What is Metacritic and Metascore?
Most of you may already be familiar with these terms, but let’s take a brief look at how these scores are calculated and what they represent.
What is Metacritic?
Metacritic is a website owned by CBS Interactive that aggregates reviews of movies, TV shows, and video games. It was established in 1999 and has a particularly strong influence in the gaming industry.
Many people hope for high scores for anticipated titles, or hesitate to purchase a game if it receives a surprisingly low score. It’s natural to want others to appreciate what we like and for our favorite things to receive objectively good evaluations. Additionally, we may check the Metascore again, not wanting to invest limited resources like time and money in a low-quality game.
The Scene on Score Release Day
While it varies, when it comes to highly anticipated games, reviewers typically receive a build in advance and publish their reviews and scores simultaneously when the embargo is lifted or on the release date. Metascores are given once there are at least four reviews, and since different outlets publish their scores at different times, the scores may fluctuate in real-time initially.
So, early reactions to score releases might include “It starts at 80 points” or “Will it go up or down from here?”
Metacritic collects reviews for movies, TV, games, and music, with a particularly high influence in the gaming industry. Metascores are displayed on Steam store pages, and they can affect developers’ incentives and users’ purchasing decisions. Perhaps in gaming, objective completion has a greater weight than personal taste.
How are scores calculated?
Some people may think of Metacritic scores as the most authoritative evaluation from a media outlet, while others may simply focus on the number. As many of you know, the Metascore is an average of multiple reviews.
Average Calculation Criteria and Method Here’s how scores are calculated:
- Carefully select review outlets to include
- Convert each outlet’s score to a 100-point scale
- Calculate the weighted average considering each outlet’s weight (weighted average)
Metacritic determines which outlets to include in the Metascore calculation and assigns weights based on their own judgment. Weights are determined by considering the quality and scale of the outlets. Occasionally, smaller outlets might advertise that they are included in Metacritic’s aggregation, which is an important factor for them.
Score Conversion
Metacritic’s score conversion process involves the following:
- Scores are calculated on a 100-point scale. Each outlet has its own scoring system, so the scores are converted to a 100-point scale and then multiplied by the outlet’s weight to calculate the weighted average.
- Scores are registered once at least four reviews are submitted.
- Reviews without scores are excluded (e.g., Polygon or Rock Paper Shotgun, which provide many reviews but no scores).
- Colors are assigned based on the score range, with green being good and red being bad.
Platform
Typically, reviewers specify the platform they used for the review. Metacritic then categorizes reviews based on the platform.
PS4: Red Dead Redemption 2 received a score of 97 based on 98 reviews.
XBOX ONE: Red Dead Redemption 2 received a score of 97 based on 33 reviews.
In the case of [Red Dead Redemption 2], coincidentally, the review scores for both platforms are the same, but there are some cases where they differ slightly. To what extent can the difference in scores between platforms be significant for the same game? It is extremely rare for a single media outlet to release platform-specific reviews or to have different review scores for the same game.
In the example above, the media outlets that were counted simultaneously for both PS4 and XONE are IGN and Jeuxvideo.com, and the actual review links are the same (a single review).
IGN does not mention a separate review platform and simply writes PS4 and XBONE at the end, while Jeuxvideo.com is in French and states in the introduction that the review was conducted on the PS4. However, Metacritic included this review for the XBOX ONE as well. For reference, Opencritic, a game-specific review aggregation site, combines reviews without dividing them by platform.
Ultimately, in general cases, it is appropriate to assume that the difference in meta scores cannot numerically represent the difference in play experience between platforms.
Note: By 2023, when this article is being edited, the qualitative difference in platform-specific experiences has increased, mainly due to optimization issues.
Meta Scores and Game Selection
Scores are convenient when converted, but…
A high meta score means that ‘people who play games a lot and write many reviews gave favorable evaluations after trying the game.’ It’s neither more nor less than that. Reviewers’ average ratings are taken into account. Different reviewers have different tastes, and each media outlet has its own unique style, doesn’t it?
Furthermore, the majority of media outlets included in Metacritic are primarily from North America and Europe. It’s worth considering whether their universal tastes align with our own.
Lastly, before rejoicing or feeling disappointed about the score, you can also see how many reviews were used to calculate it. A score is displayed if there are four or more reviews.
Despite all this
People still look at meta scores because it has become a sort of ritual, or because they find that the meta scores are accurate based on their experiences playing various games.
Especially in the case of games, there is a certain degree of objectivity in assessing whether the intended features are smoothly implemented, which sets them apart from other media. Regardless of a game’s ‘size’, technical aspects (optimization, bugs, etc.) and the intuitiveness of interactions can be evaluated with similar standards.
Therefore, if the score is unusually low, it’s necessary to cross-check with user reviews on MiniMap or conduct additional searches.
The Realm of Taste
As with any other artistic medium, there are both popular and niche tastes, and the popular tastes do not necessarily qualitatively surpass the niche ones. There can be games with high scores that are unplayable, and games that are enjoyable regardless of their scores. Like music and movies, it’s crucial to choose games that suit your taste.
Numbers are undeniably convenient. Comparing scores is more intuitive and easier than searching for qualitative information about a game. This number has a powerful influence on game purchases and playtime. Even if you think you choose games regardless of their meta score, it’s impossible to ignore its widespread use. As a result, the critical and commercial success of games has become heavily dependent on meta scores.
As mentioned earlier, there are many flaws in meta scores. One notable issue is the lack of transparency, as they don’t disclose the weighting of each media outlet. Even though they internally assign weights to each outlet, a score is displayed if there are four or more reviews (doesn’t that seem odd?).
It’s not about condemning Metacritic as evil and questioning its original sin. However, as consumers, we can’t help but regard this score as important. Knowing that ‘this score came about roughly this way’ when looking at it can make it easier to view the score more objectively and with a clear conscience.
