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Atari upset over Alone in the Dark reviews, suing
Sean Ridgeley - Saturday, June 21st, 2008 | 12:29PM (PT) 0 Like


Requesting restitution

German gaming site 4Players was filed suit against by Alone in the Dark publisher Atari over a "negative pre-release review [of the game]" (68%), allegedy because it was an illegally pirated copy, though this was an assumption based on the date of publication of the review in question.

According to a 4Players editorial, they purchased a copy of the game from "an insider connection with a retailer who provided the title to the site prior to its retail release."

Atari has backed out of an advertisement deal with the site and is seeking restitution. The company is making similar moves with Scandinavian website GameReactor (who gave the game a 3/10, accusing the site of piracy measures, stating press copies has only been sent out one day before), Norwegian site Gamer.no (3/10, the site claims it bought the title at a retailer and have refused to remove their review), and Dutch site Gamer.nl (5/10):

"Within an hour [after posting], Atari called to have the review pulled off, claiming there was an embargo till Friday," [Gamer.nl staffer] Erwin Bergervoet said in a comment to Shacknews. "Our review copy was sent directly to us by Atari and [was] not a pirated copy. They explicitly told [Gamer.nl] that they only let high scoring reviews break the post-release embargo date."

Atari's response to the matter is such:

"We're happy with the review scores in the UK," a spokesperson explained. "We believe the game speaks for itself."


Atari upset over Alone in the Dark reviews, suing Image 1

Source: Shacknews

Alternate Source: Gamesindustry.biz

Sections: Console Games, PC Games

  • 0 thumbs!
    bruceleethree since Nov 2005 | Jun 21, 08
    DAMN!

    I was hoping this was going to be good...
  • 0 thumbs!
    Shinobi_razor since Sep 2004 | Jun 21, 08
    lol, so they are happy at the score the UK reviewers gave it, therefore they arent going after them, but since the other reviewers gave it a bad score, they get all butt-hurt! LMAO!

    dont they know pro game reviewers are supposed to get advanced copies of the game? lolz, theyre a bunch of whiners.
  • 0 thumbs!
    THM since Jan 2008 | Jun 21, 08
    Well, Alone In the Dark on PS2 was considered as a good horror game and I enjoyed it a lot along with Resident Evil Series.

    Nevertheless, this time, I'll have to wait and see official PLAY Magazine review before I buy this one.
  • 0 thumbs!
    Bill Gates03 since Dec 2004 | Jun 21, 08
    WTF...this game must suck, and Atari is just embarrassed!

    HAHHAHAHAHA

  • 0 thumbs!
    Gussimotto since Jan 2003 | Jun 22, 08
    Well I'm still interested in the game, I think it looks like it'll be fun to play. Playing games based on reviews is *bleep*, its like having other people tell you if you'll like different kinds of food.
  • 0 thumbs!
    bigjdubb since Jan 2008 | Jun 23, 08
    Wow, nice marketing plan Atari. Looks like I won't be needing to buy anymore Atari games....
  • 0 thumbs!
    OmegaFury since Jan 2008 | Jun 23, 08
    I usually don't trust game reviewers anyway. They are pretty damn corrupt. I've been told plenty of times that a game was shitty, and it wasn't, and that a game was the sh*t, and it wasn't. I'd rather rely on my own experience, and not the words of a reviewer who is getting paid to give a false testimony.
  • 0 thumbs!
    Game Hawk since Jul 2005 | Jul 19, 08
    quote OmegaFury
    I usually don't trust game reviewers anyway. They are pretty damn corrupt. I've been told plenty of times that a game was shitty, and it wasn't, and that a game was the sh*t, and it wasn't. I'd rather rely on my own experience, and not the words of a reviewer who is getting paid to give a false testimony.
    OMG, that is exactly my thoughts. Most reviewers (unless they are a fanboy of the series or they like said genre) only focus on the negatives of a game, and bash at it as much as humanly possible. IGN is a perfect example of this.
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