Friday controversy! Eidos (remember: now owned by Square Enix) has flatly denied the allegations that it is trying to influence review scores of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Said allegations first popped up on The RAM Raider’s blog earlier today.
Quoth the Raider:
Several mags have their review code already, but have to sit on their reviews until a hateful embargo expires at the end of the month. But Eidos, ever the helpful fellows that they are, have been offering a way around this embargo. If you dedicate the cover of your mag to Arkham Asylum and guarantee a score of at least 90%, Eidos will allow you to run the review early.
To which Eidos has called a load of rubbish (scroll down):
With regards an article posted on RamRaider alleging that Eidos has fixed review scores for Batman: Arkham Asylum, we want to state that no discussions have been held about review scores with any magazines. In short there is simply not one shred of truth in this article, except for the title of the game.
Can I just say that I love the fact that there’s a guy out there called The RAM Raider who’s causing such a commotion? If only he used his obvious powers to draw attention to Wall Street excess…
You’ll recall that Eidos was involved with a bit of review score shenanigans about a year ago vis-à-vis Kane & Lynch.
Of course, in the year 2009 you’re certainly much better off just visiting your message board of choice to see what other like-minded gamers think about a game. Magazine reviews are sorta antiquated, IMO.
via Kotaku
UPDATE Let the record show that the word “influence” was spelled wrong in the headline. It’s not the first time, and it probably won’t be the last time.