Console gamers sometimes make a big deal about the rivalry between Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. The discourse primarily focuses on the popularity or technical specs of each corporation’s console, but their role as game publishers is arguably just as important.
While Xbox may struggle to eclipse PlayStation in console sales, Microsoft seems to have an edge in the publishing game. At least, that is what Metacritic appears to think, having named Microsoft its 2021 publisher of the year.
Microsoft came in first this year after scoring 6th in the 2020 Metacritic lineup. The publisher released five games in 2021, with ten “scored products” on Metacritic. All ten received a “Good” score of 75% or more, with Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, and Microsoft Flight Simulator, each scoring 90% or more on Metacritic. Microsoft ultimately walked away with an average score of 87.4% for its 2021 games. That is more than any other publishers since Metacritic started ranking them in 2011. These factors gave Microsoft an impressive 346 points based on Metacritic’s Publisher rankings system.
Microsoft’s rival Sony came in second with a total of 312.9 points and an average Metascore of 81.3%. Humble Games came in third, with 309.6 points and an average Metascore of 80.9%. This is a significant improvement over the previous year, where Humble came in 18th. Activision Blizzard came fourth with an average Metascore of 80.6%, followed by Bethesda Softworks at 80.2%. Capcom, Bandai Namco, Sega, Electronic Arts, and 505 Games rounded out the rest of the top ten. Other notable publishers included Square Enix in 12th place, Nintendo in 14th, Koei Tecmo in 15th, Focus Entertainment in 17th, Ubisoft in 19th, Take-Two in 27th, and THQ Nordic in 40th place.
Metacritic ranks publishers by assigning points based on the Metascore of every game the company published that year. The site takes the publisher’s average Metascore then multiplies it by 1.5. This means that a hypothetical perfect publisher, where every game scored 100%, would start with 150 points. Metacritic then adds up to 100 points based on the percentage of games with a Metacritic score of 75% higher. The site adds 100 more based on the percentage of games with a score of 50% or more. Finally, Metacritic awards five bonus points for every game with a Metascore of 90% after more than seven reviews.
While Metacritic’s Publisher Rankings aren’t the most important thing ever, they’re a decent metric of how significant publishers are doing. For example, the site notes that Microsoft released fewer games in 2021 but made up for it with better-quality releases. Hopefully, Microsoft’s acquisition of the lower-ranked Activision Blizzard and Bethesda doesn’t send the company back down the road of quantity over quality.
Source: Metacritic