And both companies in serious financial trouble.  Ironic.

Link:  http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/12/19/metacritic-analysis-five-big-publishers/

Electronic Arts recently patted itself on the back for having 18 games that scored over 80 on Metacritic’s review aggregator. An impressive number, yet the company laid of 1,000 employees today.

That got us thinking: how did other major publishers stack up in 2008? What we found may surprise you. The companies with the highest quality did not enjoy the biggest market success. In fact, in most cases, it was quite the opposite in 2008.

How did some of five the biggest game makers – Activision, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft — fare amongst critics? Here are their 2008 games that scored above 80:

Activision [5 Games]
Call of Duty: World at War — 85 (PS3), 85 (360), 83 (Wii), 84 (PC)
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars — 84 (PC only)
Guitar Hero: World Tour — 85 (PS3), 85 (360), 84 (Wii)
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 — 90 (36)
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King — 91 (PC)

Ubisoft [5 Games]
Brothers in Arm’s Hell’s Highway — 81 (PC only)
Far Cry 2 — 85 (PS3), 85 (360), 86 (PC)
No More Heroes — 83
Prince of Persia — 86 (PS3), 83 (360), 86 (PC)
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 — 81 (PS3), 82 (360), 78 (PC)

Nintendo [6 Games]
Advance Wars: Days of Ruin — 86 (Wii)
Mario Kart Wii — 82 (Wii)
Personal Trainer: Cooking — 81 (DS)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village — 85 (DS)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl — 93 (Wii)
Wii Fit — 80 (Wii)

Sony [15 Games]
Buzz! Quiz TV — 80 (PS3)
Echochrome — 81 (PS3)
God of War: Chains Of Olympus — 91 (PSP)
Hot Shot Gulf: Out of Bounds — 81 (PS3)
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee — 82 (PSP)
LittleBigPlanet — 95 (PS3)
MLB 08: The Show — 83 (PSP), 84 (PS2), 85 (PS3)
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift — 81 (PS3)
Patapon — 86 (PSP)
PixelJunk Monsters — 83 (PS3)
PixelJunk Eden — 80 (PS3)
Resistance 2 — 87 (PS3)
SingStar — 82 (PS3)
WipEout Pulse — 82 (PSP)
WipEout HD — 87 (PS3)

Microsoft [4 Games]
Ninja Gaiden II — 81 (360)
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise — 83 (360)
Fable II — 89 (360)
Gears of War 2 — 93 (360)

Was there anything you expected to make the list, but didn’t? I was surprised none of the “Guitar Hero”-spinoff games averaged 80, especially “On Tour.”

quality =/ apeal

.....sadly

Advance Wars: Days of Ruin — 86 (Wii)
Mario Kart Wii — 82 (Wii)
Personal Trainer: Cooking — 81 (DS)
Professor Layton and the Curious Village — 85 (DS)
Super Smash Bros. Brawl — 93 (Wii)
Wii Fit — 80 (Wii)


Nintendo...my, how the mighty have fallen. Sacrificing quality for sales seemed to have done magic for their stocks.

Well, Nintendo doesnt release many games anymore, so we won't be seeing them there at the top anymore.

i truely think microsoft should make some more 1st party games

the sad thing is that outta the games they published half are actually second party devloped. Epic and Tecmo are not owned by MS. While Most on nintendo and sony games are actually games devloped by there internal studios.

It's not just quality games: It's how much you spend in making the games, or making failed games, that matters.

Also, if the reviews are good, but the game doesn't have much appeal to a console's users, sales will still be bad. Let's take a look at Sony:

Buzz! Quiz TV — 80 --- Casual game that does not go well with Sony's hardcore
Echochrome — 81 --- Artsy title. Good reviews, no appeal to most people
God of War: Chains Of Olympus — 91 --- Tied to the PSP. It'd have sold a lot more as a PS3 title
Hot Shot Gulf: Out of Bounds — 81 --- the PS3's audience is not varied enough for this one to do well. It'd have sold 3 times more on the wii.
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee — 82 --- Doomed by the PSP again.
LittleBigPlanet — 95 --- It actually sold a bit, but it's still a niche title. Multi player platform games are not exactly what the PS3 community wanted
MLB 08: The Show — 82 -- Still hit the top 10, but it was hurt by its platforms again
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift — 81 --- A sequel already?
Patapon — 86 (PSP) --- A PSP game about cute characters that must be played with the sound on. Of course it won't sell millions!
PixelJunk Monsters — 83 --- Little games like this are typically profitable, but they can't lift sony from a big hole
PixelJunk Eden — 80 --- ditto
Resistance 2 — 87 --- A sequel to a run of the mill shooter that got worse reviews than the original. How can that lift a console?
SingStar — 82 --- The PS3 is still lacking casuals.
WipEout Pulse — 82 --- Wipeout hasn't been a mainstream title in years
WipEout HD — 87 ditto

The best titles are the smallest ones, the kind of titles that are profitable and don't sell consoles. If they were a software only company, they'd be doing great on Wii-ware. As it is, times are tough, but they'll get through.

Where Gran Turismo 5 Prologue and Lost Oddessy. last time i checked they where both a lil above 80

good job, i only buy consoles for games not sales................i am unable to play sales but i am certainly able to play games, in which ps3 delivers and has done this year for me. all the best titles that i am looking forward to in 2009 are on ps3.

you know how the internet is. Even when a company listens to gamer and give them a ton of GOOD games. there will be people ready to knock em down with a different reason that also applies to other compaines but they forget so easily.