Our last article displayed an interesting data point; Wii review scores have been improving. This has caused many readers to inquire deeper into the data in an attempt to discern additional facts behind this rise in Wii review scores. One reader suggested we look into how many Wii games have gone unreviewed compared to last year. After all, any platform's average review score would see an increase if critics only reviewed the top-tiered titles.
I decided to graph that exact question. How many games as a percentage of total games released did not receive a qualifying EEDAR quality score? (Noting that the EEDAR quality rating is calculated in a synonymous manner as other aggregate sites and a game must receive three review scores before a rating is assigned.) To create true apples-to-apples comparisons, we only looked at titles released from January to June, for both 2008 and 2009. We chose June as our end date as it can take up to twelve weeks for many smaller games to get qualifying scores.
Surprisingly, while all three consoles had a rise in unreviewed games, as a percentage of releases, the Wii had the most significant increase from 25% to 37%.
Does the data debunk the theory that Wii games are improving? No, not necessarily, as each platform had about the same amount of games reviewed, as a quantity, compared to last year. In other words, while the Wii has experienced a rise in average review scores (from 60 to 66 in one year), this has come at the benefit of critics ignoring some titles that could have possibly dragged down the Wii's average.
Conversely, one could suggest that the higher amount of unreviewed games for the Wii could give the Wii a better advantage; who is to say that these unreviewed games would score below 66 (the Wii's average in 2009)? Unfortunately, that is unlikely true, as a high quality Wii game is more likely to be reviewed than one that is not.
Additionally, this should not change one's overall view of the Wii, especially if you are a core gamer, as an examination of the games not receiving qualifying scores produced no core-targeted titles. They are all casual targeted titles. The same is true for unreviewed games on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (e.g. Disney’s Sing It: High School Musical 3).
While this new set of facts only tosses more confusion into the topic of review scores, it is still an interesting perspective that will likely raise more questions than it answers, which is usually the case when it comes to data analysis. Nevertheless, whatever one’s take on it, the original theory is correct: Wii games are improving. It is just coming at the cost of not reviewing the increase in casual and low-budget titles. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 will likely trend a similar statistic in the years to come, as the increase in their installed base and the expansion of their demographics, due to price cuts, will likely draw in more developers who release casual and low-budget titles.
