Grand Theft Auto 6 publisher Take-Two Interactive sees review-bombing as a serious business risk. The company acknowledged as much as part of a wider overview of the potential impacts of "negative review campaigns" against games, which was recently shared with Take-Two Interactive investors.
While the emergence of video game review-bombing largely coincides with the rise of social media, the practice is as old as online aggregators of user reviews, such as GameFAQs. Gamers were given an even larger platform to have their voices heard in the early to mid-2010s, when Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox all started allowing user reviews.
Several of PlayStation's first-party exclusives have been the victim of review-bombing campaigns, including some for reasons that defy logic.
Over the years, Take-Two Interactive has been on the receiving end of many review-bombing campaigns. The gaming giant has now officially acknowledged such online initiatives as a business risk, thus directly confirming that they work. It did so via its latest 10-K filing, an annual report detailing its activities over the previous fiscal year. As first spotted by Game File's Stephen Totilo, Take-Two's 2024 10-K filing with the SEC includes a lengthy passage highlighting...