IGN said 'charming' 3 times and 'framerate' once. The game ran at 20fps.
The Original Review
“Pokemon Scarlet and Violet are Pokemon at their Pokemon-est, with an impressive open world full of Pokemon to catch.”
Nintendo's review embargo for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet lifted on November 15, 2022 — three days before launch. IGN's review went live immediately. The review unit was provided by Nintendo. The review was conducted under embargo conditions set by Nintendo's PR team. Standard operating procedure. Also standard: IGN ran Nintendo advertising across its Pokemon coverage pages throughout November 2022. This is documented in their ad inventory records.
IGN awarded a 7/10 to a game running at sub-20fps in open-world areas, with texture pop-in visible in the review's own screenshots. The review dedicates exactly one paragraph to performance problems out of twelve total paragraphs. One. The word 'framerate' appears once. The phrase 'performance issues' appears once. Meanwhile, 'charming' appears three times. 'Fun' appears seven times. This is not balanced coverage. This is burying the lede under a pile of approved adjectives.
The Pokemon Company is the highest-grossing media franchise in human history. It generated $6.7 billion in licensed merchandise alone in 2022. IGN's coverage ecosystem — guides, wikis, videos, news — generates significant traffic and revenue around every Pokemon release. A score below 7 would jeopardize that relationship. The 7/10 is not a critical assessment. It is the minimum viable score that keeps the content pipeline flowing. Every major outlet landed between 6 and 8. The consensus was manufactured before a single reviewer pressed Start.
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