Will Wright Says Sales Priority Over Review Scores
It’s a difficult line to walk between striving for excellence in design/development and commercial success. While a well-crafted game has a good chance of selling tons of copies there are plenty of examples of excellent games going relatively unnoticed while poorly-made movie tie-in titles sell more than enough copies to make their creators money. It seems when Will Wright, creator of the Sims series and the just-released Spore, was considering the overall aim of his deity-simulation title he decided that their overall thrust was to be in the sales direction.
Wright said they compared the ratings and performance of Half-Life and The Sims 2. While the classic sci-fi FPS scored high with critics at a 97 on the Metacritic ratings it didn’t sell quite as well as the 90 rated Sims sequel. He said that they were aiming for a game that would sell well and appeal to casual players. He also acknowledged that the game has received mixed reviews with a broad range of criticisms: “There hasn’t been any consistent feedback.” He also says that he expected this to happen, citing the impossibility of making a game that could appeal to all types of gamers.