Video game developers always hope that fans take and appreciate their work. But players and critics alike are not afraid to rip into a game if it fails to deliver. We’ve recently seen community backlash for games like Redfall and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. So it’s not surprising that there are eyes constantly watching sources like Metacritic to view just how well a game is doing with fans and critics alike.
If you’re unfamiliar with Metacritic, it’s a website that gives viewers a glance at the overall reviews for TV, films, music, and video games. You’ll get an overall Metascore that averages the reviews from leading critics from publications. Furthermore, fans can drop their thoughts in a separate category to further agree or disagree with some of the publication reviews left on the game. Today, we’re finding out that Sony keeps an eye on Metacritic for their first-party studio releases.
This news comes from Rafael Grassetti, the former art director for God of War. Speaking with a Portuguese publication called Flow Games, Rafael noted that Sony strives to see at least a 90/100 for their first-party studio releases. Sony’s first-party studio titles typically do well, and with studios like Naughty Dog and Santa Monica Studio, the amount of detail that gets put into these titles is rather impressive.
Thanks to translations that PlayStation Lifestyle reported, we’re finding out that Sony doesn’t tie bonuses towards the Metacritic scores; furthermore, they don’t rush the game projects. So having time to develop a game might also allow the product to be far more polished when it does launch into the marketplace. Of course, not every game that didn’t have the big success Sony had hoped for doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad game.
For instance, fans were disappointed when the Days Gone sequel was canceled. In fact, former developers have expressed their frustration over not getting the chance to continue with the IP. So now that we know anything under a 90 on Metacritic from Sony’s first-party studios could be in some trouble regarding any future installments. Meanwhile, as for Rafael, while he left Sony, his current project is helping out in the production of an original IP at Netflix, according to their Twitter account profile.
