According to an article today on Kotaku, it was revealed that Harmonix workers have been posting several reviews for Rock Band 4 on Amazon.
Leave it up to Reddit users to make the discovery. Posting in the subreddit r/Games, Redditor Documental38, who credited u/Camera9 for the discovery, posted the following:
“Harmonix employees seem to have taken to Amazon to post their own favorable reviews of the game. At first I thought it was a rogue employee or two but then I dug around for about a half hour and found 7 of them and so it appears to be more of an initiative. I’m sure there’s more than that.
I don’t know the legality of this but it’s highly unethical and extremely disappointing. No excuses. Companies are not supposed to reviewing their own products, PERIOD.”
Harmonix confirmed the reviews, stating to Kotaku:
“Harmonix has clarified its internal policy about posting reviews of our own products on retail sites, and we’ve asked that existing reviews be edited to identify Harmonix employees or be removed entirely. While we believe the reviews posted by a few employees were sincere and without ill intentions, as a studio we don’t believe these are appropriate actions. We appreciate the feedback from the community, and take our relationship with our fans seriously.”
At the time of writing the identified reviews have been updated to include full disclosure statements.
The reviews now clearly state they work for Harmonix, which makes it well less shady.
For instance one review now says this:
“Original Review: You can still rock in America. Aw yeeah. Aw right.
Edit: I added this review half in jest (as you might be able to tell from the tone of the original). In hindsight, it’s probably important that I note that I worked on the game and work for Harmonix. That being said, I’m confident that if I didn’t I would still give the game five stars. It’s a beautiful, peaceful, cooperative game, rare enough already in today’s landscape, that I can play with my wife and kids. Music discovery, playing with your family and friends, and cooperation make Rock Band my favorite.”
What do you think of this? Tell us in the comments below.
Source: Kotaku