On the topic of Metacritic and other entertainment review aggregators, Take-Two’s CEO Strauss Zelnick says that, “Good is the new bad. Games need to be great”.
“Unlike many other entertainment business — there are just a few — ratings by Metacritic and others’ reviews really can influence the success of a newly-released title,” he explains. “In fact, if your ratings go below a certain level, it can really hurt your ability to sell the title, and above a certain level can make a real difference in your success. Our ability to have high scores over and over and over again is a huge competitive advantage, and that advantage drives sales, it reduces risk and creates profits.”
Of course, one could argue that game review scores have gradually inflated over the last few years, where a game that might have previously scored a 6 or 7 out of 10 is now rated around 8.5 or more. Or maybe games are just getting better. Let’s see a proper argument in the comments, guys.
