Metacritic score not shown for some games on Steam store

[thisisbleep]

Some games do not show the Metacritic score for the game on the store page. I contacted support regarding another issue (not all games showing up on my profile) and in that message I asked the question why this is the case, instead of answering directly they asked me to post here.

Why is Metacritic not shown for some games? Is this a bug or are the publishers/developers allowed to not show it if it is not favourable?

Personally I do not only use Metacritic to decide if I want to get a game or add it to my wishlist, but I do use it to quickly check reviews and there are convenient links to the press articles. When searching about this I have only been able to find threads on other forums from a long time ago, so this seems to have been going on for some time.

[Delph]

I believe its up to the devs/publishers if they want to show their metacritic score. Not entirely certain - some games have super low metacritic scores but still show them on the store page

[Zabelius]

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=6556-GHVN-8939

The official stance from Valve is pretty cryptic: "Games available for purchase in the Steam store may display their Metascore® (from metacritic.com), which is a numeric measure of the game's critical consensus at a glance."

I think the "may" there implies that there's an option on the part of the publisher. My pet theory is that a publisher has to show it for each game they publish, which is why some games with low metascores don't turn it off. Look at the Capcom sale this weekend, I'm sure they want to turn off the 50s and 60s while keeping on the 80s like DmC.

EDIT: I actually take that back. Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is an 80, but that score isn't being shown on the store page.


http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dungeons-dragons-chronicles-of-mystara