Suda51: “Everyone cares too much about Metacritic scores”
Industry
veteran
and
No
More
Heroes
creator
Goichi
‘Suda51’
Suda
believes
games
companies
are
still
putting
too
much
stock
in
how
their
games
perform
on
Metacritic.
In
an
interview
with
GamesIndustry.biz,
Suda
and
his
fellow
Japanese
legend
Shinji
Mikami
discussed
the
myriad
reasons
that
titles
like
their
own,
with
their
distinct
style
and
flavour,
have
been
somewhat
rare
over
the
years
–
and
Suda
suggested
it’s
because
many
companies
are
too
focused
on
review
scores.
“Everybody
pays
too
much
attention
to
and
cares
too
much
about
Metacritic
scores.
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,”
he
explained.
“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.”
Suda
admitted
he
does
occasionally
check
Metacritic
scores,
especially
when
his
studio
Grasshopper
Manufacture
has
released
a
game.
“Sometimes
a
media
outlet
has
given
us
zero.
That
makes
me
feel
shitty
–
why
go
that
far
and
give
us
zero?”
he
laughs.
“But
apart
from
that
I
try
to
avoid
Metacritic.”
Mikami,
meanwhile,
believes
that
there
are
plenty
of
less
conventional
titles
out
there,
but
they
get
less
attention
“because
of
all
the
big
budget
games
that
are
out
there
and
all
the
power
that’s
put
into
the
marketing
for
them.”
“The
kind
of
games
that
get
the
most
marketing
support
are
the
ones
that
need
to
appeal
to
as
broad
an
audience
as
possible,”
he
said.
“More
unique
games
don’t
really
have
the
same
marketability.”
You
can
read
our
full
interview
with
Suda
and
Mikami
here.
The
conversation
covers
the
return
of
their
second
collaboration,
Shadows
of
the
Damned,
and
the
third
collaboration
that
never
happened,
Zombie
Rider.
