Amazon is Quietly Associating Metacritic Scores with Games Now

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It seems like entering the games industry with a brand new streaming box is not the only thing Amazon is up to these days.

Reports have been popping up all of the various blogs and other gaming sites – Amazon is quietly rolling out Metacritic scores to the games they offer via their world-class online store. Pictured above, you can see just how big the score really is on a game’s page, and it definitely gets the user’s attention in my opinion.

A lot of users, journalists, and developers have been almost unanimously saying this is nothing but a bad thing for the selling of games, as it puts a gigantic label on the game saying either: A) This game is amazing!, B) This game is ok, or C) This game is bad, or just not worth it. Whatever the actual score each game receives, you can’t deny their argument that adding the metacritic score on each page is a bit much.

The games industry has been infamous for having developers or publishers alike not getting their bonus just because their game didn’t get a high enough Metacritic rating. That’s just how powerful Metacritic has become as far as the buyers of games at large are concerned. There are also many other arguments against Metacritic like a game getting a mediocre or bad score in the beginning due to bad glitches, only to have them removed later – and yet the rating stays, as a rating collected onto the site is permanent.

Lastly, a lot of users are making it a point to mention that Steam has been providing Metacritic scores with all of the games offered via their digital distribution platform, and for quite a long time now. Coming from this, the naysayers make the rebuttal that just because it’s been implemented for a long time now, that doesn’t make it any more sound, or ethical.

So what do you guys think – is Amazon going too far with this new partnership?

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Owner and Publisher at Niche Gamer and Nicchiban. Outlaw fighting for a better game industry.


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