Kotaku: Metacritic

Modern Warfare 3 Developer Pleads for Better Metascores, Discovers That's a Stupid Idea

Owen Good — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:00:00 EST

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Why someone from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 developer Sledgehammer would consider its fan-voted Metacritic score worth a get-out-the-vote tweet is utterly beyond me. It is by far the most polarizing title among gaming's annual releases, so a user score of 1.7 is probably to be expected, given how much gaming's ~~snobs~~ cognoscenti despise all that it stands for. Besides, who gives a shit what kind of user-voted Metascore a game pulls? Is that really a publisher or studio's measure of success now? More »

Metacritic Bans Review Bombers

Owen Good — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EDT

Metacritic doesn't just aggregate the arbitrary scores that professional reviewers assign to subjective works such as video games. It aggregates the arbitrary scores anyone can apply to subjective works such as video games. This has all sorts of fun applications, such as abuse. So, recently Metacritic banned a bunch of spam accounts set up to slag Bastion and Toy Soldiers: Cold War for no good reason. More »

Metacritic Calls on Writers to Review More Shitty Games

Owen Good — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:00:00 EDT

Metacritic's founder made a little bit of a stir earlier in the week when he went on the A Jumps B Shoots podcast to discuss a wide variety of topics, one of them being that game reviewers were obligated to "review all the shit," not just good games or those expected to sell well. GamePro followed up for a clarification of his remarks. More »

The People Are Panning Portal 2

Stephen Totilo — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 12:00:00 EDT

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Portal 2 is getting rave reviews from critics (including from us), but it is getting torn to bits by angry gamers over at the review aggregation site Metacritic. The Game of the Year? Not according to furious fans who have saddled the game with an average review score of 4.7 out of 10. More »

Have Review Score Farms Changed The Way You Buy Video Games?

Mike Fahey — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:20:00 EDT

Nine out of ten reviewers will enjoy today's Speak-Up on Kotaku, in which commenter Wocalax wonders if review aggregate sites like Metacritic make it easier or harder to decide which games to buy. More »

Metacritic Ditches Developers' Career Ratings

Owen Good — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:30:00 EDT

Shortly after introducing ratings of individual video game developers, based on the aggregated ratings of games in which they are credited, Metacritic has scrapped the idea altogether, saying the information is incomplete and can't be trusted. More »

Metacritic Now Rating Humans

Owen Good — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EDT

Metacritic, whose 90s, 80s, 70s and dreaded 60s are points of pride and shame for the video game industry, will now be applying ratings to individual game developers, giving them a score based on an average of all the games they've worked on. More »

Metacritic Now Ranks iPhone and iPad Games

Owen Good — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:30:00 EDT

Metacritic, whose cumulative scores provide a thumbs-up/thumbs-down barometer that can move games publishers' stock prices, has expanded. The review aggregator has begun listing iPhone and iPad apps. More »

Dragon Age II Dev Rates His Own Game On Metacritic, EA Bets Obama Voted For Himself Too

Mike Fahey — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 11:00:00 EDT

A glowing fan review for Dragon Age II on Metacritic discovered to have been written by a member of the game's development team sparked outrage among the gaming community yesterday. EA's response? That's how it works. More »

EA Says Crysis 2 Will Rack Up A High Score

Owen Good — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:30:00 EDT

David DeMartini - Metacritic score predictor extraordinaire - is at it again, confidently telling Eurogamer Crysis 2 is going return 90 ratings, upland territory that all publishers crave for big games but few acknowledge so boldly before release. More »

Average Reviews Mean No Second Helping Of Alpha Protocol

Mike Fahey — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:20:00 EDT

Fans hoping to experience the further adventures of Agent Michael Thornton will be sorely disappointed, as Sega West president Mike Hayes reveals that a sub-70 Metacritic average and slow sales rule out the chance for an Alpha Protocol sequel. More »

The Best Games Of 2010 So Far (According To Review Scores)

Luke Plunkett — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 01:30:00 EDT

These aren't the games we think are the best of 2010. They're the games that a system designed to track scored review averages thinks are the best of 2010. More »

There Are Too Many Damn Video Games

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 07:30:00 EDT

Ever get the feeling there are more games being released than you can even keep track of, let alone get your hands on? Don't worry. It's not your mind playing tricks on you. More »

Rebellion Calls AvP 'Critical Success'; Talking Sequel

Owen Good — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST

Discounting "three totally sh— reviews" from American sources, Rebellion reasons that Aliens vs. Predator is a "critical success", just as becoming the U.K.'s fastest-selling title of 2010 makes it a commercial success. They're already thinking sequel. More »

The Twenty Best-Rated Games Of The Decade

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:20:00 EST

Lost slightly amidst all this "end of year" review business is the fact this is also the end of the decade. Which means it's time to take a look back and what the best games of 2000-2009 were. More »

Who Put Out The Most Good Video Games In 2009? [UPDATE]

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 13:40:27 EST

On Wednesday, EA CEO John Riccitiello provided evidence — in chart form — that his company published the most well-reviewed games of 2009. Wanting to test his assertions, I dug into the data and found some surprises. More »

EA Sports Looking To Amazon, "Mommy Bloggers," Not Metacritic For Wii Reviews

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:40:28 EDT

Game publishers think Metacritic review score averages are a Big Deal. EA boasts—and frets over—its own Metacritic scores in earnings calls. Others base bonuses on aggregate arbitrary numbers. But EA's Peter Moore isn't as worried about Metacritic averages. More »

About Kotaku Reviews

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:20:00 EDT

Earlier this year, Kotaku began running its reviews under a unified template that was designed with a trio of key components in mind. More »

So, How Many 360 Games Are Any Good?

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:30:00 EDT

Picture the scene: your mum walks into GameStop. She walks to the Xbox 360 section, and picks out a game for your birthday. At random. What are the odds she picks a good one? More »

Rockstar Most Consistent Publisher, Ubisoft Least Consistent

Brian Crecente — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:00:00 EST

Self-described Metacritic-expert Tim Sweezey over at GameQuarry.Com has a fascinating report up about the developers that are most consistent in publishing a certain quality of game. More »

Sega Europe Chief Says Metacritic Most Useful to Expensive Games

Owen Good — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:30:00 EST

Sega Europe boss Mike Hayes says Metacritic scores are indicative of certain games' success, and while score targets aren't written into every developer contract, Metacritic does have value — especially in judging expensive projects. More »

Metacritic's Best And Worst of 2008

Brian Crecente — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:00:00 EST

Metacritic put together a list of the best and worst games of 2008 on every console. The top reviewed aren't that surprising, but there are some real doozies in the duds. More »

Metacritic's 10 Best, Worst Games Of 2008

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:00:00 EST

Every man, his dog and his dog's pet rabbit have a "best of" list. This isn't one of those. This is Metacritic's "best of", meaning it was compiled not by fragile human subjectivity, but numbers. More »

Another Way to Grade Sales vs. Quality

Owen Good — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:00:00 EST

So EA crowed that it had 17 games scoring 80 or better on Metacritic (I love it; we're officially into Wine Spectator-style rating snobbery with video game criticism). How'd other major publishers do? More »

These Are EA's Quality Games Of 2008

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:20:45 EST

EA CEO John Riccitiello proudly boasted of his company's improving quality this week, the good news that came with the financially bad. Seventeen EA games racked up Metacritic averages of 80 or higher. Which ones? More »

Eidos Trying To Fix Tomb Raider: Underworld Metacritic Scores

Mike Fahey — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:20:00 EST

Eidos UK's PR firm has confirmed that British sites planning on posting Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews with less than an 8.0 score are being asked to hold off posting them until Monday. The news originally game from a twitter post from Gamespot UK journalist Guy Cocker, relaying a call he received voicing that very request. A representative from the PR firm Barrington Harvey spoke to Videogaming247 this morning.

"That's right. We're trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos." When asked why, the spokesperson said: "Just that we're trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that's handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don't put people off buying the game, basically."

Well that certainly makes sense. We wouldn't want low review scores putting people off. More »

MetaCritic To Tighten Commenting Requirements After Gears, LBP Handbagging

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:30:00 EST

A couple weeks ago, fanboy dorks exposed their stupidity to the wider community by hijacking the user reviews of two games on review aggregate site MetaCritic. The games in question were LittleBigPlanet and Gears of War 2, the people in question, morons. And while the whole mess was a little overplayed by some - who cares about user reviews on a website built solely to aggregate the reviews of critics? - MetaCritic were sufficiently moved by the episode to do something about it. More »

Fanboy Dorks Ruin Metacritic

Stuart Houghton — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:20:00 EDT

It's just a tragic facet of the human condition - a tribal instinct that can pit friend against friend and brother against brother. Catholic v Protestant, Sunni vs Shia, Spectrum v Commodore 64 and now - perhaps most bitterly of all - Xbox 360 v PS3. More »

Analyst: Saints Row 2 Trailer "Pompous"

Leigh Alexander — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 20:20:00 EDT

Have you seen the recent Saints Row 2 trailer that makes direct comparisons to Grand Theft Auto IVto show why it's more fun? It's more tongue-in-cheek snarky than truly nasty, but apparently it prompted one analyst to counsel investors to take it with a grain of salt. More »

More On "Faking Quality" And Metacritic

Leigh Alexander — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:30:00 EDT

Whenever we hear about the travails of a video game company, snark abounds, and ultimately, the chorus cries, "Why don't you just make some games that don't suck?" More »

Publishers Basing Royalties On Metacritic Scores

Mike Fahey — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Stephen Totilo of MTV Multiplayer continues his week-long look at video game review practices by exploring the practice of game publishers withholding certain bonuses and/or royalties if the game doesn't achieve a certain Metacritic average. Basically a publisher agrees to finance the development of a game as long as the developer in these sort of situation agrees to Metacritic score limit stipulations that could theoretically see a low-scoring game that sells millions (any children's licensed title really) hardly earning the devs a dime. More »

The Big Publisher's Metacritic Averages

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:20:00 EDT

Pissing contest time! The chaps at Electronic Entertainment Design and Research have compiled some lovely graphs highlighting not only the average review score for each major publisher, but one showcasing the range of scores they've received as well. Note that scores only apply to current-gen console titles, so no handheld, PC or PS2 scores count. As you can see, there's a sizeable gap between the top 5 and the chasing pack, and a sizeable gap between the chasing pack and Atari, who don't even make the list. Above are the average scores, click through for the score range, which proves to be a little more interesting. More »

Microsoft To Start Pulling Underperforming Titles From Live Arcade

Michael McWhertor — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:40:27 EDT

Xbox Live is going through some changes. Some might call them growing pains, with an increased file size on Xbox Live Arcade titles and a higher, 1600 Microsoft Point price cap for bigger titles. General manager of Xbox Live Marc Whitten says in an interview with Next-Gen that even more changes are coming. In addition to a "new fully funded 1st party studio which will be focused on high quality digital content creation," Microsoft will begin wiping the "shit" from Live, de-listing titles that underperform with critics and gamers. More »

God of War: Chains of Olympus Already Heading To Top of the PSP List

fdemarco — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:00:00 EST

According to MetaCritic, the soon to be released God of War: Chains of Olympus is already garnering high enough review scores to take the top PSP game spot surpassing long time record holder, Lumines. The current ranking is based on seven reviews and currently is averaging 94 out of 100. Of course this could change once more review scores are added to the average, but for now, Kratos is on top before he even hits the store shelves. From everything I have seen and played of this game, it well deserves its scores and will probably go on to become a PSP system seller for many. More »

Drop In Metacritic Scores Makes EA Worried

torif — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:00:37 EST

In a conference call Thursday, EA seemed pretty worried about the low scores their games have been garnering on Metacritic. The average review score for an EA game has dropped from 77 to 72 over the last year, which EA CEO John Riccitiello says is unacceptable. While Riccitiello says he's not in the business of chasing numbers, those scores still have an impact on games. More »

So, Which Publisher's Games Get The Best Scores?

Luke Plunkett — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 08:20:00 EST

Picking through the bones of EA's analyst presentations from earlier this week, I found this handy little chart. It's innocent enough at first glance - it comes amidst a bunch of other, boring charts - but this one's a little more fun. It shows what each major publisher's average review score on Metacritic for 2007 was. What a handy reference point! Thanks EA. As you'd expect, Nintendo and Sony's first-party offerings top the list, while at the other end...you can see the net result of Ubisoft's fascination with shovelware and Nintendo consoles. As for Atari, well...the chart starts all the way up at 60%, so...yeah. More »