Yeah, many people here don't even seem to know about the codex. There is a big forum of so called 'classic rpg fans' who like to trash Bethesda and its games. Their forum motto is "Doesn't scale to your level", a direct reference to Bethesda's rpg design.

Opencritic better represents the average score because its for all 3 platforms

But Ok
Let’s look at metascore if you so desire

84 for PC based on 32 review

But
87 on PS4 based on 55 review
88 for Xbox One based on 33 review

You guys who think Bethesda cares, or will change anything because of this are crazy. tW3 sold 4 million copies and won (so far) 1 goty award. FO4 will probably sell close to 20 million copies but hasn't won a goty (yet). Please read that aloud twice and then ask yourself if you really think there is any panic or soul searching at Bethesda. Awards are stupid, people vote with their wallets

man that dumb game, waste of $60, too many stupid controls that do nothing

So, why exactly are user scores being ignored here? I believe their opinion should count too seeing that those are the people that pay money for it and actually are fans.

While I agree you've a point that Bethesda doesn't care it's hard for some people to tolerate a game series they've played extensively being watered down so it has mass appeal.

I don't think Bethesda will get it until they make the same mistake with TESVI. Then their own core userbase of all these years will turn against them.

TW3 is a niche title from a smaller studio, half the people that bought FO4 did it due to hype from everybody and probably never touched a previous FO game.
Sales aren't the be all and end all, but what they do is blind companies into thinking "oh we did it right" cause Money is the be all and end all, and the pool of FO and TES will just continue to get even more shallow until it thr depth covers our toes.

There is no room for doubt

Money talks, awards mean nothing.

Fallout 4 sold a record break 12+ million copies on release week and is set to become one of, if not the highest selling game in the history of mankind.

Skyrim, in the past 4 or so years, sold 20,000,000.

Impressive, but fallout 4 is going to reign supreme on this incredibly popular title.

FO4 is not going to beat GTA5 sales.
They broke a billion dollars almost over night, FO4 isn't even at that point yet.
GTA5 sales are still going up as well as FO4's but it won't overtake GTA

Also that 12million was an expected projection, they shipped 750million worth of FO4 but haven't sold that many yet...

I was just correcting the statement that F4 has 84 average score from press, which isn’t quite true. That’s all

Indeed. The misplaced schadenfreude oozing from certain segments of the forum population as they come here and attempt unsuccessfully to rub the fans noses in the inevitable consequences of Bethesda's incredible success is simultaneously hilarious, pathetic and depressing.

It is the way of mass opinion on virtually everything that rises to the height of success and popularity, whether stars, politicians, corporations, products ... something or someone is successful enough to rise to great heights of popularity until it reaches a breaking point and gets turned on. The more popular something becomes, the more those who consider themselves special flowers have to hate it in order to demonstrate that they are superior and with more refined tastes than those 'ignorant masses' who enjoy it. It happens time after time with virtually everything that gets a lot of attention and praise.

News flash to the special flowers. You aren't really that special and your tastes aren't really that refined. And something or someone who doesn't have a healthy dose of haters isn't really that successful.

User reviews shouldn't be discounted, but not on Metacritic. On Metacritic everybody can make multiple accounts to downvote a product they hate, they don't have to buy the game to vote. On Steam at least they have to buy the game first, so Steam reviews are more relevant.

You guys think that the franchise growing popularity and already established means that "the game did good". You think that Skyrim didn't do wonders for FO4's sales? You think that is the only factor in sales? There are many factors and the company strives to maximize each one.

The Witcher was a niche franchise to begin with and CDP a small studio. If any statistics get released you will see how things work.

Got to laugh at the pre-school level argument "haters gonna hate". There are no special flowers or hate involved. It's consumers and products. Simple as that.

You perceive things only from a certain viewpoint because you can only see that much.

For example when a plain bad game is released, are the consumers criticizing it, "special flowers" or "refined taste haters"? No, they aren't. It's only your emotional attachment in this case that allows you to see things like that. Was everything at their peak of their popularity criticized and "condemned" by the masses? No. It's just your narrow viewpoint that makes you believe so.

I don't see anybody claiming anything like that. And as far as I know, back then Bethesda went with the PC score as well - at least that's what the media were showing.

yes, they have sold them. The retailers buy the games, they don't sell on consignment. The only question is will they have to distribute more. If Walmart wanted half a million copies to sell in their stores they had to buy them. They didn't get to stock them for free then promise to reimburse Bethesda for any they sold

Smaller studio? They had around 250 people working on The Witcher 3. Last I heard, Bethesda had around 100 for Fallout 4.

Well, 20 million people will have no problem tolerating it. Everyone likes to think their opinion is shared by everyone, but numbers donrt lie. I've seen pleny of games hihly hyped that bombed because they weren't any good. And everything else you said is nothing more than unsubstantiated opinion

Don't take this as a direct attack. But why does the gaming community have to work in extremes? Just because a game didn't make GOTY, doesn't mean there was anything wrong with it. And it certainly doesn't mean it was a failure.

I have noticed this when some people talk about items in a game. It is either best in slot, or it is absolute trash. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground for many people. It is pretty annoying honestly.

As for your comment, "Maybe the team should go back to the drawing board to see what went wrong." They shouldn't. The game was perfectly fine. It sold a ton of copies, and Bethesda made out like a bandit between FO4 and Fallout Shelter.

The retailers may very buy them, but it's all well and sitting on shelves, it's when consumers buy them that matters.

That 750mill is a projection and not what they've reached.
They will hit 750mill if every unit shipped is sold, but shipping means nothing cause retailers don't pay full price for the games otherwise they wouldn't make a profit.
My estimation would say they're sitting between 250mill -400mill in actually sold to consumers profit

This as well. If awards were a true deciding factor of what is great and what is [censored], then the music awards we see every year would be won by orchestras, not pop stars.

This clearly shows in the quality of Fallout 4 vs. The Witcher 3.

I honestly don't see how people are surprised or upset The Witcher 3 won game of the year.

I loved Fallout 4 too guys, but you can't be so biased. The Witcher 3 deserves it a LOT more than Fallout 4 does.

"BUT ITS BORING!" Yeah, in your opinion. That doesn't change the fact that it's an amazing high quality game with lots of work put into it.

they both matter equally. And Bethesda announced early on they would have to distribute more. But its irrelevant, the steam numbers show the game is very popular and doing very well. This game will be in the hands of 15-20 million people by the time the dust settles. You can convince yourself is mostly people forking over sixty bucks on nothing more than hype, but I'll stick with hard data over your supposition

And yes, all 12 million shipped on day one were sold. Not sure why you have such a hard time with that. Bethesda will make 750 million off the game if they never sell another. And your "guess" as to what retailers have sold is just that, a guess

I agree. I love Fallout 4, and honestly got bored with Witcher 3. But I can tell you, the animations, voice acting, controls, graphics, music, and content are all done better by CD Projekt Red.

Bring me facts, don't bring me what you heard.
Show me 250 people worked on TW3 and 100 worked on FO4.
Otherwise what you say means nothing.
And if that's the case 250 people managed to work together and put their hearts into TW3 and it shows.

Whereas the 100 that worked on FO4 made the same buggy mess they always do...

200 worked on the Witcher and the list of developers for FO4 hasn't been released, so you heard nothing but what you wanted to fabricate.
We can estimate ot was well over 150-200 though if we go by FO3 development team and say A vast majority of them were probably on for FO4