"The days of Metacritic determining how well a game sells are long gone” says Saber boss

After finding success with both Evil Dead: The Game and World War Z, Saber CEO Matt Karch says games can look beyond Metacritic for success

[darkrider]

Metacritic? Never had any impact on my purchases. Today is completely toxic.

[ClayRules2012]

Same with me. And I agree.

[VenomUK]

“The days of Metacritic determining how well a game sells are long gone”. Good. For too long privileged, political and elitist video game hack reporters have often coordinated to abuse their power for games they deem ‘problematic’.

Ghost of Tsushima is a high quality title however after a behind the scenes campaign to ‘raise awareness’ that the game about Japanese people was made by a predominantly American team many in the media gave it a 6/10! Significantly below the media average. Yet the Japanese public and media loved it.

Give it a few years and most of the established games media and their biased views will be ignored completely as the public trust independents more.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Metacritic? Never had any impact on my purchases."

Yours maybe, but there´s millions of gamers worldwide that rely on Metascores to decide whether a game is worth their hard earned money or not.

I believe that the 97 Metascore was the main drive which let From Software to achieve such epic record-breaking achievement for a Souls game in such short time.

https://www.polygon.com/230...

[NotoriousWhiz]

Metacritic is just fuel for console wars. People don't rely on Metacritic for individual game purchases. Only to say that: "My plastic console had more 90+ Metacritic games than yours."

[Obscure_Observer]

@NotoriousWhiz

Then why Sony cares so much about high Metascores If such metric does not have an impact on sales?

Why publisher rewards (money) studios that get 85+ Metascores?

There are plenty of reasons why Metascores are important to the game industry that most "normal people" won't ever realize.

https://wccftech.com/days-g...

[lodossrage]

@Darkrider, Clay, & Obscure

To be fair, I agree with all your points and you're actually all correct. I'll explain.

Dark, Clay, you two are saying that for you personally, you never use reviews to make your choices. I concur because that's how I buy my games too. I never needed a review to dictate what I want. In fact, look in my comment history. I can't tell you how many times I've said reviews (in gaming)are for people that can't think for themselves

But Obscure also has a point here. Just use this site as an example. How many times do we see people argue with Metacritic scores to determine if a game is good or not? You have people on this site that know better that will try to argue that a game is great because "paid for" reviewers gave it a high score. And that very same score determines bonuses, potential marketing, and even if devs get fired or not.

To be fair, Elden Ring would have been a hit regardless. But at the same time, you can't deny that constant marketing and praise is what is keeping it so popular this long.

[Knushwood Butt]

Never look at it, but don't care about reviews in general.

Will get Stray day 1. I've seen enough to know I want it and want to support the team for doing something different.

[AmUnRa]

I agree, before i buy a game that i'am not shure of to buy it i do my homework, is it a gamegenre i like how is the game plays etc etc. I never look at the game score, i never use Metacritic scores to make my mind up. But the most games that are for me a must buy i dont give a fuck about reviews and Meta cous i know that the developer has a history of making great games.

[EvertonFC]

Totally agree

[IMissJimRyan]

I think he's partially right. MC still has a large impact on full priced games. But when we talk about making money with games we are looking to other things way beyond that number slaped in the game the day it's arrived.

Games with astronomical revenue like Fortinite, Minecraft, LoL and Rocket League show how you can be succesful without a high MC.

[NotoriousWhiz]

So... Only Gaas games can be successful without Metacritic? I hope that's not the takeaway.

[Inverno]

Most gamers don't care about meta, but most publishers do and a lot. I will agree with anyone that says that they should listen more to the feedback of consumers more directly rather than what critics say.

[moriarty1889]

The days were never there to begin with imo.

[LOGICWINS]

This. Saints Row is my most anticipated game this year...regardless of how well it reviews.

[Obscure_Observer]

Word. I´ll be there for Saints Row day one regardless of metascore.

[DrDoomer]

Meta needs to get rid of user scores/reviews and instead allow users to comment on and rate critic reviews.

[SeTTriP]

This is actually a great idea

[Obscure_Observer]

"Meta needs to get rid of user scores/reviews and instead allow users to comment on and rate critic reviews."

I believe that Metacritic should partner with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo for example and, allow proprietary plugins so user´s reviews of games could be verified via user´s official accounts to confirm ownership of the said reviewed game.

That would bring legitimacy to user reviews while drive the trolls away

[Jin_Sakai]

It’s like CoD, it’s always review bombed and ratings have been dropping for years yet the game continues to sell.

[sourOG]

GOOD.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

Never have an impact only what stands out in the industry.

[sourOG]

It did actually have an impact. Some devs bonuses hinged on a metacritic score. Which is f***ing dumb I hope the Pubs got wise to that and stopped seeing these game bloggers as legitimate journalists. That’s why they try so hard to butter up the game bloggers with goodie bags and swag. It does make a difference. People listen to these goobers, I don’t know why but they do.

[HeliosHex]

Metacritic like everything else is just opinions. Does it give a general idea of what to expect from a game? Sure. Should it stop you from buying a game your interested in? No.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Are you saying the media’s opinion doesn’t matter?

[FanboysKiller]

Who would build a disgusting library based on pure metacritics scores? , personal taste comes first , if anyone got influenced by mc for building his library then it can't get more stupid than this.

[fitofficial]

Well when you devalue professional reviews with a decade or more of trash "jOuRnAlIsM" and user reviews are unreliable because every other game gets review bombed due to some overly-sensitive group of political lackeys having some ax to grind what the hell do you expect?

[Tetsujin]

I can't read the article because of the "ad block" I'm using.

[frostypants]

Because these days half the reviews are written based on what the reviewer wants to be true, guided by pre-existing agendas, not their honest experience. And the public has figured this out. This is just quantifiable evidence. Same with movies and Rotten Tomatoes.

[gold_drake]

a good score is always great, but ive never bought a game cause of it.

[ZwVw]

Try explaining this to Sony. Days Gone sold millions of copies, yet they still refuse (or are bullish) to green-light a sequel to this day. All because of being butt-hurt it didn't score an 85-90 Meta score.

[Pyrofire95]

I've only ever looked at MC out of curiosity, not as a determining factor in a game purchase.

[EvertonFC]

It shouldn't matter anyway

[ooquis]

Gamers have been conditioned to be happy with trash.....we see the phrase allot lately......"at least it's free on gamepass"

[StarkR3ality]

I prefer to go off a lot of YouTube reviewers opinion/word of mouth to be honest.

Examples like deathloop which is an average game at best getting 10/10 just shows how broken the mainstream review system can be.

I will say metacritic still has a place in the industry as normally it can be good to get a general consensus in a short space of time, but I wouldn't base my purchase on said meta score.

[nommers]

To some extent I may use critic review scores, but it's not the only thing. I'm willing to buy games almost anywhere from the low 70s and up (and even a few exceptions even lower) if I feel that what I have seen of the game is something that scratches an itch of sorts for me. Long gone are the days when I would just go and buy a game at full $60 due to really good 95+ reviews as I have been burned too many times by that thought process.