Do Zero Punctuation Reviews Affect Game Sales?

Post-Zero Punctuation sales of Painkiller point to a potential "Yahtzee Effect" for games that get the infamous Croshaw critique.

Charismatic stallion Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw skyrocketed to fame with his hilariously degrading reviews of some of the most industry's most popular games, which tend to unknowingly provide him crappy gameplay joke material. NewTeeVee, intrigued by the Yahtzee's popularity, studied sales data for both Painkiller and Xbox Live Arcade's Braid, two titles reviewed positively by Yahtzee, to see if his videos affected game sales.

"I don't see any real case for Zero Punctuation increasing sales by a lot," stated Braid creator Jonathan Blow on the lack of a Yahtzee-created increase in sales of his downloadable game. "There definitely isn't a visible sales spike or anything like that."

On the other hand, sales data from Amazon seems to reveal a distinct 7,400 percent jump in Painkiller sales shortly after it was given a positive review, if one-liners like "Painkiller is fucking awesome and can kick the ass of most big name mainstream titles and have them for breakfast afterwards" are considered merely "positive" and not "giddy school girl talking about her favorite boy band."

This sales spike was so notable that the great, ruggedly handsome man who provides my paychecks (and also Escapist co-founder) Alexander Macris featured the info in a marketing brochure, noting that, "media companies are always fighting to prove audience engagement and relevance."

As for the difference in sales impact between Painkiller and Braid, Macris noted that the latter "was already a breakthrough hit by the time Yahtzee reviewed it, while Painkiller was a lesser-known title that was given a new look based on his review."

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That's no sales spike, that's a bloody sales mountain!

let me say it in his words:
"short answer:no
long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

^

That. I think that because internet people like us watch Yahtzee, internet people like us also use Amazon to buy games/music/hedgehogs. Nevermind that the fact that it's bloody hard to find in places. It's an anomaly, I hardly expect GAME to be raving about they have no copies of Painkiller, when they had none to start with anyway.

One guy made an online review of a game, gave it good marks and it sold 74 times as many copies. That's almost incomprehensible.

i must admit, i was tempted to try it.

While 7,400 percent is awesome in its own right. You also have to take into account, how much was it selling BEFORE the review? Cause if it only got like 1 sale every couple of months, while 7,400% is alot I don't think they ran out of stock or something.

It only affects games with poor sales. Yahtzee's the "indie god". In contrast, mainstream games like GeoW have already good "mindcontrolling media" in charge.

dekkarax:
That's no sales spike, that's a bloody sales mountain!

No, its to big to be a mountain, thats an earth bridge to Neptune.

would have had more effect if the figure was "over 9000!!!!!!!"

I do remember a day or two after Yahtzee's Painkiller review that a banner was on the front page of the Steam store for the game that said in quotes "All you need to know is that there's a gun that shoots shurikens and lightning". After that, I think Painkiller was a top seller on Steam for about two weeks.

So, "Yahtzee Effect"? The evidence says so...

So... Yahtzee can help smaller titles, this is nothing but good.

with the things he's nice about it possibly makes them go up a bit but not a lot.... but if he's his ussual self it makes no difference...

Up-and-coming developers know who to call now ;)

Sweet,it's like the video game version of the Colbert Bump!

Hmm...This makes me wonder if Yahtzee has ever been offered any bribes by developers (I seriously doubt he'd escept). God knows they must be paying a lot of game reviewers shit loads judging by some of the reviews of Assassins Creed I've seen.

Are you kidding? Of course he'd accept.
Whether he'd alter the review because of it? Well.. that's a different question.

I bought Painkiller on Yahtzee's recommendation, didn't like it much. Bought Bioshock despite his complaints about it, loved it a bunch. So no, his reviews aren't taken into much consideration when I purchase because I like what I like, and that isn't always the same as what he likes, so I still base my decisions more on like-minded friends's opinions more than a humorous but personally-unknown-to-me net celeb.

But has he affected Psychonauts sales at all?

Khell_Sennet:
I bought Painkiller on Yahtzee's recommendation, didn't like it much. Bought Bioshock despite his complaints about it, loved it a bunch. So no, his reviews aren't taken into much consideration when I purchase because I like what I like, and that isn't always the same as what he likes, so I still base my decisions more on like-minded friends's opinions more than a humorous but personally-unknown-to-me net celeb.

yes, but yahtzee liked bioshock, he just pointed out the bad parts cuz that's what's funny. Watch the early part of the review.

Hunde Des Krieg:
But has he affected Psychonauts sales at all?

I bought it.

And speaking of media increasing sales, did you know that any brand featured in a new Gossip Girl episode gets a sales spike after the episode airs?

PedroSteckecilo:
So... Yahtzee can help smaller titles, this is nothing but good.

It's the most useful thing he ever does with that big ass soap box of his. I appreciate that it's the Christmas Season and that reviews of recently released games are what people are interested in hearing but...it seems like he accomplishes more when he doesn't review recently released titles.

Part of what made that Halo 3 review so epic was that it was shredding into the hype just as much as the actual game. I dunno, like Khell Sennet said, he doesn't convince you differently when he says a game sucks, he convinces you when he says a game is good.

I compare Yahtzee's reviews compared to some others like on Brawl and Assassins Creed and even though they go for 15 minutes, they hardly talk about anything! They mostly talk about the graphics or in game things and thats it, I wish Yahtzee's reviews would effect those mainstream games.

There was his quote on Steam as well...

And what's this idea about Yahtzee giving positive reviews???

I would doubt that a negative ZP review could affect game sales. For one thing, the majority of people who bought SSBB have never heard of Yahtzee. And the people who do I think take his reviews with a pinch of salt because he's obviously more concerned about giving people what they want i.e a funny review, and said so himself that no one likes it if he's nice to a game. He's also rather over cynical and I often didsgree with what he says. If he reviews Gears 2 this week I expect him to give off about space hero no. 100 billion, slag off the romance sub plot, slag off bleszinski and say that its too brown or generic but that's not going to affect my enjoyment of the game or convince people not to buy it.

sv93:
I usually buy a game whenever Yahtzee says its good, because if he says a game is crap its probably not bad, but when he says a game is good its going to be freaking amazing!

While I don't buy a game just because Yahtzee says it's good, I still agree with your statement. If he says a game is crap, it may be okay, might be fun, I dunno, might even be crap. BUT if he says a game is good, well, it is gonna be a kick ass game!

For one thing, the majority of people who bought SSBB have never heard of Yahtzee.

And the people who did flamed him for being WROOONG AND A FAGGOT! ^^

I wouldn't think so to be honest. He would have a bit of an effect on the audience that watch his videos, like he raves on about Portal, so I played it and loved it. But because he slates nearly every other game, you have to take some of it with a pinch of salt and buy the game if you think you'll enjoy it anyway.

Well, the only reason I bought Painkiller is because Yahtzee loved it, but I still loved Mass Effect.

Jesus! Since when did Yahtzee all of a sudden become the gaming equivalent of Oprah?

anNIALLator:
If he reviews Gears 2 this week I expect him to give off about space hero no. 100 billion, slag off the romance sub plot, slag off bleszinski and say that its too brown or generic but that's not going to affect my enjoyment of the game or convince people not to buy it.

I don't know about that.i'm on the edge of buying GOW 2,and a positive(or not scathingly bad) review might push me.

it can't really hurt, the big games will always sell but someone pushing a less known game can really help it

glad to see this little corner of the net is doing something good for the industry

I3uster:
let me say it in his words:
"short answer:no
long answer: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo"

oooooooooooooooooooooo.

I agree

i dont think it hurts popular games but its more than likey helping unpopular games by getting there names out there