What is Metacritic and how does it calculate scores?
Metacritic is an American review aggregation website that collects reviews of films, television shows, music albums, and video games and converts them into a weighted average percentage score called a Metascore. Each critic's score is adjusted based on that critic's popularity, reputation, and number of reviews written before being averaged. Certain publications receive more weight because of their stature, though Metacritic does not disclose the exact weights.
Who created Metacritic and when was it founded?
Metacritic was created by Marc Doyle, his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, and their University of Southern California law classmate Jason Dietz. The site launched in January 2001 after two years of development, and was most recently acquired by Fandom, Inc. in 2022.
What happened with Fallout New Vegas and Metacritic bonus scores?
Fallout: New Vegas received an average Metascore of 84 out of 100 in 2010, one point below the 85 threshold set by publisher Bethesda Softworks for developer bonuses. As a result, Obsidian Entertainment, the game's developer, received no additional royalties despite the game selling five million units and generating US$300 million in revenue.
What is the Metacritic Must-Play certification for video games?
Metacritic introduced the Must-Play certification in September 2018 for video games that achieve a score of 90 percent or higher and have received a minimum of 15 reviews from industry professionals. A separate Must-See label for films, requiring a Metascore of 81 or higher and at least 15 professional critics, was established in June 2018.
How has Metacritic responded to review bombing?
In July 2020, Metacritic added a 36-hour waiting period before user reviews for newly released video games can be posted, aimed at reducing coordinated review bombing by throwaway accounts. The site has acknowledged that users can create multiple sock puppet accounts to artificially lower scores.
Why did Kotaku and Eurogamer drop numerical review scores?
Kotaku and Eurogamer dropped numerical review scores in direct response to Metacritic's influence on the game industry, preferring qualitative assessments instead. Critics and developers had raised concerns that numerical scores could be used by publishers to deny developer bonuses or pressure outlets into changing their ratings.