• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Do you think the review scores will hurt Starfield's sales?

DryvBy

Member
This game could score a 10/100 and people will buy it. It's Bethesda lol. I even dusted off my Xbox to try it out and that means finding AA batteries for my controller.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Already bought and downloaded, so no.

but it did help reset my expectations, so for that I am grateful.
 
No, Starfield is one of those games that are just too big to fail. Bethesda gets all that beloved Microsoft money, and their games sell like hotcakes independently of bugs, some lack of technical prowess, and being rough around the edges. You can resume in one word what justifies long-time sales for Starfield, and it is "MODS". 20 million lifetime sales for a game like this is too low just to give you an idea of how much this game will sell.
 

zeldaring

Banned
I mean anytime a game gets above a 93 it's gonna get way more hype and sales. Like 87 is a great score if it's your type of game, but if a game is a 94-95 I tend to wanna try it out even if it's not the type of game I'm really into.
 

TexMex

Member
That ecosystem has been starved for a massive first party AAA release for too long. Even with middling reviews (which they aren't) it will move millions.
 

Leonidas

Member
The performance and lack of DLSS will hurt worse. Will probably lead people like me to try it out on Game Pass before even considering buying it...
 

Gudji

Member
Can only speak for myself, was willing to buy it on steam if it got incredible reviews but I'm probably gonna wait for a big sale (which was the original plan anyways never fell into the hype like others).
 
Last edited:

The Shepard

Member
87 is not a bad score, it's actually a very good score. Now whether or not the game deserves this is what you should decide for yourself, after playing it of course, Like I plan to.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
You know the vast majority don't give a shit about scores right? They care about what their friends are playing or what the tv/tiktok tells them to play. If it looks cool they'll play it.

Do people really think the general public, who fucking adore CoD and FIFA, give a shit about some journalist on a website saying words?

It isn't like the game is a pile of poop or something. As an early poster pointed out, it's scoring the same as Spider-Man, which has now sold 20 million copies. Maybe don't go for hype and instead buy a game for your own interest. You'll never find any reviewer that completely meets your interest because you yourself are unique.
Yes, the general public 100% cares about metacritic scores and there is a strong correlations between good sales and a high metacritic score. COD, FIFA, and the like are yearly franchises and using them as evidence isn't being honest.

Baldur's Gate engagement skyrocketed AFTER the glowing reviews and its peak is top 10 all time on Steam. I can practically guarantee you that this wouldn't have been the case if it had scored an 87.

88 is very good but it's on the same level as Horizon when people wanted and expected something more akin to Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate III.
 

Macaron

Banned
Do you think they will keep going after this?
TOTK gave Switch a 45% sales boost. I have no doubt when a game can effect system sales like that, this game WILL give Xbox higher sales this quarter. But between it being on PC too and the below 90 aggregate review score, it won't be the boost they were hoping for.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
The performance and lack of DLSS will hurt worse. Will probably lead people like me to try it out on Game Pass before even considering buying it...
Ryan Reynolds Wtf GIF
 

twilo99

Member
TOTK gave Switch a 45% sales boost. I have no doubt when a game can effect system sales like that, this game WILL give Xbox higher sales this quarter. But between it being on PC too and the below 90 aggregate review score, it won't be the boost they were hoping for.

Do you think they should've made it xbox exclusive and done away with PC? That's probably what Sony would've done if they owned the IP...
 
No.

The question is whether Starfield will make people buy an Xbox.
2 weeks ago I was all in on getting a Series S, now not so much. I was really hoping it get low 90's. The illusion of grandeur in Starfield really is a bummer to me(fast travel, tiles ect). I'm sure I'll get a series S in the next year because Gamepass is a great deal, but I'm in no rush. Starfield not a system seller for me but I'm sure it will be one of the first games I'll play when I do purchase an Xbox

I'm very curious how gamers respond to Starfield. Reviewers said the first few hours are really slow, and many mentioned how it took 20+hrs to really click. There are a lot of gamers that won't dedicate that amount of time. It will be interesting
 
Last edited:

Macaron

Banned
Do you think they should've made it xbox exclusive and done away with PC? That's probably what Sony would've done if they owned the IP...
Na they're still getting all the profit from PC sales. There is really nothing more they could've done. At least this isn't Redfall levels of disaster. Its likely still a success for them and Xbox sales, just not the levels of success hoped for. We'll see when they do their next earnings report.
 

twilo99

Member
Na they're still getting all the profit from PC sales. There is really nothing more they could've done. At least this isn't Redfall levels of disaster. Its likely still a success for them and Xbox sales, just not the levels of success hoped for. We'll see when they do their next earnings report.

They would've moved considerable amount of boxes if it was an xbox exclusive and collect extra profit from the hardware sales...
 
Last edited:

PSbigfan

Neo Member
Probably because it has too much gameplay and not much of movies so it scored lower than 90 on MC... You know which type of gamers I'm talking about
I'm not fanboy or something but which games do you mean elden ring, it takes two, Sekiro.
Btw tlou 2 is my favorite game of all time lol.
 
Last edited:

Macaron

Banned
They would've moved considerable amount of boxes if it was an xbox exclusive and collect extra profit from the hardware sales...
True. But at the same time there would've been public backlash, and if this DID review 90+ they hit the jackpot with a "console seller" new IP + the PC sales. Earnings report gonna be interesting when all year they've had to report hardware sales being down.
 

Fbh

Member
I can't really imagine anyone who was interested in the game not picking it up....because of an 88 metascore.
At most you will loose a few people who weren't originally interested but might have been convinced with a 95 metascore or something like that, but that's a minority
 

Puscifer

Member
Lol, it's already sold out in my area, so no.

This game could score a 10/100 and people will buy it. It's Bethesda lol. I even dusted off my Xbox to try it out and that means finding AA batteries for my controller.

Just going to repeat what I've said before.

Bethesda has been the same since day 1. A main story that's like 7 hours long but the open world is so interesting that finishing the main story is basically coming to the finality of your personal playthrough, however long that is. After 150 hours of Skyrim I finished the game and Starfield has no reason to deviate. There's NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING like a Bethesda game.
 
It will sell great on Steam but I doubt MS ever releases sales numbers for what it will do on the Series S/X because they will look underwhelming due to Game Pass.
 

Laieon

Member
No. I think Bethesda (as someone who doesn't really like their games) is a lot like Blizzard (as a Blizzard fanboy) in the sense that their fans know what they like, they'll tell their friends, and review scores are moot. Sales on something like this at launch is also pointless, because Bethesda games have legs for decades. We'll be seeing Starfield Ultimate Edition 4k 120FPS Portal Edition on the Nintendo [Insert Console Name Here] in 2033.

We've also heard it mentioned hundreds of times in that for PC, it's all about the mods, so whatever is here at launch is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. If the game isn't exactly what the fans are looking for Day 1, maybe it will be a year from now even if that doesn't involve Bethesda doing anything themselves.
 
Last edited:

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Watched a load of reviews and it's exactly as I expected, it's a Bethesda game with its utterly shit wooden mannequin NPC's.. I mean c'mon ffs it's 2023 how do they still make characters look horrible, plenty o bugs etc wrapped around a solid enough game that unfortunately got hyped into the stratosphere. The lack of proper exploration after spending a few hours in NMS VR is a total turn off, pity.. if this had released as a 10/10 game mixing all the best parts of Skyrim/NMS/Star citizen I probably would've bought a series X but after seeing the reviews im fine with not playing it
 

twilo99

Member
True. But at the same time there would've been public backlash, and if this DID review 90+ they hit the jackpot with a "console seller" new IP + the PC sales. Earnings report gonna be interesting when all year they've had to report hardware sales being down.

We will see how many people don't buy the game because it didn't score 90+

Regardless, they've missed a fantastic opportunity to sell more xbox hardware, they would've probably set a record.

Sony would've never let such a blunder happen on their watch.
 

twilo99

Member
No. I think Bethesda (as someone who doesn't really like their games) is a lot like Blizzard (as a Blizzard fanboy) in the sense that their fans know what they like, they'll tell their friends, and review scores are moot. Sales on something like this is also pointless, because Bethesda games have legs for decades. We'll be seeing Starfield Ultimate Edition 4k 120FPS Portal Edition on the Nintendo [Insert Console Name Here] in 2033.

That's true for a lot of studios/games ... just look at Counter Strike, nothing special to look at, but the success is simply astonishing because of that very reason.. CS players don't give a fuck about bugs or how the game looks like, they will play it no matter what.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Once modders get loose on this game and start filling out those planets with actual meaningful and unique content instead of the lackluster copy pasta, add in vehicles, proper next gen graphics and NPCs that actually look realistic, I can see me picking it up for my laptop on a sale
 

Bry0

Member
They would've moved considerable amount of boxes if it was an xbox exclusive and collect extra profit from the hardware sales...
You think pc gamers are going to buy Xboxes to play a modless Bethesda game at 30 fps? Come on, lol.
 

twilo99

Member
You think pc gamers are going to buy Xboxes to play a modless Bethesda game at 30 fps? Come on, lol.

the boxes are getting mod support and you can hook up mouse and key to them no problem..

The 30fps is indeed disappointing, but I bet you they would've sold considerably more xbox consoles if the game was exclusive to it compared to the current situation.
 
Top Bottom