Everything about Metacritic totally explained
Metacritic is a
website that collates reviews of music
albums,
games,
movies,
TV shows,
DVDs, and
books. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three color codes of Green, Yellow and Red summarize the critic's recommendation. This gives an idea of the general appeal of the product among reviewers and, to a lesser extent, the public. (For examples of other such sites, see .)
The site is somewhat similar to
Rotten Tomatoes, but the scoring results sometimes vary drastically, depending on which reviews are tallied. For instance,
Rotten Tomatoes gives an overall unfavorable rating to
Kenneth Branagh's film version of
As You Like It by quoting mostly British critics, who reportedly have strongly disliked Branagh's
Shakespeare films. Metacritic on the other hand, tallies its score largely from American reviews of the film.
Also, unlike Rotten Tomatoes, which aggregates reviews using a binary score of "fresh" or "rotten" for each review, Metacritic converts each review into a percentage before taking a weighted average. This can lead to more accurate results when reviews are unusually consistent, or there are only a few of them.
Many review websites give a review grade out of five, out of ten, out of a hundred, or even an alphabetical score. Metacritic converts such a grade into a percentage. For reviews with no explicit scores (for example,
Amazon's reviews), Metacritic manually assesses the tone of the review before assigning a relevant grade. Weighting is also applied to reviews - those from major periodicals may have a greater effect on the average than niche ones, although Metacritic refuses to reveal what weights are applied to which publications. One common drawback of Metacritic, however, is its lack of book reviews; following the release of
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, their regular coverage of recently released books ceased, except for major releases.
Marc Doyle
Metacritic was launched in January 2001 by Marc Doyle, along with his sister Julie Doyle Roberts, and a classmate from the
University of Southern California law school, Jason Dietz.
Rotten Tomatoes was already compiling movie reviews at the time, but Doyle, Roberts, and Dietz "saw an opportunity to cover a broader range of media." They sold Metacritic to
CNET in 2005.
Influence of game metascores
Nick Wingfield of the
The Wall Street Journal wrote, "Movies have
Roger Ebert. Wine has
Robert Parker. Videogames have Marc Doyle. Mr. Doyle edits game reviews for Metacritic, a Web site he co-founded that can influence the sales of games and the stocks of videogame publishers. One company requires game publishers to pay higher royalties if they receive low scores on such sites." Wingfield wrote, "such review sites hold the most sway in the videogame industry partly because the stakes are higher for consumers shelling out $50 to $60 for a new game than they're for someone buying, for example, a $10 movie ticket." Wingfield wrote that the stocks of game publishers can fall when a new video game gets a disappointing score on the website.
In 2004, Jason Hall of
Warner Bros. began "including "quality metrics" in the contracts the studio signed with partners interested in licensing Warner movies for games." If a product doesn't receive specific scores or better from aggregator sites like Metacritic, some deals require game publishers to pay higher royalties to Warner Bros.
Best Reviewed Films By Year
Further Information
Get more info on 'Metacritic'.
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