Thomas Mahler launches player-driven video game review site

Thomas Mahler, the head of Moon Studios, has launched a new video game review aggregator website called VideoGamesCritic.com. The platform aims to address the perceived gap between professional critic scores and actual player sentiment.

Unlike existing aggregators such as Metacritic or OpenCritic, Mahler’s system weights scores differently. The site calculates ratings by basing two-thirds of the score on player reactions and one-third on press aggregation. Mahler stated on X that while existing tools are useful, he found the user experience lacking and felt that current scores often reflect what the press thinks rather than how players actually experience the games.