GTA Publisher Confirms Review Bombing to be an Effective Strategy

As many AAA game studios become more and more hesitant to heed players' feedback, prioritizing the interests of stakeholders instead of those of their customers, Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K publisher Take-Two Interactive has made a surprising revelation confirming that review bombing, a tactic often seen as one of the few remaining ways for gamers to make their voices heard, is actually an effective strategy.

As noticed by gaming reporter Stephen Totilo, Take-Two has updated its 2024 10K annual filing to stockholders to include review bombing as a potential risk to the publisher's success. According to Take-Two, hostile campaigns can "lead to additional advertising and marketing costs and reputation harm", ultimately resulting in the loss of players and, most critically for any publisher, revenues.

Review bombing is definitely not new to the gaming industry, and the reasons why players resort to it may vary. Not that long ago, Helldivers 2 faced backlash due to the compulsory requirement to link a PSN account. After receiving over 210,000 negative reviews in a short period, Sony dropped the mandatory PSN linking requirement for PC players.

Prior to that, Cities: Skylines 2's first DLC, Beach Properties, disappointed the community with its content. Following 20 days of consideration and tons of criticism, Paradox Interactive, the game's publisher, decided to refund the DLC and promised to implement improvements.

And who can forget the success of the #FixTF2 campaign, which leveraged negative reviews on Steam to push Valve to address the rampant cheating in Team Fortress 2? After the game's rating was driven to Mostly Negative, Valve decided to give TF2 some attention for a change, implementing extensive bans that targeted not only the bots but also their creators, thus making the legendary hat trading simulator playable again.

All of these examples, coupled with Take-Two's recent revelations, all but confirm that no matter how crude and inelegant review bombing might seem at first glance, it can indeed affect big-league publishers' bottom line and make them listen to their customers. So, the next time a AAA studio introduces microtransactions to your favorite game or announces a subpar sequel, remember that simply giving their titles a thumbs-down on Steam can make them change their mind.

Read the findings from Stephen Totilo here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.