If you want a job on the next Bioshock title, you better have a track record of working on critically acclaimed titles.
The developer of Bioshock Infinite is looking for a new addition to its studio, but instead of just the requisite list of requirements about how many years candidates must have been in the industry, it’s looking for something a little more qualitative.
In its job listing for a design manager position, the studio says that applicants must have received a “credit on at least one game with an 85+ Average Metacritic Review Score.”
Obviously, the thought process behind this is justifiable. The company only wants people who know how to work on quality titles.
But it’s interesting that this comes at a time when the traditional video game review score scale is becoming less and less relevant.
Sites like Gamespot and IGN used to wield tremendous power over the industry – if they gave a game a 100% score, the world took notice.
Now, though, with the diluted industry of video game journalism, and a mindset that consumers know better than “expert” reviewers, such a metric is as unimportant as ever to consumers.
But this points to the fact that review scores are still very much relevant to the game makers. Interesting.
Incidentally, someone who would qualify for this position should have worked for a major studio, and pretty much every major studio has at least one game with an 85+ Metacritic score, so this requirement might even be a little redundant. It’s interesting nonetheless.
