Just like in the UK, the number of video game pre-orders in the US is falling, and GameStop International President Mike Mauler believes that Metacritic has something to do with that.

He explained that only pre-order sales, and not day one sales, are dipping, and it probably has to do with “the Metascritic score” of individual games. Mauler mentioned that people are paying more attention to Metacritic than they were a few years ago, and that could be impacting sales.

Pre-orders have declined a little bit here, but the percentage week one sales versus pre-orders has increased a lot. Pre-orders might be lower but in the first week instead of selling 120 per cent of pre-orders, you’re selling 150 per cent of pre-orders. The demand is still there, but there’s been a shift in terms of pre-ordering the product. There is more attention paid to the Metacritic score than in the past. Two or three years ago it wasn’t really a topic of conversation, but now the week before release it’s getting a lot of attention.

Do you look at Metacritic before buying a game? And do you pre-order games, or do you wait to buy them until after they are released?

[Source: MCV]