Or everyone relaxes and realizes that reviews are just opinions, even the ones that make it to metacritic. Just enjoy the game.

yes, metacritic is corrupt and racist to japanese games.

In cases where developers get penalized for reviews received, I'd hold that against the people exercising such a ridiculous policy, not against reviewers.

A website or magazine should have oversight over their own reviews. Beyond that, aggregate websites like Metacritic should have strict safeguards in place to avoid clickbait outliers. Anything else is down to a publisher - tank a review for a big game like that for clicks, you may not get a review copy of the next game.

What if the oversight is corrupt? Then we'll need oversight over the oversight of reviews.

We don't need oversight, people should just rely on the overall average of a game's reviews. In Uncharted 4's case, it's got a 93 on MC which means "pretty freakin' great". Sure there are outliers but whatever. Opinions.

It is not a penalty, it is an extra incentive for the developers for making a great effort in order to make a great game.

In the entertainment business, there will always be reviewers of the content so it is indeed a serious aspect of the game.

It is not a ridiculous policy by any means.

Making a great game is not a guarantee against getting screwed over by an outlier.

I would love to start a thread called "Worst reviews of the year" and have an award at the end to the worst of all of them!
It would work like a hall of shame.....

This is a better idea.