Former God of War Developer Says Sony Has A Strict 90+ Metacritic Rating for Studios

Sony is famed for gaming experiences that are truly like no other, with masterpieces such as God of War: Ragnarok and The Last of Us. However, a former Sony developer who has worked on God of War, claims that the company has high demands for its Studios in terms of Metascore ratings. According to the former developer, the company considered professional review scores to be a gauge of a game's success, it also demands that studios need to get a Metacritic score of 90 or higher.

Metacritic score isn't a sure-fire way of judging the quality of a game, as seen with Diablo 4 which recently was review-bombed on Metacritic by many longtime fans who felt that the game was nothing like its predecessor. Opinions are also incredibly subjective and will vary from person to person, especially with how fickle the gaming community is. That's why it is far more reliable to consider the opinion of a professional game reviewer, as they are less inclined to review bomb a title. Yet despite this, Sony would still use Metacritic as a way to gauge a game's success.

 

Another reason why relying on Metacritic is so strange is because a game's score is highly influenced by the game's overall acclaim, and plays a key part in the game's outward perception. Meaning, if a game receives a high rating from professional critics', it is still likely to get an equally high rating from the gaming community. According to former Sony Santa Monica Art Director, Rafael Grassetti, who many know their work from God of War, the publisher demands that most of its major studios get a Metacritic score of 90+.

Rafael Grassetti revealed this information when they were brought onto the Portuguese Flow Games Podcast, where he then confirmed this lofty expectation was targeted towards developers like Santa Monica Studio and Naughty Dog. Despite how strange this demand is, it does come with some grain of sense, Sony is at the top of Metacritic's official game publisher list, and the company has quite a few titles that are held in extremely high regard both by critics and gamers alike.

However, it is important to note that only a handful of Sony's first party titles earned such a high Metascore, those being God of War, The Last of Us Part 2, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Shadow of the Colossus, and Astro Bot: Rescue Mission.

Daman Shelley (@UndeadandTired)
Editor, NoobFeed