A former Sony developer has said that the publisher does consider professional review scores to be a gauge of a game's success and "demands" a Metacritic score of at least 90 from its major development studios. The publisher is widely regarded for its God of War and The Last of Us first-party titles, which have received some remarkably high ratings, but this isn't necessarily a given.
As shown with the recent Diablo 4 Metacritic review bombing, the platform is hardly exempt from the gaming community's sometimes fickle opinions on a given title. Actual game critics aren't nearly as prone to leaving heated opinions on the platform, granted, but the notion that Sony demands a specific Metacritic score from its studios may still rub some the wrong way.
Though the relevancy of review scores and how they reflect on a game's success isn't always straightforward, a game's critical acclaim is often a key aspect of its outward perception in the wider gaming community. According to former Sony Santa Monica Art Director Rafael Grassetti, who worked on God of War, the publisher demands that its studios' high-end productions receive "at least" 90 on Metacritic. Grassetti spoke about this in the Portuguese Flow Games Podcast, where he specifically said that this lofty expectation targeted developers like Santa Monica Studio and Naughty Dog.
Granted, it's not hard to see why Sony would think so highly of its games' Metacritic scores. Sony is at the top of Metacritic's official game publisher list, after all, and the company has a number of titles that are held in extremely high regard both by critics and gamers themselves. At the same time, it may be worth pointing out that only a few of Sony's first-party productions have received a Metascore of 90 or above: God of War, The Last of Us Part 2, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Shadow of the Colossus, and Astro Bot: Rescue Mission.
The extremely highly regarded Marvel's Spider-Man, for example, falls short of Sony's purported Metascore target. It is good news, then, that Grassetti added that Sony doesn't base production bonuses on a game's Metascore, but rather on whether a game's sales targets have been achieved or not. Grassetti also mentioned that Sony doesn't rush its studios on their deadlines, meaning the devs can ask for more production time if needed.
Grassetti's explanation of the matter doesn't sound unreasonable, keeping the above in mind, though the notion of such a prominent publisher maintaining lofty Metascore targets may sound a bit out of date in this day and age. If it's true, however, the next game to try to meet the bar will be Marvel's Spider-Man 2 with its highly anticipated Symbiote gameplay, which launches on October 20 for PS5.
Source: IconEra