Metacritic Will Delay User Reviews For Games

Metacritic will now delay user reviews for games for 36 hours after release, the company announced. This comes a few weeks after the release of The Last of Us Part II, which was review bombed on Metacritic (which, like GameSpot, is owned by ViacomCBS).

"We recently implemented the 36 hour waiting period for all user reviews in our games section to ensure our gamers have time to play these games before writing their reviews," a Metacritic spokesperson said. "This new waiting period for user reviews has been rolled out across Metacritic's Games section and was based on data-driven research and with the input of critics and industry experts."

Metacritic said that the decision was not based on users' reaction to any game in particular. Metacritic is a review aggregate site that provides two scores for every game, one based on critics and one based on user reviews.

Review bombing is the practice of users giving a large number of negative scores, typically as low as possible, in order to drop the game's overall score. The issue isn't exclusive to Metacritic, also occurring on Steam user reviews whenever a fanbase is upset about a game.

Writer and director for the Last of Us Part II Neil Druckmann shared a very heartfelt message with his team after the game received overwhelming positive reviews that ended with a message for the haters.