EA Dismisses Middling Medal of Honor Metacritic Score

Review scores don't equal sales, says EA, as it goes on the defensive over Medal of Honor.

Despite mixed reviews for Medal of Honor, leading to a relatively low Metacritic score compared to the likes of Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield: Bad Company 2, EA is still confident that the relaunch of the MoH series will be a success.

An EA spokesperson said that critic's scores were very subjective and didn't translate directly to sales. Medal of Honor had received the most pre-orders of any game in the series, which was especially impressive as the series had been dormant for a while, the spokesperson added. According to EA, Medal of Honor is just the first step towards the publisher reclaiming a share of the first-person shooter market, a process it characterized as a marathon rather than a sprint.

Just yesterday, analysts said that a Metacritic score less than 85 for Medal of Honor would be a "black eye" for EA. Aggregate scores of around 75 for the game would seem to have given EA that black eye, with a bloody nose thrown in for good measure as EA's stock dropped by 6%, although some believe that this is simply the end of a run for EA stock caused by the release of Medal of Honor, rather than anything to do with its reception.

EA comments are clearly an attempt at damage reduction; no one says reviews are subjective when a game gets nines across the board. But it does have a point when it says reviews and sales aren't the same thing. Medal of Honor could still go on to be very successful, even if it hasn't been a massive hit with critics.

Medal of Honor is available now in North America, tomorrow in Europe and Australia, and on Friday in the UK.

Source: LA Times via Eurogamer