Eidos UK blocks Tomb Raider: Underworld scores below 8/10
Is this really the road Eidos wants to travel? According to a Twitter post by Gamespot UK writer Guy Cocker, Eidos UK's PR firm, Barrington Harvey, has sent out a message asking all outlets to withhold any reviews of Tomb Raider: Underworld with scores below 8/10 until Monday. When contacted by videogaming247, a Barrington Harvey representative stated that the company is, at the request of Eidos, "trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high" and that the US brand manager for the game wants the company to "manage the scores before the game is out." All of this, of course, comes in the wake of the firing of Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot less than a year ago, alledgedly because of a low score given to another Eidos title, Kane & Lynch.
One of Barrington Harvey's directors, Simon Byron, has since responded to the story, saying, "Barrington Harvey is not in the position of telling reviewers what they can and cannot say." Byron added, "As an ex-journalist myself, I firmly believe in editorial integrity and the right to express an individual opinion. As an agency, we never - ever - make demands of the press in terms of awarding scores; at the end of the day, they are free to score as they wish." It's worth noting that while Byron's statement makes it clear that Barrington Harvey cannot demand that outlets withhold review scores, it never addresses whether or not the company asked them to do so.
[Via Joystiq]
Source - UK Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews under 8/10 silenced until Monday
Source - Eidos UK PR firm: We are "not in the position of telling reviewers what they can and cannot say"
