PS players are planning to retaliate against the laundering of PS masterpieces in the past by laundering thousands of accounts for the upcoming game Starfield. This act of revenge involves deliberately setting unreasonable low scores for the game as a means of protest.
Many players rely on game ratings, whether from media or other players, to inform their decisions on whether to purchase a game. However, these ratings can sometimes be subjected to “review bombing.” Review bombing occurs when players intentionally give a game extremely low scores as a way to express their dissatisfaction or anger.
Recently, a number of players have taken to social media, specifically Twitter, to announce their intention to conduct a “negative review bombing” on Starfield, a highly anticipated game set to launch on September 6. These players claim that they will use a thousand accounts to collect points for this act, with some even boasting connections to individuals who possess 600 Metacritic accounts, all of which are ready to join in on “greeting” Starfield with negative reviews.
The motivation behind this threat to review bomb a game that has not even been released yet is rooted in the Xbox fans’ previous negative review bombing of PS exclusive games. One player who declared their participation in this action stated that it is a form of revenge for the anti-PlayStation sentiment expressed by Xbox fans. Screenshots of anti-PlayStation remarks were provided as evidence, with statements like “I will protect Microsoft with my life, and I will sacrifice myself to destroy Sony” and “The Xbox player community is obliged to review and bomb all Sony games.”
Metacritic, a prominent scoring website, has often served as a platform for players to conduct such review bombings. Despite this, the website has implemented limited measures to prevent these actions. Only last year did they introduce new measures, which restrict players from leaving ratings before three days have passed since the game’s release. As a result, score bombings on Metacritic occur periodically. For example, the game “Diablo 4” recently experienced negative review bombings as players expressed their dissatisfaction with the game’s operations team. The website suffered from thousands of unwarranted negative reviews as a result.
The threat of negative review bombing on Starfield, fueled by a desire for revenge, highlights the ongoing issue of review manipulation within the gaming community. As players continue to use ratings as a means of protest or venting frustrations, the industry faces the challenge of maintaining fair and accurate evaluations of games.