Obsidian got fucked by Bethesda

[potatojohn]

Isn't the metacritic algorithm secret? Couldn't a publisher just donate 100k to MC to keep the score slightly below the contract threshold?

 

[Aeschylus]

Isn't the metacritic algorithm secret? Couldn't a publisher just donate 100k to MC to keep the score slightly below the contract threshold?

... it is the mean of all the reviews. It's not some big convoluted formula.

 

[villain of the story]

Basing a contract on such an arbitrary external source is just fucking nuts. I would understand if the contract said something like "a favourable reception of the game with the average score upwards of 80 on well known game journalism sites". I am also pretty fucking sure that MetaCritic editors are leeches on pay from several publishers. And no reason Bethesda wouldn't pay them to give a score "just short of 85" to avoid having to pay royalties.

 

[Saark]

Well, making sure the big review sites you pay off for your 95+ releases underrate FNV for the bugs YOUR FUCKING ENGINE is responsible for, kinda counts into it. Conspiracies everywhere...

 

[Jasede]

I don't know. I love MCA, most of us do. And I can even kind of forgive all the crap Obsidian is (forced?) to make. But whoever said they should never have agreed to such a rotten deal has a point.

But if you think about why they would agree to that in the first place the conjectures are pretty dire. You don't agree to a deal like that unless you're on a sinking ship.

=/

 

[Stabwound]

Yeah, it's hard to think of a worse and more arbitrary condition for receiving a bonus for designing a game. The only thing that would have made sense was basing it on sales figures. It's well known that reviews are bought and sold on big sites these days and I'm sure the guys at Obsidian know that.

Bethesda's actions are fucking disgusting. I hope this is spread across more sites; people need to know about this. It's on a lot of news sites but none of them mention that it's Bethesda, their beloved Skyrim developer, are the ones behind it.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I recall some industry insider (was it Sven Vincke?) mentioning the 85+ Metacritic bonus as something relatively commonplace in publishing deals.

 

[Turisas]

Bethesda's actions are fucking disgusting. I hope this is spread across more sites; people need to know about this. It's on a lot of news sites but none of them mention that it's Bethesda, their beloved Skyrim developer, are the ones behind it.

You seem to be under the impression that the masses would give a fuck. Oh sure, they might join some bullshit protest group in facebook, or maybe even sign a petition at petitiononline.com, but as soon as Bethesda announces their next game they'll be lapping it all up.

 

[Morgoth]

Nice article from Kotaku

Bethesda of course hasn't responded yet.

 

[Stabwound]

Yeah, that's true. I feel bad for MCA and Obsidian because it's crazy how much you can fuck up with a single tweet. Bethesda is disgusting, but saying what he did publicly is going to have some serious repercussions. The news of his tweet is everywhere.

 

[Volourn]

FFS Obsidian fucked Obsidian. Theya greed to the fukkin' contract. Blame fukkin' them for their failure. FFS

 

[Morgoth]

"Serious repercussions" for stating a fact?

If Bethesda can't stow that then they should either man the fuck up or just fuck off entirely.

 

[Stabwound]

It might be a fact, but he also deleted the tweet after he posted it. I'm sure the details of the business agreement between Obsidian and Bethesda were under an NDA.

 

[Havoc]

Wasn't that a fact WAY before? Just after FNV came out?

 

[Morgoth]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/57290-layoff-hits-obsidian/page__view__findpost__p__1166380

One of the Metacritic reviews for Fallout: New Vegas, by a German reviewer from a website known as Gamestar, is actually not for Fallout: New Vegas. It is for the Honest Hearts DLC, which he gives a 72%, rated as 'Gut' (Good). That review (as well as the overview where you can check the score) are available here:
http://www.gamestar....arts/46936.html
http://www.gamestar....36,2323023.html

It's in German, but the URL and a simple google translate both make it abundantly clear that this is a review for the Honest Hearts DLC. Now, this is where things get interesting.

This same reviewer also reviewed Fallout: New Vegas itself. The kicker? He gave it an 88%, 'Sehr Gut' (Very Good). The New Vegas review (and overview with score) is available here:
http://www.gamestar....egas/44882.html
http://www.gamestar....82,2318592.html

Now, obviously, this is something of a screw up on Metacritic's part. Not only have they posted an incorrect review, but an incorrect review with a considerably lower score. I don't know if this is something that Obsidian's staff are already aware of, or if it is too late to change things now, or even if this would have been enough to tip you over the edge into a score of 85 at all - but I thought it was worth bringing it to your attention.
I have a great respect for Obsidian as a company, and consider you to have some of the finest writers in the current videogame RPG climate (in fact, I consider working as a writer at Obsidian a possible career goal of mine) and I would hate to see you suffering as a company because of a simple misunderstanding or mistranslation.

Unbelievable. That one mistake cost Obsidian some fat royalties? Somebody needs to fuck up somebody now.

 

[Saark]

You seem to be under the impression that the masses would give a fuck. Oh sure, they might join some bullshit protest group in facebook, or maybe even sign a petition at petitiononline.com, but as soon as Bethesda announces their next game they'll be lapping it all up.

Exactly. Unlike Bioware who shat on their fans and franchises with their recent releases and has lost a lot of fans, Bethesda still has shitloads of them that will come and lick their dicks the moment someone is gonna call Bethesda out for squeezing Obsidian by their balls. Looks like we need another...

Fallout
.

 

[Jasede]

I'm a little worried our dear leader might lose his job...
Maybe he can crash on DarkUnderlord's couch.

 

[Renegen]

Yeah, that's true. I feel bad for MCA and Obsidian because it's crazy how much you can fuck up with a single tweet. Bethesda is disgusting, but saying what he did publicly is going to have some serious repercussions. The news of his tweet is everywhere.

Let's not take things out of hand, the gaming "journalists" report on anything. Hell they report on things that 4chan invents just to troll them. They must churn out a certain number of articles every period. You understand NDAs, great for you, but it doesn't mean this story is any different from any of the other tweets that were immediately taken down.

 

[likaq]

This is the best proof that current publishing model must fucking die.

 

[curry]

RPGCodex twitter person should ask MCA if the tweet was worth it

I hope he gets fired from Obsidian, though, because then he can start his own Kickstarter project

Maybe he planned the whole thing

 

[Darth Roxor]

This made me rage on a whole new level. Each time I think those fucking shitbag publishers won't surprise me with anything new, they come up with a brand new play in the theatre of the absurd that makes me want to go bedlam.

And I don't think it's 'bad' that MCA tweeted that. It probably will bite Obsidian in the arse, true. But sometimes you just gotta stand up and shout. There's only so much dick you can take in your butt before it comes out through your mouth. And while I'm not seriously expecting this to start any glorious revolution in the name of Avellone, this is still, at least, another brick in the campaign to tell publishers to go fuck themselves. It might even have some more impact now with all the kickstarter craze that further portrayed big publishers as the cunts that they are, given directly by big dev names like Fargo and Schafer.

Here's hoping that something finally fucking changes. After all, in this cesspit we inhabit, it only takes a slip.

 

[CrustyBot]

Obsidian fucked over by publisher, Codex rages.

News at 11.

...

fucking Bethesda. They used metacritic instead of sales as the metric to be measured for bonuses because they knew Obsidian's historically struggled with metacritic scores due to all the bugs in their games, and the lack of bribes for reviewers. Fucking fucker.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

Never giving Bethesda another fucking cent.

 

[Grimlorn]

Even if that 88 brings their score up above 85, Bethesda will just claim the NDA was violated with his tweet and they get nothing.

Unsure if they need an 85 in all 3 platforms. PC and 360 got 84, PS3 got 82.

 

[SCO]

I'm going to repeat myself:
Very easy to skew a average with a single outlier. Any example of that here? A "55%" or something? Or did they went all out and got lots of sites giving out 81%?