"We just finished some research where we can start to predict a year in advance what the game is likely to get. And obviously we get more accurate as time goes on. This is brand new research: we're aiming to publish it this year. At the minute we're saying we can get it into these bands: low, medium or high. We're not saying we can predict an eight or a nine, that level of granularity - that's subjective behaviour and all sorts of things. That's nearly impossible, to be honest." - director of Vertical Slice, Graham McAllister

Basically, Vertical Slice is like the Metacritic of the future. I can see it now...game stores filled with promo flyers from various companies. All of these flyers littered with Vertical Slice scores of 8 out of 10, 9 out of 10. Preorder your game now, as it doesn't ship for another 2 years!