Metacritic disables developer career scores
Site admits methodology is "not nearly as comprehensive as it needs to be" but is still committed to ratings
Metacritic has pulled controversial ratings from its site that scored individual developers out of 100 based on their contributions to games.
The site collates aggregate scores for games and reviews sites, and this latest move was in conjunction with information gathered by sister site Gamefaqs.com - but it admitted information was not as complete as it needs to be.
"Although our credits database is growing it is a work in progress and is not nearly as comprehensive as it needs to be."
"Although our credits database (which is powered by our sister site GameFAQs) is growing, as our users' feedback has indicated, it is a work in progress and is not nearly as comprehensive as it needs to be to accurately provide a career score for these individuals.
"As such, we have removed that career score from the pages dedicated to creative individuals behind games on Metacritic," wrote the company on its official blog.
Many developers had complained about the relevancy, legality and methodology of the move by the site, which is regarded as a barometer of taste and is also used by publishers to negotiate bonuses with development staff.
Despite pulling the scoring system from the site, Metacritic still believes it's a feature worth pursuing and it is likely to return in the future.
"In addition to creating dedicated pages for corporate publishers and developers, on a given game's Details & Credits page, Metacritic displays those individual people who contributed to the games in our database, including designers, programmers, producers, voice actors, and artists. In turn, we have produced dedicated pages for those individuals featuring their games and associated Metascores, and, until today, their individual career scores.
"We are still very much committed to building a credits database, and welcome your participation in that process," said the site.