Gamers often complain that publishers put too much stock in Metacritic averages and I’m inclined to agree. However, Battlefield 3 producer Patrick Bach has said that his game will fall into the same trap because there’s no other way of evaluating a game’s initial success — Metascores are important.
“An 85 rated game could sell way more copies than a 95 rated game, which is sad for the developer, because the developer then gets a receipt on that: you made a great game, and then the sales tell you that you didn’t make a great game,” he explained. “So it’s hard for a developer to be judged by anything but reviews.
“… But of course, you set a target and say, if you’re not above this we’re a failure, or we think we’ll hit around this target. It’s always hard when you start a project to set the targets for quality, but that’s kind of the only target you can set. That’s a Metascore.”
Battlefield 3 reviews started going live today and it got the kind of nines and tens you would expect from such a high profile game. Our copy is yet to drop, but our readers are already preparing to get enraged that it didn’t score higher than Kirby’s Return to Dream Land. Because videogames!
Battlefield 3 Interview: Rolling the DICE [Eurogamer]
