No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda, aka Suda51, believes the gaming community “cares too much” about ratings on sites like Metacritic.
Grasshopper Manufacture CEO shared his complaints during an interview GamesIndustry.biz interviewed him and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Suda explains that he’s concerned that game development is becoming formulaic in the face of a desire to achieve higher results, adding that many companies may not be interested in projects that don’t fit that mold.
“Everyone pays too much attention to Metacritic scores and cares too much about them,” he said. “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 a game.”
Suda continued: “If you have a game that doesn’t fit that formula, that marketability, it loses points on Metacritic. Bigger companies might not want to do that kind of stuff. That might not be the main reason, but it’s definitely one of the reasons. Everyone cares too much about the numbers.”
Suda explains that what matters most is making games that the team wants to make, and for the fans they’re making them for. While he tries not to worry about Metacritic numbers, he sometimes falls into the trap of checking the reviews of certain Grasshopper projects. Suda refers to the times when the media “gave us zeros,” saying that they’re particularly bothersome.
“That makes me feel like shit — why go to such lengths and give us a zero?” he said with a laugh. “But other than that, I try to avoid Metacritic.”
Mikami says that unique gaming experiences are still available to those who seek them out, but he believes that it is the big-budget games that receive the most marketing support.
“The games that get the most marketing support are the ones that have to appeal to the widest audience possible,” he said. “More unique games don’t have the same marketing appeal.”
In other Grasshopper news, the developer announced in October 2021 that acquired by NetEase Games. At the time, Suda promised that the move would allow the team to deliver “even more powerful and creative titles” to their fans. That same year, No More Heroes 3 was released for Nintendo Switch. More recently, Grasshopper released a remaster titled Lollipop Chainsaw RePop just yesterday for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Looking to the future, fans will be joyful to know that Suda and Mikami have has expressed interest in continuing the Killer7 series in some form.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor to IGN. He began writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work on outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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