Metacritic 2008 ESRB Summary

Total Number of Titles by ESRB Rating

Average Score by ESRB Rating

The following displays how many titles have been scored, vs. how many titles remain unscored.  Again, this is due to Metacritic requiring four outlet reviews before an MC Score is assigned.

Scored vs. Unscored by ESRB

Just as we did in the platform summary, the following uses Metacritics Favorability Index with counts for each appropriate ESRB Category:

Metacritic Favorability Distribution by ESRB

Here, we took the the top two positive categories “Universal Acclaim” and “Generally Favorable Reviews” and rolled them up into a “Positive Index.”  Similarly, a “Negative Index” was created for titles that fall into the “Generally Unfavorable Reviews” and “Overwhelming Dislike.”

Custom Favorability Index by ESRB

The following correlates the number of titles per ESRB category with Metacritics Favorability Index. You’ll find one chart per ESRB Category:

Favorabililty Distribution for ESRB 'E'

Favorabililty Distribution for ESRB 'E10+'

Favorabililty Distribution for ESRB 'T'

Favorability Distribution for ESRB 'M'

Finally, we’ll use the grade scale we applied for the platforms to determine which ESRB category is the most consistent in regard to quality.  Again, here’s the scale:

Game Grading Scale

After applying the appropriate grade scale to each game title, we totalled the results for each ESRB and came up with the following consistency index ranked in order of ‘most consistent.’

ESRB Consistency Rank

The ESRB ranking ‘M’ for Mature was the most consistent in regard to game quality.  This is also supported in other reports found within this 2008 summary.

Metacritic 2008 Platform Summary

Here’s the first set of reports in the series for our 2008 recap which will focus on Platforms. Our first chart simply breaks down the distribution of Game Titles by Platform:

Number of Titles by Platform

The next chart denotes the average Metacritic score for each of the platforms:

Average Metacritic Score by Platform

As you’ll see from the chart below, there is a large percentage of game titles where Metacritic scores didn’t exist. This was largely due to Metacritics requirement that at least four media outlet reviews are required before a rating is applied, and the game title simply didn’t have the requisite reviews.

Also, the platform counts here reflect all “scored” and “non-scored” titles, while the MC Scoring Averages dismiss those without scores. In later sections of the summary, we’ll focus only on platform counts where scores have been applied.

Snapshot of Scored Titles Vs. Non-Scored Titles

What this report does is to take all the scoring data from 2008 and correlate it with Metcritics own favorability table which is located here. You can see from the following table how many titles fall within each favorability category:

Metacritic Favorability by Platform for 2008

To view which platforms performed the best, and which basically sucked overall, the following chart should be a good fit. I’ve taken the the top two positive categories “Universal Acclaim” and “Generally Favorable Reviews” and rolled them up into a “Positive Index.” Similarly, I created a “Negative Index” for titles that fall into the “Generally Unfavorable Reviews” and “Overwhelming Dislike.”

Custom Favorability Summary (above avg, avg, below avg)

You can see from the results above, that Xbox 360 titles had more positive scored titles than any other platform. Conversely, the Wii had more titles scoring poorly than any other platform.

Continuing with the quality theme here, we’ll try to figure out which of the following platforms score more consistently (positive) than others. To do this, we’ll use our own grade scale with associated values for each grade:

Game Grading Scale

We’ll take each game from 2008 (scored of course) and apply the appropriate points. In the end, we’ll take the best of the total points to determine which are the most consistent platform in regard to quality. Here’s the list in order of most consistent:

Most Consistent Platforms / Quality

If you are at all skeptical about my conclusions, you’ll see more data in our reports that substantiates that the PS3 is the most consistent platform in regard to overall game quality.

Well, that wraps up the platform summary for 2008, which just happens to be the easiest. If you think I’ve missed something of interest here, please let me know. Also, if you are looking for detail that would illustrate publisher performance by platform, that will come in a later report.

Game Titles with notable weighting swings (2008)

This swing report notes game titles where the Metacritic score, and the actual average of outlet scores varies by more than two points (due to Metacritics weighting).

Most of the games below reflect titles with an overall low quality, but there are some exception.  Here are some examples:

• NHL 09 scored a 73 average, yet only a 66 Metacritic Score (weighting penalty)
• Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 scored a 70 average, while the Metacritic Score was 65 (weighting penalty)
• EverQuest II:  The Shadow Oddessy scored an 83 average, while the Metacritic Score was 78 (weighting penalty)
• Personal Trainer: Cooking scored an average of 78, while the MC Score was 81. (weighting bonus)

Almost There!

We are well into our scoring analysis for 2008.  It looks like the first video report will be using non-weighted scores referenced with the metacritic favorability chart:

Metacritic Favorability Table

At the moment we have averaged all the media outlet scores and are currently referencing the results with the table above.  If you have any particular requests for this round, please let me know.

–Tim