Kmart displays customer game reviews on retail shelves

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Hoping to unite its online and in-store gaming communities, Kmart announced this week that it has started placing snippets of customer reviews on retail shelves. In case that didn't quite sink in: reviews posted on the company's site will be featured alongside products in its physical stores. As much as we love the whole "by gamers, for gamers" concept, it seems like a recipe for disaster.

For starters, many consumer product reviews are about as insightful as YouTube comments – and that's being generous. Even if they were fair and accurate, Kmart will presumably favor submissions that might help it sell games instead of those that truly inform shoppers. What's worse, there's nothing stopping developers and publishers from flooding the site with bogus reviews, lowering the odds of yours being picked.

It's interesting that the company says its intentions are to "bring the Kmart online and in-store gaming communities closer together," because in the next breath, it says it's looking for constructive, well-written reviews partly targeting an audience that "may be made up of non-gamers." If that sounds like your kind of fun, sign up here and you should be able to post your thoughts about any game on the company's site.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/39664-kmart-displays-customer-game-reviews-on-retail-shelves.html

 

[JMMD]

Seems like an okay idea assuming the reviewers are made aware of it and they're careful to review the info. The only issue I could see if too many fake good reviews for crappy games.

 

[princeton]

I'm just waiting for them to get a plethora of reviews like

"GO MW2 IT IZ TEH 1337ZORZ AND TEH FUNES GAM I EVR PALYED!!!!!!!1!!!1!!!!!!!1!!!!!!""PS MW2 IS FUN@!@!@!!@$#$@%~~~"

It won't be long.

 

[Wendig0]

princeton said:
I'm just waiting for them to get a plethora of reviews like

"GO MW2 IT IZ TEH 1337ZORZ AND TEH FUNES GAM I EVR PALYED!!!!!!!1!!!1!!!!!!!1!!!!!!""PS MW2 IS FUN@!@!@!!@$#$@%~~~"

It won't be long.

lol, that would be hilarious!

I like their idea, though instead of having a sticker with 1 or 2 of the top rated (biased) reviews, they should include a touch screen computer that consumers can use to look up the game they're interested in and read all of the reviews.

 

[Route44]

I'm just waiting for them to get a plethora of reviews like

"GO MW2 IT IZ TEH 1337ZORZ AND TEH FUNES GAM I EVR PALYED!!!!!!!1!!!1!!!!!!!1!!!!!!""PS MW2 IS FUN@!@!@!!@$#$@%~~~"

It won't be long.

:grinthumb LOL! You nailed it.

 

[TomSEA]

LOL @ Princeton - perfect!

Yeah, this has "bad idea" written all over it. I wonder which marketing genius thought this one up. I'm not even sure it's necessary. Most folks I know - at least those with a little brain power - do their research before dropping $50-$60 on a game. They already know what they're getting or what the PROFESSIONAL reviewers have said.

 

[Johny47]

I think it's a nice idea BUT like on Amazon.co.uk's website this store should show the most helpful 'favourable review' and the most helpful 'critical' review =)

 

[Wendig0]

TomSEA said:
Most folks I know - at least those with a little brain power - do their research before dropping $50-$60 on a game.

Most of the time I check the reviews before I go out and buy a game, though occasionally, I do some impulse shopping. I believe this is aimed towards the impulse shoppers. Admit it, you've bought games on a whim, only to open them up at home and realize they are crap.

 

[TomSEA]

"Admit it, you've bought games on a whim, only to open them up at home and realize they are crap."

Guilty as charged. Most recent was Silent Hunter 5. I loved the Silent Hunter series - #3 was one of the best games I ever played, and #4 was pretty decent in it's own right. So I pre-ordered the deluxe version of Silent Hunter 5 ($60) thinking I was going to get more of the same. But it turned out to be one of the crappiest game releases I've experienced in at least a decade.

 

[PanicX]

I've really enjoyed using the internet kiosks at Sears to look up last minute prices and specs before I purchase from their store. And seeing as how Sears Roebuck now owns Kmart, you'd think they'd use the same method for meshing online buying with in store products.

In any case, it's common marketing strategy to have "testimonials" to help endorse your products. Which is a little depressing because of average joe's inability to see through the obvious ploy.

On the otherhand, uncensored tickers on items that list a "tweet" like review could be great entertainment while browsing.

 

[isamuelson]

And do you think they'll post any BAD reviews? Of course not! They want to move product so they'll only post reviews that praise the game, period.

Can you imagine if they had a Uwe Boll movie for sale and posted only the reviews that were good? Okay, bad idea since there aren't any good reviews for his movies! You get what I mean, though.

Bad idea.

 

[tengeta]

Doubting they will post any negative reviews, they should consider posting a good and bad review for each game. I usually read a few positive and negative opinions to balance out what the game is really like overall.