The ongoing dispute between Moon Studios co-founder Thomas Mahler and the global video game media has now come to a head. After years of verbal gaffes and public expressions of disdain for high-profile magazines, Ori and the brains behind early access game No Rest for the Wicked have created their own ratings platform called VideoGamesCritic. The Austrian’s peddling of mathematically objective answers to the “unreliable” problems of professional journalists has been met with great skepticism by those in the industry. Observers viewed the project not as a neutral service but as a continuation of Mahler’s personal campaign against media outlets that had criticized his work or person in the past.
At first glance, VideoGamesCritic presents itself as a weighted profile aggregator: critic ratings account for only one-third of the total score, while user ratings (filtered mostly from Steam profiles) account for two-thirds of the weight.
In addition, Mahler’s algorithm evaluates gaming magazines through a so-called “trust score,” which measures how far news ratings deviate from subsequent player consensus. Any editor who does not conform to popular taste or abandons ratings will be systematically punished. However, media critics accused Mahler of basing the formula, which he praised as “mathematically pure,” on his own deep-seated biases. The emphasis on Steam ratings may also make the system highly susceptible to review bombing.
The launch of the platform appears to be a continuation of a series of controversies surrounding the developer. Mahler came under widespread criticism back in 2022, when investigative media reports exposed a highly toxic work culture at Moon Studios. Former employees reported public humiliation, unpaid overtime, and racist and hostile comments from studio management.
Mahler has also repeatedly attracted attention on social media with his provocative comments: just last year, he blamed the bad test results of “The Bad Guys” on a so-called review bombing campaign, and strongly condemned “inappropriate” Steam reviews – the opinions of these Steam users he now regards as the final truth on the new platform.
The fact that Mahler accuses reporters of not reflecting buyer demand demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of the function of gaming news. Expert reviews always serve as personal analysis for classification, not as predictive models for later mass sales. Further practice must demonstrate whether VideoGamesCritic provides real added value to the gaming community, or simply serves as another tool to delegitimize disturbing news coverage.
