EA: Insomniac game to beat 90 Metacritic

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 6 September, 2010

Is "breaking new ground".

Resistance and Ratchet and Clank developer Insomniac's upcoming multiplatform EA game will manage a higher than 90 review score average, the US publishing behemoth has confidently proclaimed.

Insomniac is "breaking new ground" with the game and has hit upon "a really great creative idea", EA Partners boss David DeMartini revealed to Eurogamer in an interview published today.

Little is known about Insomniac's EA title, save for it is the developer's first multiplatform game in its 16-year history.

Insomniac, which is also developing Resistance 3 and Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One for the PlayStation 3, signed a publishing agreement with EA in May.

The unannounced title marks the introduction of a brand new universe, and is in development at Insomniac's Burbank studio.

"They're doing what Insomniac does," DeMartini said.

"Insomniac makes really high-quality experiences that consumers love, and they're doing that again. They are breaking some ground with regards to gameplay. But I'm not going to sit here and say, 'Yeah, they're going 4D.'

"Insomniac regularly has set a bar at 90 in Metacritic. I think this game is going to exceed that bar. It is a really great creative idea that they're executing on marvellously so far."

EA's so far refused to provide a release window for Insomniac's game, but DeMartini suggested gamers will soon catch a glimpse of what the US developer is up to.

"There's a lot of time between now and the finish line, but based on their track record, I'm highly confident they're going to get there. I think sooner rather than later we're going to be sharing some early concepts on that one because they've made so much progress. They're in a great position.

"The maturity of their technology and their team allows them to make a tremendous amount of early progress. They can take some of the concepts to consumers in a rather developed form, and get feedback. We're just in the middle of that feedback loop and they're making great progress."

This isn't the first time DeMartini has expressed his faith in one of his games.

Last month he told Eurogamer upcoming science fiction shooter Crysis 2 will be a 90-rated game.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (33) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Beano #1 1 year ago

    Not another FPS then ;)

  • Yossarian #2 1 year ago

    Dear Publishers,

    Only you care about Metacritic averages.

    Signed,
    The Rest of the World.

  • Shikasama #3 1 year ago

    Yossarian - but because they care, we HAVE to care. Games are an investment and the games that do well on meta-critic get made again. Metacritic's scores are literally deciding the future of major developers.

  • mingster #4 1 year ago

    Lol... You need to try and score more than 4 on EG first.
    EG will pull your Metarank down.

  • Phantom_Dynamite #5 1 year ago

    Shocking news
    Do you reckon we would ever see the day when EA says "our new game is good but not that good does nothing new and we expect a solid 75% on Metacritic".

  • spekkeh #6 1 year ago

    What's the game called, Propaganda for Glorious Soviet Union? 'We have this really funny idea where we place gun turrets aimed at all the reviewers homes, try to score it below 90 EG, MAKE OUR DAY'.'

  • cianchristopher #7 1 year ago

    Metacritic is fucking useless.

    90% of the reviews included in the scores are from magazines/websites that are completely clueless.

    If they just let you sign in, add your favourite review sources (say, EG, GamesTM, Edge, whatever), then calculated the averages from just those sources, it'd be far more useful to consumers.

    What do I care about the score that PSXExtreme, Playstation Universe, Spazio Games, 3D Juegos, Destructoid, VideoGamer, Gamekult, TheSixthAxis, XGN, Metro GameCentral, etc. etc. etc. give to games? These are utterly meaningless...

  • billy-beauts #8 1 year ago

    So another game like Resistance 2 then: ticks all the boxes for a high Metcritic score then bores gamers to death. I'll pass.
    Edited by 1 at 06/09/10 @ 15:31

  • LR100 #9 1 year ago

    Everyone get ready to laugh when EG gives it a 4/10! :)

  • Shikasama #10 1 year ago

    cianchristopher - Not that much useless than EG scores. EG don't have a consistent reviewing policy (or at least not one that is consistently adhered to) and willl contradict itself from one game to the next. That's what makes metacritic unreliable, the fact that not every game is reviewed in the same way depending on a host of factors.

    And what else are Publishers dsupposed to do? It makes pretty clear logic to a certain corporate mind that the games that get good review scores on individual websites sell well. Therefore a game requires a good score to be succesfull. Therefore the aggregate score of how a game was reviewed is an accurate representation if it was good or bad and likely to see a return on investment.

    I'm not saying it's right but it is what it is. people who don't see why publishers and corporate psychology in general cream themselves over metacritic are still living in the days of developers being bedroom programmers. It's big business on a scale I can't even comprehend and if Metacritic didn't exist on the internet and was available to the public, you can guarantee that they would be doing it themselves anyway.

  • seabassuk #11 1 year ago

    This means Eurogamer HAVE to give it at least a 9/10 or EA and Insomniac will be gunning for ya :D

  • altitude2k #12 1 year ago

    It's really pathetic that devs are being encouraged to see this as the be-all and end-all of gaming greatness.

  • StonecoldMC #13 1 year ago

    What we thinking here: Platformer; FPS; TPS; RPG or something right out of left field?

  • bodypopper #14 1 year ago

    Sounds like a catch-all Little Big Planet-type affair is in the offing to me. Whether good scores will translate into good sales though depends on the public's appetite for innovation.

  • drumbaby #15 1 year ago

    2nd Person Shooter

  • el_pollo_diablo #16 1 year ago

    Well you can all tell me I'm an idiot if you like but I find Metacritic to be quite useful when deciding what to buy.

    The way I see it, it's a jumping off point. It's a barometer of popular critical opinion about films music and games, and I don't see what's wrong with collecting all those reviews and averaging them all out. The key is that it's only there to help with your decision making process, not be an end unto itself. I would never dismiss an album or a film based on a metacritic score, and I wouldn't dismiss a game either. But if everyone tells me that Kane and Lynch 2 is shitty, that's more useful than only one person telling me it is.

    This is all from a consumer standpoint of course - obviously it sucks when publishers base developer bonuses on Metacritic averages, but that's no different to how it was 20 years ago on the Amiga. They've always been on top of critical temperatures.

    edit: to be clear though, a publisher stating as an aim "we want XX metascore" is lame.
    Edited by 1 at 06/09/10 @ 16:13

  • Repsode #17 1 year ago

    A hypothetical Metacritic score has got to be the most feeble way I have ever heard of a publisher trying to drum up interest in an upcoming game especially if thats all they're willing to talk about. A 90 scoring FPS or sports game for instance holds very little interest to me as would a 90 scoring JPRG to others


    Makes you wonder whether or not this statement was aimed at consumers or shareholders. Pretty sure it was the latter.

  • Trigga_Tybalt #18 1 year ago

    they'll have to be working like insomniacs to get a score that good.

  • toy_brain #19 1 year ago

    While I think publishers trying to declare a games metacritic score in advance is nothing other than /facepalm-worthy, I don't really get the hate for it (metacritic). Its a useful resource if you approach it with a bit of common sense.

    And bonuses based on metacritic scores? Well at least they are trying to reward developers for quality. Its better than nothing, and I can't really think of a fairer way of doing it that isn't also massively complicated and open to argument.

  • Gromit #20 1 year ago

    @clanchristopher

    Metro Gamecentral are formerly the people who did ITV + C4 games sections on Teletext prior to Teletext going off air.
    They weren't funded by games advertising, so their reviews were quite reliable as they were pretty much independent.

  • jebus #21 1 year ago

    @altitude2k "It's really pathetic that devs are being encouraged to see this as the be-all and end-all of gaming greatness."

    Yeah, I don't think they need much encouraging - if you have ever worked in the industry and seen the amount of focus testing that goes on as well - it's disheartening.
    On the other hand - there are extremely large sums of money involved so you can see why they wish to make a game that is going to sell the maximum amount possible.

    I blame Metacritic and YOU lot. We (the game palyers) are the reason that gaming is such big business and with big business comes bigeer budgets and with bigger budgets comes this kind of crap.

    Catch 22 really.

  • andywilkie35 #22 1 year ago

    To be fair, Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time should have beaten 90 on Metacritic, it was only because of misguided and turd reviews like the EG one that it missed it.

  • randompanda #23 1 year ago

    Next they'll be telling us they're giving it 110%!

  • hyuhek #24 1 year ago

    Well it is always reassuring to hear that publishers aren't intentionally aiming to bring out bad games.

  • Distributor #25 1 year ago

    Hahahahha. Letting themselves open up for a potential disappointment. What is the purpose of this guy even speaking to the press? Let alone about some metacritic score?

  • Tad59 #26 1 year ago

    We all know some publishers like to pay for good reviews, but really EA! Your meant to do this deal in private. :p

  • alcides #27 1 year ago

    You will like it!

    or else.

  • brod #28 1 year ago

    Metacritic is irrelevant to me since their terrible site redesign that removed the advanced search functionality.

  • mcmonkeyplc #29 1 year ago

    EA are a little obsessed with metacitic.

  • Tinrib72 #30 1 year ago

    He forgot to add that small kittens will die horribly if the meta rating isnt above 90%..

  • SilentNinja92 #31 1 year ago

    I hope its good. Ratchet and Clank has been a great series so far, and Resistance is definately getting there.

    Insomniac seems to be really growing out, lets hope they can so this and keep the personallity they inject into their games.

  • arbok #32 1 year ago

    Um... nothing in Resistance or Ratchet and Clank is ground breaking at all.

    What Insominiac is good at is churning out titles quick smart and making them look pretty.

    The gameplay in R&C in my opinion leaves a lot to be desired and very cookie cutter type stuff

  • Lunatic4ever #33 1 year ago

    yeahy eah...talk the talk...but will ya walk the walk?