MCV earns industry ire with Hitman: Absolution review round-up
Michael Johnson November 19, 2012 - 3:46 pmNews: Gaming trade magazine MCV managed to anger several journalists and industry figures earlier today when their round-up of Hitman: Absolution reviews neglected to include scores from several prominent publications
Another day, another gaming industry scandal; at least that’s how it feels at times, with journalistic integrity again under the spotlight today when several Twitter users noted that MCV’s round-up of Hitman: Absolution reviews seemingly omitted several of the less positive scores. Singling out Eurogamer as ‘grumpy’ for their 7/10 score, the article headline suggested that Hitman had ‘delighted’ critics, when in truth several other prominent publications had given the game scores similar to the one awarded by Eurogamer. Gamespot and PC Gamer were among those who gave Hitman: Absolution less than stellar grades.
This immediately sparked something of a storm, especially on Twitter, where games industry folk and consumers alike were quick to question whether MCV had an agenda in trying to paint Hitman in a flattering light. MCV were quick to deny such allegations, noting that ‘We do review roundups not for critical assessment – the consumer press does that – but to highlight excitement about product in the channel’.
MCV also stated that they are not a consumer facing publication, their audience is the industry and retail sectors and therefore their role is not to accurately gauge the critical consensus. MCV have been quick to update their article, changing the title to reflect the apparent lack of ‘delight’ amongst critics, as well as adding links to some of the less complimentary reviews.
Hitman: Absolution releases tomorrow on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. You can find further coverage for Hitman: Absolution on Beefjack and read our own review here.
Comments (2)
Lots of linear levels, checkpoints instead of manual saves, no big open areas for me to play around in? From what the publications I’d trust are saying (i.e. RPS, Beefjack, Eurogamer, and PC Gamer) this is not the revival of Blood Money that I’ve been waiting for. I’ll probably end up getting it in next year’s Steam summer sale. Dishonored and XCOM sound more like the sort of games I want to spend my christmas holidays playing.
Dishonored is arguably more of a Hitman game than Absolution is.