Atari sues to suppress bad reviews

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Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude

Sonny, I Watched the Vault Bein' Built!
MG said:
Alone In The Dark has been highly anticipated but when it was finally released, initial reviews were not that encouraging.

Based on 13 reviews, Alone in the Dark scored an average of 55% with highest scoring review of 74% and lowest score of 30%.

German gaming website 4Players' review score of 68% was one of the highest scores Alone in the Dark received, but they still got served by a lawsuit filed by Atari seeking the negative review to be pulled off.

In their lawsuit, Atari claimed that 4Players' review date indicates that it was based on a "pirated or review" copy of the game. On their website, 4Players argued that they procured a copy through a retail connection who sold them a copy of the game before its European June 20 street date.

This lawsuit against 4Players is the only legal action Atari took until now, but several other websites claim to have been asked firmly to pull off negative reviews. "Atari contacted us just minutes after it was published, claiming that our review is probably based on a preview or pirated copy, and requested it to be removed", said Gamer.no's Tor-Steinar Nastad Tangedal. "We never removed it, of course." Gamer.no granted Alone in the Dark a 30% score.

Norwegian site GameReactor also granted the game a 30% score before removing the review silently. The review was later reinstated and the 30% score stands.

Atari is still maintaining a No Comment stance.
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MegaGames
Kotaku
NGOHQ
Slashdot

Big publishers manipulating reviews to spur sales of trashy games isn't anything new, but filing a lawsuit under the guise that the site in question reviewed a pirated copy (most likely one that was pulled early from a retail outlet before the game officially went on sale)?


Cmon Atari; cut your losses and do better next time.
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=154462

As you can see Eurogamer has also reviewed the new Alone in the Dark game giving it a 7/10 score when reviewing it. Interestingly, enough, Eurogamer hasn't been threathened with a lawsuit from Atari - not yet anyway.

As far as I can understand from the Eurogamer review the game's problem seems mostly to stem from the game's user interface. The story, the gameplay etc. seems to be worth a least an 8.0 or maybe even a 9.0 out of 10.

But going as far as to sue the sites that has given the game a lower score than Atari expected, there's a stretch, I find.
 
Stretch? It's goddamn outrageous.

Magazines aren't allowed to write bad reviews anymore?
 
Tried the game at a friend's yesterday : sue me Atari but your game rather blows...

Stiff animation, rather bad graphics, a handful of bugs, SUCKY interface...Bad

The worst thing is that it looks rather cool at first but as soon as the fire starts within the building, you can TELL the game sucks.
 
That is a shame to hear MrBumble, I was actually looking forwards to that game but I already heard some rumors here and there.
 
Suing for writing a review from a pirated copy: Ok. I understand.

Threating people to sue for using a pre-released retail edition of the game: Morally, you're a douchebag. Ethically, you're still a douchebag, but I guess you have some kind of right to be upset. I bet you wouldn't be complaining if they gave you a good review.

Threatening people to sue for writing a bad review, on the grounds that they may have used a pre-released retail version: I hope your business bombs. This is why Steam rocks. It's cuts the resource-sucking producer out of the equation if a developer chooses so.
 
crap, a friend of mine worked as a level designer on AitD... i hoped he'd have an awesome first (professional) game.

damn it. :(
 
I've heard only good things about the game. The only bad parts were the driving segments. Other than that, based on what I heard about it, I'm definitely checking it out.
 
Aye, I've heard mixed things about it so far. It's too bad as the series could really use a reboot a la Tomb Raider.

As for Atari? Is anyone surprised? Publishers fight for positive press... and unfortuantely cause themselves even more trouble.
 
I read couple months back this oldest finnish gaming magazine called Pelit. In their main article was intresting story how they wouldve been sued if they were to publish a bad review of some game they had reviewed in that months release.
They didnt say which game it was but they mentioned it deserved more than the 8 that was needed that they could put that review in their mag.

I didnt know this was even possible.... can game companies actually say to some gaming magasine that they wont be allowed to review game. At least im assuming reviewers cant be sued particularly just about writing bad review, so it has have to do something with reviewing game that havent been publicly released or some such?
 
Mutoes said:
I didnt know this was even possible.... can game companies actually say to some gaming magasine that they wont be allowed to review game.
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First, let's get one thing straight: Atari is suing because they believe 4players.de used an illegitimate copy or a copy that was unrepresentative of the final product. In both cases they have some grounds for a suit: you can't review based on a preview copy, and you sure as hell can't review a pirated copy, both actions are illegal.

Of course, the ground motive of Atari is the low rating. Bad PR on their side.

As for the other bit: publishers can attach contractual obligations to preview copies, including "if the score is less than 9/10, do not publish before street date". I've never seen preview copies attached to absolute minimum scores, but I think that happens more as a trade-off for exclusives.

They usually don't - note - they usually just *ask* "do not publish low scores before street dates", and most major gaming sites/mags oblige. That's how they became major gaming sites/mags.
 
Wooz said:
Stretch? It's goddamn outrageous.

Magazines aren't allowed to write bad reviews anymore?
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yeah...i am not surprised.i wrote a review at gamespot for mass effect and i complained about some issues of the game.
what did they do ?
they delete my review and told me that they would ban me if i complained about the game again !
 
Vault 13 said:
yeah...i am not surprised.i wrote a review at gamespot for mass effect and i complained about some issues of the game.
what did they do ?
they delete my review and told me that they would ban me if i complained about the game again !
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What, in your blog? You can write whatever you want there, unless you swear or insult people. Which I'm guessing you did?
 
Brother None said:
Vault 13 said:
yeah...i am not surprised.i wrote a review at gamespot for mass effect and i complained about some issues of the game.
what did they do ?
they delete my review and told me that they would ban me if i complained about the game again !
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What, in your blog? You can write whatever you want there, unless you swear or insult people. Which I'm guessing you did?
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I didn't swear.
Not a single word.I just complained about some of the games issues.
and it wasn't in my blog.you can write reviews in gamespot.there is a section for user reviews and such for each game.
 
Vault 13 said:
I didn't swear.
Not a single word.I just complained about some of the games issues.
and it wasn't in my blog.you can write reviews in gamespot.there is a section for user reviews and such for each game.
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I have a hard time believing that. There are plenty of negative user reviews, why would they delete yours? There is some other reason it got deleted, I assure you.
 
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