Metacritic now scoring individual developers

In what world does David Jaffe outrank the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto and Will Wright? In Metacritic's world, apparently. The entertainment review aggregate site has started rating individual videogame developers, and some of the results are apt to cause debate.

Typing a developer's name into theMetacritic search barnow presentsreaders with a profile page listing said developer's credits, their highest and lowest documented Metacritic game review and an overall score based on the average of all aggregate ratings given to their specific bodies of work.Jaffe's profile, for instance, currently lists six titles; two of which are God of War titles sporting mid-90s grades, resulting in a respectable overall developer score of 83. Miyamoto's rating, on the other hand, is derived from 110 aggregate review scores, and is slightly lower at 80. This isn't to say the system is flawed, per se,but the sheer amount of games to which one has been credited naturallyplays a huge factor inthe final average.

Other notableratings include Sim City father Will Wrightwith 81, iD Software's John Carmackwith 78, and Tim Schaferwiththe Jaffe-beatingscore of86.

As one can expect,the decision to spotlight individual developers has stirred up concern amongst those whose names might appear on the site. One anonymous studio staffer with six years in the business told Gamasutra, "Man, it's bad enough games are judged by Metacritic. Now I'm going to be, too?"

Developers wishing to contest their score, or add more reviews to final tally, can do so by submitting their sternly worded emails toGameFaqs, a sister site owned by Metacritic's parent company, CNET.

[Source:MetacriticviaGamasutra]

Mar 28, 2011

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Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.