Over the past few years, iOS gaming has had a very rough time becoming accepted by the wider media as a legitimate gaming platform. In the early days of the App Store, their skepticism was probably warranted as the massive gold rush that was App development in 2008 flooded the store with huge levels of junk. Since then, things have completely turned around and iOS is getting some of the best games available on any platform. Today's news is one of the best indicators that the media is beginning to see the light of iOS gaming.

CBS-owned review aggregator Metacritic debuted a brand new section of their gaming reviews. The new section will be dedicated specifically to iOS games. Metacritic said in a press release that the move "reflects the critical community's growing acceptance of the iOS platform as a legitimate, full-fledged gaming system whose games can compete with those designed for the more established, dedicated gaming systems."

It will be very interesting to see how this affects sales of games going forward. Metacritic is an extremely high-traffic site, and it could be bad news for apps that get by on marketing instead of quality. It brings up some interesting questions. Would Angry Birds have achieved 100 million downloads if Metacritic had been around to show its combined score of just 79/100? And will quality gems like World of Goo start doing better since they achieve the top ranks in review scores?

Metacritic has long been vilified for its method of dumbing down the review process, however any resource that helps bring light to quality work in the App Store should be applauded.