Metacritic is considered the industry standard for game ratings, and rightly so. By aggregating the opinions and evaluations of well informed and well versed game reviewers, Metacritic is a fairly accurate evaluation of the quality of a video game. Large and small development companies alike seek to achieve a high Metacritic score, which is understood to have a high correlation with sales. Extremely high scores in the high 80’s or 90’s also often result in a great deal of respect and admiration for the developer, which can only help them. As in any entertainment industry, the opinions of the critics, the ones who know the playing field, matter to the rest of us.
Of course, a strong Metacritic score is only part of the equation leading to seven-digit sales figures. Other factors such as marketing and promotion, hitting the right target audience, and a proper launch date all significantly impact sales on top of the quality of the game itself. Psychonauts, released in 2005 with a highly favoriable Metacritic score of 88/100, has essentially become the poster child for a great game that, for one reason or another, failed to perform at retail. However, cases such as Psychonauts, though unfortunate, are rare and are not enough to bring into question the validity of a Metacritic score’s accuracy. In assessing the quality of a title relative to others in the industry, Metacritic is almost always spot on. Until recently, everyone has agreed that the system works well enough.
But what happens when instead of being spot on, the gaming press appears to have a blind spot? What happens with poorly or mediocre rated games go on to break multiplatinum sales records? What happens when Metacritic is consistently wrong? (more…)
