Boss Rush Banter: Do You Let Reviews Influence Your Video Game Purchases?

If you sell a product or service, there will be reviews. Reviews can behave as a blessing or a curse, depending on how objective the reviewer are. While it is far from a perfect system, many people rely on reviews when deciding whether to spend their money. This also applies to the video game industry.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of video games available to the modern player. With overall rising costs and sophistication of hardware, we see AAA titles going for $60 to $70 USD (and that’s for standard editions) a pop. Unless you have money to waste, you’d likely have to purchase games wisely. Other than a particular alliance with a favorite franchise, how else do you determine if a game is worthy of your $70? For many, we rely on the reviews. How much do video game reviews impact your purchases?

A recent example was with the latest Saints Row by Deep Silver Volition and Fish Labs. Its PlayStation5 Metacritic review score is a shocking 63. Because I haven’t played a Saints Row game yet, I let the mediocre score sway me to shy away from trying the latest title in the franchise. I felt confident in that decision until I spoke with my colleagues at Boss Rush, and every single person who played the game enjoyed it. Sure, there are lots of bugs; however, the content and aesthetics of Saints Row impressed my friends to the point where I questioned the reviews. Granted, I still may wait for a sale on that one, but it made me second guess relying so heavily on a review.

Reviews are a helpful tool, but I’ve learned to let that only be a portion of my decision-making process when making my future purchases. I would just hate to pass up on a great experience just because other people didn’t hold it to their highest regard.

Have you ever let a mediocre/low score influence you from buying a video game? Or perhaps you bought a game solely because of the high rating but realized it just wasn’t for you? Please share your thoughts with us on our Boss Rush Facebook Group or our Boss Rush Discord.

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The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and The Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, LeRon, Stephanie, Edward, and their friends from around the internet come together to talk their week in games, entertainment, and more while also bringing topics for conversation, answer listener and community questions, and cover major news and events happening in the video game industry. Watch The Boss Rush Podcast live on Wednesday Nights on Twitch at 8:30PM ET / 5:30PM PT or on Friday mornings at 7AM ET on YouTube and podcast services everywhere. Thanks for listening! You can also get this episode one week early on Patreon.