In a surprise move, Eurogamer have announced today that they are dropping review scores from all their future video game reviews.
The esteemed website has been operating on the numbered system for its 15 years of existence, and has finally decided – given the recent shift in industry attitudes towards numbered scores and their usefulness/lack thereof – enough is enough.
Via the press release on their website, Eurogamer stated that “games are changing”, and thus so should their reviews. In leu of scores, they will operate on a ‘recommendation system’ that ranks each game according to whether or not Eurogamer believes you should buy it.
“In place of scores, we’ll have one-line summaries for every review, and a new recommendation system whereby some, but not all games will be considered Recommended, Essential or Avoid.”
This system has its uses – given that it’s a more direct assertion as to whether a game is worth buying or not – and it will be interesting to see how it stacks up compared to review scores.
Personally, I believe this change is for the better, as you can read here.
It’s nice to see such a large website take such a bold move in an industry almost afraid of change. I wish the staff at Eurogamer all the best with their new direction, and I hope it serves them, and their readers, well.