. Perhaps there are a couple more prolific authors on either site that consistently score higher or lower on games, sagging or inflating their averages?
   Edit: maybe a good starting point to see if it's worth looking into is by looking at the authors on the 20+ point difference reviews

2. I've joked with my friends that taking an IGN score and subtracting 2 is likely a more accurate review score of a given game, which is of course a statistically fallacious statement for the sake of cheap comedy. What I'm surprised to see is that GameSpot apparently tend to agree with my joke in earnest!

3. IGN has always been a little generous in their review scores, IMO. But maybe I’m just overly critical of games.

   Came here from TGC. Congrats on the sub boost today. I like your channel, so I’ll give you one more sub.

4. Knew I could count on TGC for a good recommendation. This channel is quickly becoming a new favorite of mine.

   Now, a list of demands.

   (just kidding, these are obviously ideas/requests)

   #1 – PLEASE tackle the same topic but with the PlayStation and/or PlayStation 2. My gut tells me that Gamespot had a bias – maybe not toward Sony as a company (that would be getting a little too conspiracy theorist for my tastes), but toward the style, tone, etc. of the games published on their system.Even if IGN's scores are still higher than theirs for PlayStation games, that analysis would still reveal whether the two publishers were closer to the average for that console as well as how PlayStation review scores across the biggest publishers compare to the review scores for N64.

    #2 – Going off of that, a topic I'd really like to see you tackle in the future considering all you've had to say about the Dreamcast is why the PlayStation rose to dominance in the first place. You could look at how quality of the games on each of the prominent systems of the time differed, how games sold compared to consoles sold, what changed as certain developers like Square Enix jumped ship, etc.

   #3 Finally, I don't suppose you'd be interested in giving the GameCube the same treatment you gave the Dreamcast back in your Hazuki Wall video, would you?
   It obviously didn't fall as hard, but considering how much attention GameCube games still get today – especially from the core Nintendo fanbase – I sure would like to see how it faltered and failed to truly get off the ground (too bad it doesn't have a single event to mark a shift, like the release of the PS2 for the Dreamcast, but I would like to see if people really believed in the GameCube at first and then it faltered, or if it was doomed to mediocre sales from the start).

5. This shows you you check multiple reviews for games before you give your opinion on if you should buy it or not.

6. im shocked the ign average score was as low as 72. If you did this analysis for more recent titles would it be something like an 8.6?

7. I'm always in favor of review sites being more critical in their reviews. When a site like IGN constantly gives out such high scores, it feels more like an advertisement for the games than a proper review (*not* saying IGN staff were paid by publishers to score high).

8. Wow dude I subbed immediately after seeing how awesome your content is
   The geek critique did right for showing your channel off!!!

9. I came here because of TGC and I love your channel!

10. Of all the games you listed, I haven't played one of them. I kind of feel most N64 games were meh and tended to side with Gamespot reviews over IGN during this period. Another great video.

11. Man this video is so much fun. Please do this for more consoles! The finale with the massive score differences was just so damn interesting and fun to watch unfold.

12. I wonder if it's an editorial decision? For instance I know Polygon editors decide title and score numbers and not the writer. I wonder if some logic to their scoring system in general accounts for the lower numbers at Gamespot?

13. I always trust Game Spot reviews over IGN. I was convinced when Arkham Knight came out and although I enjoyed it a lot more than the Game Spot reviewer he clearly pointed out all the flaws people would later take issue with while the IGN review was less concerned with the flaws.

14. IGN to me always felt like the far more generous one. In no world do obviously flawed games like Uncharted 3, Last of Us or Skyward Sword deserve a masterpiece title and a perfect 10. Gamespot was always to me a bit more consistent.

15. I was surprised to see Pokemon Stadium have such a large discrepancy. That's not a game I would generally consider divisive.

16. I have always thought Gamespot was overly critical in their reviews, not just for N64 games, but in general. On the other hand I've always thought IGN was the most consistant place to find fair reviews.

17. nice video. 1 question I have is if both companies put there review out at the same time or did one get to read the others and put their disagreeing review out later to spite the other company.