IGN - Is Metacritic Ruining The Games Industry?
It also leads to some very dodgy behaviour from the publisher side of things. I’ve been told stories of PR executives working on particular games being directed to specifically target these smaller sites in the hope of raising that average score and covering up a less enthusiastic reception from the big outlets. For most people working in games marketing, Metacritic will come up during their annual review process, and a less-than-ideal average score for a game will sometimes result in a severe bollocking.
theyarecomingforyou wrote on Jul 18, 2012, 12:18:
I still find Metacritic to be quite useful. I don't go to the actual site all that often but the scores are usually shown on the Steam Store. It allows you to tell at a glance roughly where a game sits, though obviously it should be never taken on its own. Some of my favourite games still have relatively low MC scores - in the 70s - so a bad score certainly doesn't stop me buying a game; it just makes me more wary.