Blog: 2012 Game Reviews Signal Poor Year For Industry

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

2012 Game Reviews Signal Poor Year For Industry

A study released by Metacritic?has revealed that the video gaming industry performed fairly below-par for 2012, with game reviews from the site reaching one of its lowest-scoring years since their records began.

metacritic_logo_tagline While most new games, like movies and musicians,?pride themselves on high-numbering (or ?starred?) reviews and promote that fact on their box art, but it appears as though many 2012 releases had to settle for?pinning up reviews that they were ?good? or ?decent? rather?than ?outstanding?, as the site?revealed statistics on their own site?s scores (taken from other sites and weighted into an aggregate/average marked out of 100) for the year.

This compilation displayed the nature of gaming quality according to Metacritic?s own individual game reviews, taking each release and counting that just?14 console games (18?when also including PC?& handheld titles), were listed with a review score of??90+? or more. This is in direct comparison to other years and most notably?2011, when?23 console games (32 including non-console) were in the highest bracket.

Metacritic noted: ?In fact, since we started publishing these year-end reports in 2009, we have never encountered such a low total number of ?great? [90+ review?score] games in a single year.?

While it is bad news for many games developers who will now be under plenty of pressure to up their ?game? in 2013, the TV industry have had reason to cheer in an area where they commonly fall short with their ?licenced content?,?following a comparatively weak field combined with the very strong performance of digital-only title The Walking Dead: The Game?from Telltale Games, receiving the ?highest aggregate review score? for 2012 with?a 95,?even if it is based primarily on the comic book series of the same name and its score makes it the lowest-performing ?Game of the Year? by Metacritic?s standards?since?Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2003.

Other games recognised as filling the rest of the ?Top 10? places on the highest aggregate review score table were Persona 4 Golden, Mass Effect 3, Journey, Xenoblade Chronicles, Dishonored, Mark of the Ninja, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 and Trials Evolution.

While the biggest TV-based video game?releases of the year (The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct and South Park: The Stick of Truth) would have to hope on an exceptional failure from the likes of Grand Theft Auto V to claim top spot from Metacritic even if they perform well themselves in ratings, they could still be considered strong outside contenders for the top 10 of 2013 at this stage.

However, will the year as a?whole?see the?video game industry?raise their standards again, or having ?seen it all before?, is good no longer good enough?

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