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“When I’m sitting down to write a review I’m never setting out to think: ‘I am taking food off this guy’s table,’” muses Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann. Unfortunately, that can sometimes be the case in deals wherein the publisher arranges to pay royalties to the developer only if the game meets or exceeds a certain magic number on Metacritic (which varies from one deal to another).

MTV Multiplayer’s article on the subject says that the practice is not widespread, but fuels significant debate in the industry and can radically effect the future success of developers that enter into such deals. One um-named developer popped out a million-seller title but still didn’t receive royalties because the metacritic score was too low.

Yikes! Hopefully now that this is out in the open, these sorts of arrangements will become less popular. Giving a bonus based on a game’s score is one thing (as is the case in some deals), but totally lacking common sense and neglecting sales figure is another.

[MTV Multiplayer / via N4G]