Grasshopper CEO Suda51 says people ‘care too much’ about Metacritic scores

Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi Suda (aka Suda51) says there’s too much attention on Metacritic these days, and that it has a negative impact on originality.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Suda and Shadows of the Damned co-creator Shinji Mikami were discussing why there haven’t been as many games as unique as theirs in recent years.

Suda suggested that one reason is publishers and developers focusing too much on Metacritic scores, and deciding to play it safe and stick to what is conventionally known to ‘work’ instead of taking risks with new ideas.

“Everybody pays too much attention to and cares too much about Metacritic scores,” he  said. “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.”

Further reading

Interview: Suda51 on Switch 2, Twin Peaks, western culture and his favourite beer

The Grasshopper boss also talks about his wish to remaster more back catalogue games

Mikami went on to point out that there are actually plenty of unique games that don’t fit into the typical formula Suda was referring to, but that they got less attention because big-budget games dominate with large marketing budgets.

“The kind of games that get the most marketing support are the ones that need to appeal to as broad an audience as possible,” Mikami said. “More unique games don’t really have the same marketability.”

Shadow of the Damned: Hella Remastered, a remaster of the 2011 action game co-created by Suda and Mikami, will be released on all formats on October 31.