Quick Jump Daily Digest

Thank you for your interest in the Quick Jump Daily Digest. Get notified of all new content on QJ in our free Daily Digest. To subscribe, enter your email address below and click the subscribe button.

Cancel and Return to page

Atari suing European gaming sites over negative Alone in the Dark reviews?

Posted Jun 20, 2008 at 11:24PM EST by Karl B.

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Atari, lawsuits, North America, xbox 360 titles

Reports have come in saying that Atari has sued a German gaming site who published a negative review of Alone in the Dark (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC). The reason? Atari is reportedly implying that the review was based on a pirated Xbox 360 copy of the game.

4Players, the website that Atari is suing, published the review before the game's June 20 European street date. 4Players has contended that it obtained a copy of the game early by way of a retailer. Atari has also reportedly canceled plans to run an ad campaign on the website.

Atari also made similar complaints to other European gaming sites. Gamer.no, a Norwegian site, was asked to pull its 3/10 review shortly after it was published. Scandinavian site GameReactor was also asked to remove its own 3/10 review of the game.

Dutch gaming site Gamer.nl was also asked to remove their own 5/10 review of Alone in the Dark. Atari reportedly contacted the site shortly after the review went live, claiming an embargo until Friday.

"Our review copy was sent directly to us by Atari and [was] not a pirated copy," said Gamer.nl staffer Erwin Bergervoet. "They explicitly told [Gamer.nl] that they only let high scoring reviews break the post-release embargo date."

Atari has refused to comment on the issue. The company has a lot riding on the success of Alone in the Dark, which so far has garnered an average review score of 69 based on six reviews according to Metacritic.

The game's Xbox 360, Wii, and PC versions are slated to hit North America on June 24, with the PlayStation 3 version scheduled for Fall.

Via ShackNews

This story sucks? This story rocks!

Vote Now!

(0)

(0)

Wow. They seriously must have screwed up. i was really looking forward to this, and it looked great... lol well i have been addicted to MGS4 for the past 2 days... so there goes this game. i still cant believe i find CoD4 boring now... all because of MGS4... god such a beautiful game. Now if only AitD was like this...

# ... — BIH 2008-06-21 02:35

Its buggy and unfinished, it deserves those scores.

# Heh good luck with that Atari — Charlybob 2008-06-21 03:41

Ya not gonna be in the US for this one. No-one's going to stand for such a stupid lawsuit over here. Ya'll be laughed out within a week.

# Some more information — triac 2008-06-21 05:51

"Atari is reportedly implying that the review was based on a pirated Xbox 360 copy of the game."

Not only 360 (68%). 4Players tested Wii (65%), PS2 (67%) and PC (68%) too.

They bought the games a few days before release because Atari never send them a copy even though 4Players asked to.

Atari also claimed that 4players made themselves an unfair advantage because they published the test before release (presumably to get the most money out of the test, but they don't earn anything if somebody reads it).

Too bad that there were already print magazines which testet the game.

What didn't 4player like about this game?

- Weak story

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

# . — triac 2008-06-21 06:12

Why is the submit button so close to the end of the text field?

Anyway,

- no tension

- unsympathetic hero

- worst female actress in video game history

- Trial+Error traversal

- fights with monsters are to easy

- bad german voice actors

- music having a negative balance, too much choir and fanfare

- bad controls (Wii)

- some bad clipping errors

- AI errors

- massive tearing (360)

- faces like wax

- lips not synchronous

Some stuff from their test:

Despite the fact that there are already a very high ammount of walls covered with scratches, Sarah asks "Did you see the Scratches?".

Zombies almost make you laugh, not fear.

Commets during on of those car sequences:

"I like your style", "There are more (while we know that were sourrounded be zombies), "Drive them over"

Edward: "I'll laugh later, or I'll lose me teeth", "don't mess around or I'll shoot you personaly".

Sarah: "Don't panic Edward, there a logical explain for this", "I know its hard fou you, but do you think its easy for me"?

# lol — ebola9717 2008-06-21 11:03

I love when stuff like this happens. This would be the dumbest lawsuit if it's true. And christ, why would a site take down a review just because Atari said so? Like it's some huge loss if Atari doesn't advertise on your site. The only reason they aren't bankrupt right now is because they put out a crappy DBZ game every year and fanboys eat it up.

# Why am I not surprised — Fallen 2008-06-21 15:25

Its all been Hype, Sorry but once I saw the Atari logo this went into my 'maybe' pile.

Will give it a go but certainly wont be paying.

# "Yeah ... His name is RALF" — TruthSayer 2008-06-21 18:46

all of the previous AITD games sucked, so this makes me believe that this one REALLY sucks.

this simply goes beyond frivilous, its ludicrous and outrageous. the lawyer-stick is being swung wayyyyy too often in the right now. the courts have now become this big, stupid joke instead of handling serious problems.

hell in a handbasket ... here we come.

Refresh comments list

Add comment

JComments

HOT GAMING NEWS | LATEST GAMING SEARCHES | FORUMS

QUICK JUMP DAILY DIGEST

Welcome to QJ.Net!

If you want your comments to go live without waiting for moderation, you need to be logged in. Being logged in has its benefits:

Logged in members do not wait for their comments to be approved.
Logged in members can create Profiles to be seen by other users.

So why wait? Create an account or login now! It's easy, quick, and free.

To get started, use the LOGIN boxes, or the REGISTER link below!

Want to learn more about the team who brings you the QJ news?

Read about them now!

HOT FLASH GAMES

QJ.NET Categories
• Apple • E3 • Featured Articles • Gadgets • Games for Windows • iPad • iPhone • MMORPG • Mobile • News • Nintendo 3DS • Nintendo DS • Opinions & Analysis	• Photography • PlayStation 3 • PoV • PS Vita • PSP • Rumors • Science • Site News • Tabula Rasa • Wii • Wii U • World of Warcraft • Xbox 360

Sitemap

Newest Downloads

05/22/2012 - 06/01/2012

WiiFlow Mod 3.0 r431	05/31/2012
XeBuild GUI 2.061	05/30/2012
edicpopDS v0.3.01	05/29/2012
RGLoader 0v290 Beta	05/27/2012
WiiMod 3.2	05/27/2012
WiiMC v1.2.7	05/25/2012
True Blue Firmeware v2.7	05/24/2012
3DS Video Converter v2.3	05/24/2012
Mobile Assault 1.8.2	05/24/2012
PSP Tools Alpha 0.1	05/22/2012
Newton War	05/22/2012
DaedalusX64 r766	05/22/2012
PSPMarble	05/22/2012
The Undead 4 - Nazi Zombies	05/21/2012
3DSExplorer v1.2.1	05/21/2012

Most Comments this Month
Japan Says No To Pirates	(2)
Party like Rockstar—But..	(1)
Rumor: Modern Warfare 4 to..	(1)
3D On Your Vita, iPhone an..	(1)
Get a Load of the Doom 3:..	(1)
Watch This: The Elder Scro..	(1)

Top Jumps this Month
Pokemon Liquid Cryst..	(3)
PSP homebrew - PSPdi..	(1)
Daedalus R12 preview..	(1)
PSP homebrew - OpenI..	(1)
CWCheat Universal Ch..	(1)
Wii homebrew - HackM..	(1)
PSP Go!Explore GPS N..	(1)
Naruto Shippuden: Ul..	(1)
USBCAM.PRX legal mod..	(1)
Latest Left 4 Dead 2..	(1)
Hellcat's Recovery F..	(1)
PlayStation 3: Now F..	(1)
PSP Is Back, Whiter,..	(1)
Cops 'n Robbers...'n..	(1)
PSP homebrew - LameC..	(1)
Some Cyber in Your P..	(1)
Custom Firmware PRO-..	(1)
Total War: Shogun 2..	(1)
Hellcat Working On R..	(1)
dTunes v2.6 - downlo..	(1)
Final Fantasy IV: Co..	(1)

HOT GAMING NEWS TOPICS

Quick Jump Daily Digest

Atari suing European gaming sites over negative Alone in the Dark reviews?

Related Stories:

Comments

Add comment

Newest Downloads