Destructoid is gaming news, community, videos, and sometimes love. Take the tour or jump in with Facebook:

 


EA's Peter Moore steps away from the Metacritic to breathe photo

Where do you go for review scores on your latest games? Destructoid? I hope so. But Metacritic is also a handy tool. They incorporate the scores from several of the major gaming sites into a handy page you can use to determine if a game is worth your time and cash. You can also read user's submitted reviews. Thought you wanted PS3 RPG Cross Edge? Maybe not.

EA's Peter Moore is shielding his eyes from Metacritic scores, especially when it comes to Wii games. He says that Wii titles sell independently of their Metacritic scores

"The thing is with the Wii, it seems to be for the gaming sites, it's the last platform they review," said Moore. "It takes a time to get an actual review score. I would pretty much guarantee that just about every Wii game ships without a Metacritic rating because [reviewers] haven't got around, to it or they're not interested in reviewing it."

Moore likes the user reviews...more. He says that while he still wants good scores, they're less important to the Wii than they would be with the other systems.

"I absolutely guarantee you, the thing we're watching most closely now [with Wii titles] is things like Amazon - and I'll go look at women's magazines that have powerful websites, and then we look at what we call 'mommy bloggers'," he says.

[via Gamasutra]


Continue: More wii stories





prev next

16 comments | showing # 1 to 16

Midgetsnowman's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 12:46
Midgetsnowman
I love the cross edge reviews though. the sheer amount of fanboys screaming is almost as lolworthy as when killzone got 7's
eternalplayer2345's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 12:46
eternalplayer2345
I think developers that pay too much attention to game review scores is my most hated thing about the industry. Forcing a developer to aim for 80% or higher as a mandate from the publisher is disgusting.
SephirothX's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 12:48
SephirothX
@eternalplayer2345
...or we call that striving for quality?
CommanderPoopypants's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 12:50
CommanderPoopypants
Great editing there guys =). As a game collector, metacritic is priceless, but I wish you could change the site's color scheme. Hurts my eyes after a few minutes. o__O
Rockvillian's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 12:52
Rockvillian
This industry has lost its mind.
Necros's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 12:59
Necros
What? A very standard Japanese-made crossover RPG is bad? That's ridiculous, I've never heard of the same thing happening with NamcoXBandai or Chaos Whatsit (with the bad English voice acting) or any number of other crossovers! (Hint: they're all money grabs with flimsy plots.)
Harris Hatsworth's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:00
Harris Hatsworth
@ SephirothX

Not it isn't. Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed both suck and have 80%+ ratings on Metacritic.

As much hate as metacritic gets I think it's useful. Individual reviews are pretty worthless for the most part aside from getting a relatively bullshit free description of a game but taking an aggregate score tends to at least put a game into a tier.
eternalplayer2345's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:22
eternalplayer2345
@harris hatsworth

I see the usefulness of metacritic absolutely but metacritic is a gauge for consumer and not publishers or at the very least not a means for a publisher to base the quality of their game on
Solozaur's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:27
Solozaur
Is this guy on crack?

The reason wii games are reviewed like that is because wii does games for non-gamers and let's face it - all gaming sites have GAMERS reviewing them!
Doomsday Forte's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:28
Doomsday Forte
People still use numbers for games? I know it's so slow and old-fashioned of me, but I'd like to read reviews on things. Why did you feel it deserves X out of Y? What worked? What didn't? Numbers can't tell me anything like that. And honestly, what does Halo 3 have on there for example? Guessing better than 88%? 94%, yeah. And users give it a 71%. All that tells me is there's a differing of opinion between professional reviewers and the gamers who play the games.

Shame there's no way to quantify text outside of numbers. And didn't I read an article here some time ago about how game reviews suck?
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:29
Holyetheline
@CommanderPoopypants

It hurts my eyes too! And here I thought I was the only one.
PhazonYoshi's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:31
PhazonYoshi
@Harris, AC totality deserves 80%, it's a good game. It's not perfect, nowhere near, but it's good fun.
atastysammich's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:49
atastysammich
Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa. Amazon? Half the people who submit reviews there need to have their computers taken away from them!
WarZombie's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:57
WarZombie
Peter Moore must be Captain Fucking Obvious. Of course review scores don't matter as much on the Wii, as all that shovelware shit will sell millions to all the casual gamers that want it. And if he thinks trusting user reviews is the way to go, then he is sadly mistaken. He has never heard of fanboys, who will lower an "enemy" console's games for the sake of feeling like they have a bigger penis. No offense to Peter Moore, but this is pretty stupid.

Like, half the shit on the Wii is stuff only a soccer mom would buy her kids, and when you get people who actually play real games reviewing these things, then of course you're going to end up with shit reviews. I think what he's saying is "Forget the fact that all these shit games exist, let's make our own shit game and everyone will love it!" Which, unfortunately, is the wway some companies think when the topic is the Wii.
Firestorm2117's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 13:58
Firestorm2117
So, he's basically just saying what nearly every gamer on earth has been saying: the Wii is (mostly) for non-gamers and developpers just want to use it to make money. Hey, at least he's honest.

As for Metacritic: I generally check it for the little excerpts from reviews, rather than the scores themselves. They usualy give you a better idea of what to expect from a game, rather than just relying on a number that's rarely representative of the game's quality.
DinnertimeNinja's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/10/2009 17:39
DinnertimeNinja
@Doomsday Forte,

The rift between pro reviews and user reviews can be chalked up to fanboy abuse and hype train overload.

Especially on flagship titles like Halo, Sony and Nintendo fanboys will post negative reviews just to lower the score. Couple that with some inflated reviews from sites riding the hype train and you've got a big divide. For big-name games like that, I usually take the pro review score and subtract 5% from it and it seems to be a good gauge of quality.
prev next

Comment with Facebook





Click connect and comment instantly!

Comment with Dtoid





New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds

Comments policy

Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?

Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!

 

   Got news?   tips@destructoid.com   |   Dtoid Twitter

New Videos

more videos


Reviews & Previews
BioShock 2 review
Dante's Inferno review
Chime review
Hustle Kings review
iPhone Review Round-up: January review
more reviews
Dawn of War II Chaos Rising
Metro 2033
A trip to the racetracks Days of Thunder Arcade
Double the pleasure, double the fun with Darwinia+
Wizarding world in plastic Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4
more previews


- The Dtoid Army is 56715 strong -

Showing Cblogs with 3+ faps   show all

Call for entries: the Areas of my Expertise

New to Dtoid? Read the survival guide


 Originals
Jim Sterling: How Aliens are blatantly better than Predators





















More Destructoid Originals




We are Destructoid   tips@destructoid.com
Nick Chester
Editor-in-Chief
Niero
Founder, Big Boss
Jim Sterling
Reviews Editor
Hamza Aziz
Community Manager
Dale North
News Editor
Rey Gutierrez
Destructoid Video EIC
Anthony Burch
Features Editor
Brad Nicholson
Managing Editor
Tom Fronczak Colette Bennett
Ashley Davis Ben Perlee
Conrad
Zimmerman
Chad Concelmo
Jonathan Holmes Jonathan Ross
Brad Rice Jordan Devore
Will Maddock Matthew Razak
Josh Tolentino
Joseph Leray
Topher Cantler Samit Sarkar
     
  Adam Dork
Daniel Lingen
Hollie Bennett
Joe Burling
Mikey Turvey






 
 
  get involved

register or login
post a blog
post a forum
enter a contest
contribute a news tip
suggest a feature
be a guest editor
support

new member's guide
login assistance
tech support
report abuse
email our editors
read our dev blog
nuclear crisis?
keep in touch

RSS feed
Twitter
Facebook
Myspace
Flickr
Game nights
Meetup+play online
seriously

about Destructoid
advertising
terms of use
privacy policy
jobs at MM
buy our crap
our network

Tomopop
Japanator
Despingation?




Destructoid is an independently-run publication forged by our love of video games and the gaming community's need of accountable enthusiast press
living the dream since March 16, 2006