Suda51 feels people “care too much” about Metacritic

No More Heroes creator Suda51 doesn’t appear to be a big fan of Metacritic, believing it receives too much attention and can lead to some developers intentionally making a game in a formulaic way to receive high marks.

Metacritic is a known entity within the gaming sphere – and in other industries. The site aggregates reviews from various outlets to put one particular score on a release. Getting a low Metacritic score can sink a game while a very high one can lead to a great deal of buzz.

Suda51 had this to say about Metacritic while speaking with GamesIndustry:

“Everybody pays too much attention to and cares too much about Metacritic scores. It’s gotten to the point where there’s almost a set formula – if you want to get a high Metacritic score, this is how you make the game.

If you’ve got a game that doesn’t fit into that formula, that marketability scope, it loses points on Metacritic. The bigger companies might not want to deal with that kind of thing. That might not be the main reason, but that’s certainly one reason why. Everyone cares too much about the numbers.

Personally, I don’t care too much about the Metacritic numbers. I’m not really conscious of them. What’s important to us is putting the games out that we want to put out and having people playing the games we want them to be able to play.”

Suda51 went on to say that he does check in on Metacritic, though primarily for Grasshopper Manufacture’s own games. With a laugh, he said: 

“Sometimes a media outlet has given us zero. That makes me feel shitty – why go that far and give us zero? But apart from that I try to avoid Metacritic.”

How do you feel about Metacritic? Do you believe it ultimately causes more good or harm? Share your thoughts in the comments.