The review aggregator site Metacritic released its 2020 publisher ranking, showing which studios have the strongest line of games based on their overall quality – according to critics, at least.
Publishers are classified based on a points system composed of four main steps, detailed below. To qualify, a publisher must have released at least five titles throughout the year:
(1) Average meta score for all games released in 2020
150 possible points (attributed to 1.5 x average Metascore)(2)% of products scored with good reviews (Metascore of at least 75)
100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points)(3)% of products scored with negative reviews (49 or less; in this case, a lower% is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points)(4) Number of “excellent” titles (Metascore of 90 or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each distinct title with a score of over 90
So, for the list. Sega took the lead this year with a total score of 372.2 points, thanks in part to Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza 0 score above ’90’, earning publisher bonus points as described in the fourth point above.
Nintendo ranked ninth overall, with Animal Crossing: New Horizons being its only game to score above 90. The company’s average Metascore actually dropped five points from the previous year, leaving it below the hierarchy of what we would normally see .
Last year, in the 2019 publisher ranking, Nintendo ranked third.
What did you think of Nintendo 2020? Did you end up buying and enjoying many of your games? let us know with a comment below.