Irrational Games hiring requirement includes Metacritic score over 85

Review aggregate makes its way into job eligibility

Chris KempJuly 28, 2012

Irrational Games is hiring; they’re looking for a new design manager. Interested? Have you ever designed a game that achieved a Metacritic score of 85 and above? No? Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

The job listing has caused a stir in the industry, as one of the requirements listed is “credit on at least one game with an 85+ Metacritic review score.”

The listing appeared on Gamasutra’s job board, and is looking for someone with a lot of experience with first person shooters. It’s unlikely however that this pertains to Bioshock: Infinite, as it would appear to be a bit too late into production to bring someone new on board.

This is the first time a job listing has specifically mentioned Metacritic score requirement, but it’s not the first time the review aggregate site has had an impact in the internal workings of a developer. We’ve seen this in the past as a benchmark for performance bonuses, and now it’s creeping it’s way into job eligibility.

Other requirements for the job are at least 6 years working as a designer in the games industry, as well as 3 shipped titles, worked on from pre-production to release. These stringent requirements highlight the difficulties of breaking into the industry, particularly at a big-name developer.

One public example of Metacritic’s importance was Fallout: New Vegas, where employees at developer Obsidian were promised bonuses if they achieved an 85 rating – they fell just short at 84. The business of game reviews is somewhat shady to begin with, and developers are no doubt feeling uneasy that more and more importance is being placed on Metacritic scores.