Opencritic Concerned By Metacritic’s “Translation Exclusivity”

February 17, 2017 / Damien Chambers
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Early this morning, OpenCritic issued a press release stating their concerns that Metacritic might be trying to undermine their business. After reports that Metacritic may have been sourcing data from Opencritic emerged early last year, OpenCritic has kept a keen eye on any moves Metacritic makes. The latest move from Metacritic appears to be their efforts to secure Translation Exclusivity. Translation Exclusivity is the requirement that any international review publications must provide at least a quote from their review translated into English, that quote would then be exclusive to the review aggregate site it was provided to. To reiterate, this policy requires that the publisher of the review be the one to provide the translation.

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OpenCritic actually opened up the offer to aggregate reviews for international publications this past December. Since then over a dozen non-English publications have joined the site. However, the concern here lies in the fact that Metacritic has created this new rule that for any foreign publications that provide translations to its website, those translations are then exclusive to Metacritic.
While OpenCritic sees the silver lining in that Metacritic clearly views them as a serious competitor, they also view Translation Exclusivity as an anti-industry move and want to bring attention to the dangerous precedent this sets for other review aggregate sites.
Matthew Enthoven, of Opencritic, via the press release, further explained the company’s concerns regarding the recent move by Metacritic.
“We believe that Metacritic has implemented a policy for new, non-English publications that requires translated quotes be exclusive to Metacritic. In doing so, Metacritic forces additional development and localization costs on publications. We believe this is an anti-industry policy that deliberately attempts to hinder OpenCritic’s international expansion.”
OpenCritic.com is a review aggregator founded by four friends who wanted to use their web development skills to improve the gaming industry for everyone: gamers, critics, and developers alike. Founded in 2015, OpenCritic aims to celebrate games and humanize the industry while advocating for transparency. To date, over 40,000 reviews are available on OpenCritic from over 200 publications and contributors.
What do you think of these developments? Do you see any wrongdoing on Metacritic’s part? Let us know in the comments.

Damien Chambers

Before I became a Geek Under Grace I was a student of Journalism and have always aspired to write for a gaming and geek culture publication. I am truly blessed to have found an outlet to reach not only thousands of fans, but those who may not have yet found Christ. My favorite genre of games is third-person/sandbox games. I like the freedom that they allow both in gameplay and in scale and they just seem less bland and limited than more linear titles. I still have a soft spot for RPG games but I now enjoy JRPGs far less than I did as a child because they are still basically the exact same as they always were, with a few exceptions of course. I also enjoy playing more tactical third-person multiplayer shooters or first-person shooters that try to shake things up. I absolutely hate games based on WWII or Vietnam as those settings and those types of gameplay have been done to death. Though I am not opposed to a future Assassin's Creed title being set during one of these wars. I also typically tend to stay away from MOBA's as they are notorious for abusive, and generally unsavory online communities. My favorite game of all time is Chrono Trigger, which ironically enough is a JRPG but its one that I consider untouchable in quality. The runner-up for my favorite game of all time would be Star Fox 64.

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