I have a question which some of our statistically more competent guys on this forum might like.

Thinking about game review scores (IGN, Metacritic, as you wish), is there a specific ratio between game score ranges? To elaborate: If there is 10 games rated 9 or higher for a system, is this an indication that at least 30 games exist for the system that are rated 8 to 9 and 40 that are rated 7 to 8? This would indicate a ratio of 1 to 3 and 1 to 4.

To take this even a bit further, is there a difference in this ratio between the generation winners and followers? Did the generation winner have relatively more games 9 or above or rather a larger game base between 8 and 9 or 7 and 8?

No.  No.  Do some research.

Applying the Bell Curve to gaming is kind of dumb. 

Some brief analysis based on IGN reviews:

        Xbox:     Wii:     PS3:

90+     14         3         3

80+     69       17       24

70+   103       38       45

60+   133       49       51

50+   152       67       56

40+   158       69       58

30+   160       78       59

20+   162       80       59

Note these results counted games only once, so where games had multiple reviews I used the US review. These results also do not include XBLA, VC, or PSN games. I also did this in a hurry so I apologise for any mistakes but I do not think there are any :)

The only last generation console I have on my database is the Dreamcast (which has awesome results) so I cannot compare any of the information against the PS2, GC or Xbox.

I never mentioned the Bell Curve. 

After a system has died you could probably find some sort of relationship between the number of great games to the number of acceptable games; this relationship would be essentially come down to the number of games released for a system which is directly related to the popularity of the system.

i missread the stats. without realizing 80+ includes the 90+ games.


and dont forget this generation isnt over.

Good point.

Even if you were to make a statistical judgment about a console's games of the past, I doubt you could apply it to future consoles as it would not hold true at all points in time.  A distribution from a mature console is also unevenly distributed (assumption) as would likely be evidenced if one were to compare the distribution in the console's first year versus that of the final year.

Looks something like this from last gen.

If you take and put together a spreadsheet with games and their scores I can pretty easily figure everything out. No offense but I really don't want to put that spreadsheet together, it's a lot of work.

But with the spreadsheet done it would be maybe 20-30 minutes to give you graphs, charts, etc...whatever you want. And even then only 20-30 minutes because I like to fidget with stuff =P

so if they do the work you will play with their widget?