We ask our industry panel - the brightest and sharpest VR professionals from around the world - one question about the VR industry, business, technology or trending stories every week.

 

Question: How important are games reviews in 2017? Are specialist media reviews still relevant, or have they been made obsolete by user reviews and livestreams? What does that mean for VR?

 

Thomas Bidaux, CEO at ICO Partners 

“I absolutely believe that reviews still play an important role when bringing a game to market. Of course, there are many more channels now than ever before through which you can reach your audience, but these channels are not exclusive from one another. Even more important, they feed each other. More and more articles are written based on some social media content, while a significant portion of the social media discussions are based on shared ‘traditional’ articles. I don’t believe you can consider one while excluding the other.

“For VR games, there is a significant challenge as not all media outlets are set-up to review them and the general landscape of VR media is in its infancy. However, this is also an opportunity to build relationships early with the media that do show interest in Virtual Reality, and get a head start with that side of the ecosystem.”

 

Nils von Heijne, Creative Director & Co-founder at SVRVIVE Studios 

“Any type of credible opinions about a game matter, as long as those opinions reach an interested audience. We do, however, see a shift in where people find their game recommendations - and that’s why the importance of streamers, YouTubers and social media in general is growing so fast.

“The role of the professional game reviewer is still valid, but it’s now just one of many valid sources out there. The VR games industry is being born in a world where the playing field of online reviews is levelled, clearly mirroring the change we’ve been seeing for games overall.”

 

Jonathan Wagstaff, Country Manager - UK & IE at CONTEXT 

"In the words of the late composer, Leonard Bernstein, "I've been all over the world and I've never seen a statue of a critic." Many of us in the industry share similar feelings about critics, but without mainstream reviews we are left at the mercy of user feedback.

“VR is a special case in that many titles are in early-access at a lower price than full releases. This means that players can get a feel for a game just as they would in open-beta, and thanks to the Steam return policy, if you don't like it you can get a refund very easily. At the moment, some VR titles are soft targets for critics, and I was particularly disappointed in PC Gamer's review for Edge of Nowhere [a game that made it onto TheVirtual Report's 25 Developers To Watch], which I found to be one of the most Lovecraftian and atmospheric VR titles of 2016.

“Let's not forget that AAA titles now have such long and heavily patched life-spans that they will almost certainly get fixes and improvements over time. Admittedly, reviews are helpful, but they’re only relevant at time of launch."

 

Dave Bradley, Operations Manager, Steel Media

“Consumers still – and I suspect always will – value the expert opinion of critics. Sure, there's a mix of places to find out about games now. Word of mouth was always important and that's amplified now with your Facebook friends all competing to say how much they're enjoying Everest or the Star Wars X-Wing mission. YouTube is full of people sounding off. Like everybody else, I love all that. But it's karaoke criticism. Like all karaoke, some of it is naturally talented and worth a listen, but it's amateur hour.

“People have been agonising over ‘the death of the critic’ for decades. But it's quotes by The Virtual Report or Pocket Gamer that appear on advertising posters and not Joe Bloggs from Twickenham, no matter how many Twitter followers he has. When somebody who plays games for a living has an opinion, it has weight with punters.

“A games reviewer is likely to be somebody educated in libel, copyright law, and best writing practice; somebody who's been trained to explain complex things in simple ways; somebody who's played a thousand games - not just their personal favourites, but good and bad titles across all genres - a person with behind-the-scenes access who probably has insight and assets that your average Twitcher doesn't have; somebody whose copy has been read by an editor, proofread, error-checked and uploaded accurately.

“We instinctively know to trust that. We trust a person who analyses games in order to pay their rent, rather than somebody who trolls VR forums from the bus after school. And when it comes to spending money on a new form of entertainment, trust is everything.”