Game review scores are one of the least important factors when it comes to making purchasing decisions, according to the findings of a new survey by Cowen and Company.

“Videogame management teams have become increasingly focused on their ability to deliver highly-rated titles, as measured by online critic aggregator sites such as Metacritic and GameRankings” said Cowen analyst Doug Creutz, reflecting on the results of the firm’s Fall 2009 Video Game Survey, which polled 1,312 individuals and 1,013 game players on the subject of purchase intent.

“We note, however, that critic aggregator scores were judged by our survey respondents as being the least important factor out of eight categories in deciding whether or not to purchase a game.”

Respondents were asked to identify the most important factors they consider when choosing which games to purchase. Using a scale of 1 (very unimportant) to 5 (very important), the genre of a given game was deemed to be most important, earning an average rating of 4.20.

The second most important factor, how much people liked an earlier series entry, earned an average rating of 4.06, demonstrating the value of strong game franchises. The third most important factor was the price of the game (rating of 3.82), followed by word of mouth about the game (3.70), how the game looked when seen in store, online or in advertisements (3.55), and feelings about the publisher’s previous titles (3.33). Rounding of the list were critics’ reviews of the game (3.19) and scores on review aggregator sites like Metacritic (3.11).

“Word of mouth received a much higher score than critical aggregator rating. Thus, we believe that while Metacritic scores may be correlated to game quality and word of mouth, and thus somewhat predictive of title performance, they are unlikely in and of themselves to drive or undermine the success of a game,” said Creutz. “We note this, in part, because of persistent rumours that some game developers have been jawboning game reviewers into giving their games higher critical review scores. We believe the publishers are better served by spending their time on the development process than by grade-grubbing after the fact.”

Elsewhere in Cowen’s report, Creutz suggests that the “Wii bubble could be deflating” and “PS3 may finally be poised for a rebound”.