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.”