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The story
After IGN gave Sony’s exclusive title Marvel’s Wolverine a review score of around 60 out of 100, word spread on X (formerly Twitter) that the outlet’s publishing contract had subsequently been terminated — and the news made waves on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board too. The timing is notable, since reports of major layoffs are also circulating at IGN, and plenty of posts are linking the two events together. While some in the thread suspect “Sony pressure,” others point out that other major outlets like VGC, GameSpot, and Eurogamer gave nearly identical scores around 60, splitting opinion on whether the score can really be called “unfairly low.”
[Great News] Sony’s Wolverine Is So Considerately Designed You Can Beat It Just by Mashing the Square Button!
328 Anonymous 2026/09/15 (Tue) 13:38:55.12 ID:WWQ1uAWU0
Plot twist incoming
Source: jp.ign.com / Original article here
What people said
This isn't a game
Probably because they were getting paid by Sony
They're basically admitting themselves that "no outlet does honest reviews" — hilarious (lol)
Fired just for giving a low score! (lol)
Mario Golf 6
Call of Duty 7
Same goes for Game of the Year
The moment you have a relationship with a publisher, you can't say anything bad about them
It just raises the question of what these outlets even exist for, and what right they have to write Metascore reviews at all
So yeah, it's over. Over.
Everything goes to hell the moment Sony gets involved
Even GOTY got wrecked once Sony started meddling in it
It's not even recent — it's been like this since the "favor era" (when outlets got cozy with publishers)
No wonder people think it's basically worthless
The power of the Geha board is no joke (lol)
All that happened is someone stated a fact and got nitpicked by people like you, lol
That's just an everyday thing on the Geha board
Branding someone a "Nishikun" just because they gave a low score is pretty harsh
All because nobody's cutting out the source of the stench fast enough
We're with Sony, you know that right?
Team up with an insurance company and get swindled out of 50 million yen
Back in the Showa era, when magazines like Famimaga were everywhere, you could say whatever you wanted and it was all fun content
But once the "favor era" hit and outlets like Dengeki and Famitsu grew powerful, things changed…
Maybe the industry lost something the moment Square's FF7 kicked off Sony's entry into the console business
Sony reportedly halted IGN's publishing deal because the magazine gave PlayStation's first-party title Marvel's Wolverine an extremely low score
https://x.com/nyc_prophet/status/2099604744515825750
By the way, IGN is in the middle of layoffs right now
https://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1789440170/l50
IGN was bought out by Ziff Davis, which used to publish the Official PlayStation Magazine
so Ziff Davis controls IGN's personnel decisions and even has it handling sales on its behalf
https://www.ign.com/games/official-playstation-magazine-vol-1
They're a completely separate company
Well, playing it before launch and writing about it is literally the job
Honestly, now that social media is this widespread, it'd probably be fairer to run it more like a closed beta — either recruit a broad pool of reviewers or hand out copies at random and have them review it
Plenty of outlets besides IGN also scored it around 60, yet there are morons out there seriously calling it "unfair"
Really makes you feel how far the game industry has fallen
If you paid a performer to appear on a home-shopping show or ad video and had them taste-test something,
would they ever say "ugh, this is gross, I guess it's average"? No — they'd just read off the caption and go "mmm, delicious!"
That's fine if it's that kind of show, but if it's not, isn't that just stealth marketing?
It'd be fine if IGN's review was labeled "PR" or "sponsored," but…
What's even the point of that? Lmaooo
You're denying the entire point of Metascore reviews — that's some seriously toxic logic
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Game review scores are said to feed into sales performance and sequel decisions via aggregator sites, and suspicions that advertising and promotional ties with publishers influence those scores have long persisted. The primary source for this story is an individual post on X, with no official statement confirmed from IGN or its parent company — as of this thread, there’s no verified causal link between the reviewer’s treatment, the reported halt in publishing, and the ongoing layoffs. Within the thread, some voiced suspicion of a capital relationship, noting that IGN’s parent company once published Sony’s official “Official PlayStation Magazine,” while others insisted the two are “completely separate companies” — this point remains unresolved. A premise readers can easily get wrong is that “IGN alone gave an unfairly low score,” but in reality most major outlets lined up with similar scores, so the evaluation of the review’s content itself and the truth behind the firing controversy need to be considered separately.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch Hardware/Industry (Geha) board thread “[Sad News] IGN Reviewer Reportedly Fired for Giving Wolverine an “Unfairly” Low Score.”
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