Metacritic Implements 36-Hour Delay for New Game User Reviews
If you’re on the fence about buying a new game, it’s easy to head to review aggregator Metacritic and see what everyone else thinks. However, you can’t do that anymore for newly released games, at least not for the first three days.
As Gamespot reports, Metacritic has decided to implement a 36-hour delay before user game reviews go live on the site.
“We recently implemented the 36 hour waiting period for all user reviews in our games section to ensure our gamers have time to play these games before writing their reviews,” a Metacritic spokesperson explains. “This new waiting period for user reviews has been rolled out across Metacritic’s Games section and was based on data-driven research and with the input of critics and industry experts.”
Although Metacritic says the delay isn’t in response to how gamers review games in those first few days, the decision does follow the recent so-called review-bombing of The Last of Us Part 2 on the site. Review-bombing is the act of leaving negative reviews in an attempt to harm the popularity of a game, and therefore impact the sales and revenue it can generate. As Push Square explained last month, much of The Last of Us Part 2’s negative review scores on Metacritic were based on reactions to leaks regarding the game, not people actually playing it.
By delaying user reviews for 36 hours, a lot of the anger towards an individual game may dissipate, or the review-bombing may continue as soon as reviews are allowed. However, at least by then anyone visiting Metacritic will have only seen three days of review from critics and the well-known gaming publications we all rely on for honest feedback.
