Review Bombings Make Things Worse For Bordelands 3 On Steam

@neatfeatguy: Pretty much how I feel about this whole thing.

I wish we had a way to legally own a game on PC without actually giving money to the publishers, for situations like this one. On consoles they have used games. It's kinda silly to think that the closest thing we have to that is piracy.

@saint311: ""Trolling" is doing something for a reaction. Plain and simple, at its base definition."

sounds like protesting to me as well, a public area on display where the dev can't delete messages or pretend it doesn't exist (like their forums)

@saint311: im a happy gamer and I understand what Trolling means. Due to lack of other means of voicing dissatisfaction with a product they own due to what is perceived as a greedy business decision, customers can use their purchase as a token of limited power, and they do, and its clever.

People will learn. Instead of saying that they are reviewing a game poorly due to a business decision in the future, they will simply review it poorly without specifying why...or false reasons.

At the end of the day, its cause and effects. The business decision nets them more money at the cost of customer satisfaction. This is paid in a different way and this is the only way businesses can learn to work ethically instead of simply looking for extra cash and disregarding the playerbase.

At the end of the day, if you cannot support players voicing their dissatisfaction via means they have control over....You are doing yourself a disservice as a customer.

@jenilya: its funny how developpers who have ethical practices and value their customers do not have any issues. Its almost as if things were working the way they should.

But if you are ok with developpers being greedy and taking cash handouts while making you, the customer, having less options, and then chastising the same customer who has a legitimate concern, you are really only hurting yourself.

Cant fix stupid.

@Barighm: So if you go to a restaurant and for years they do fantastic and you have them at 5 stars but one day they get greedy and start penalizing you in some shape and form for the sake of their own pockets, you shouldnt review them to 1 star?

lol

they 10000% got exactly what they deserved. They arent happy with the consequences that their greed brought them and they are lashing at the customer who fed them which is a double negative on their part. Anyone still doing business with that sort of company is insane.

@Barighm: It's not lying if people are outright stating it's explicitly because of their business practice. Which, from looking, is exactly what ever single review is doing. So, that's really non-argument.

Your subjective opinion on if it deserves it doesn't really dictate other peoples. You're entitled to it, by all means, enjoy that freedom of expression.

@jenilya: Negative reviews are very important actually. Over 85% of potential customers look negative reviews when they want to make a purchase. Over 90% of customers actively search for online reviews. Negative reviews are important because they make businesses grow & focus on their mistakes.

Now for the current situation:

1) Borderlands 3 was announced as an exclusive game on the Epic Store. Meaning that other big stores (like Steam & GoG, but especially Steam which has 20% of the global market wont get it).

2) Epic prepaid the publisher 2K a sizeable amount for 1 year exclusivity. This is a move that has immediate benefits (quick money). But it also has significant risks (you limit yourself to a smaller audience etc).

3) There was a sizable amount of negative reviews (over 4000 reviews just on Steam). This data shows a significant portion of your player base has shown their discontent. This may become problematic.

4) Lets assume that Borderlands doesnt get that many sales on Epic as the devs hoped. Now the data/marketing teams will have a possible causality (the amount of negative reviews 1 tear before) that they can directly link with the less than expected sales. This can happen but it also cant happen.

5) After the 1 year exclusivity ends, how will people that missed the game react? Games have a low life cycle & usually 1 year later the majorly discounted GOTY editions arrive. Will they buy BL3 for a 60$ price? IMO I dont think so. Lets remember that successes like GTA PC Edition (with extra FPS mode, extra car models, new missions etc) are quite uncommon in the industry.

@jenilya: Blame publishers and developers' actions. If they'd consider where the money from their games stems from, they'd consider asking gamers about this stuff before actually doing it. Review bombs aren't some random act of god.

@ninnymugginz: Here you go:

Mekazoo.

@bbq_R0ADK1LL: Apparently there's a market for old games. If there wasn't, the NES and SNES classic would have flopped and GOG wouldn't be still be adding older games to their store front.

It might be an autocorrect blunder, but in this case, it's fitting.

@Barighm: Businesses seem too focused on money to care about consumers, so that's the only thing that can be targeted to get them to properly undo their mistake.

@Bread_or_Decide: Which is a problem as publishers and developers get off Scott free for their actions. Well, maybe Valve will allow Developers and Publishers to be reviewed in the future. It's being suggested on Steam already. Should mitigate bad game reviews to a more fitting target and cover all their products.