Who puts out more games than anyone else? EA. Who puts out the highest scoring games of anyone else? EA. Who manages to score a 93 Metacritic score for a game that was widely panned by its own fanbase? EA. Who could win both the Metacritic award for an aggregate of the highest rated games and win Worst Company of the Year by consumers? EA, mofos.
GameIndustry.biz spotted the listing for Metacritic's third-annual video game publisher rankings and guess who took the top spot in 2012? If you say Activision I'll reach through the monitor and pimp slap you. The “Winner” was Electronic Arts, everyone's favorite most-hated video game publisher.
What put them over the top? The combination of Mass Effect 3 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3, with its “glowing” reviews, as well as the Xbox 360 version of FIFA Soccer 13 (because the Wii version was actually just FIFA 12) and Kingdoms of Amalur, the well-received first and last game from the indebted 38 Studios, which came from the depths and was buried just as quickly under the poor management of Curt Shilling.
Overall, Electronic Arts walked away with an average 75.2 Metacritic score taking into account their highest rated and lowest rated games – their lowest rated game being Medal of Honor: Warfighter, which got its butt kicked by Farming Simulator 2013.
Microsoft was next in line with an average of 73.0, but they only had a few games released throughout 2012, including Mark of the Ninja, Bloodforge and Forza Horizon. Two of the three scored rather well, I'll leave it to you to guess which one of the games that no one talks about anymore managed to score an abysmal 42. I'll give you a hint, it's not the games from lauded studio Klei Entertainment or the respectable Turn 10.
Sony rounded out the number three spot. Unsurprisingly enough Journey was the game that scored an impressive 92 out of 100, one point less than Mass Effect 3. Oh, I guess Sony forgot to sign a check or two to get the score up a few extra notches.
Nintendo was fourth on the list and Capcom was fifth, from there it was publishers no one cares about. It was funny but Nintendo's downfall came in the form of Spirit Hunters for the Nintendo DS, otherwise their games scored quite high, such as Xenoblade Chronicles for the Wii, which had an impressive 92 out of 100.
You can check out the full list over at Metacritic.
Critics Have Seen Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver, And The Reactions Aren’t Much Better Than Its Predecessor
'Endlessly Grateful': Johnny Depp Opens Up About Director Taking A Chance On Him In Jeanne Du Barry
Ella Purnell And The Cast Shared Thoughts After Fallout's Season 2 Renewal (And I’m Loving Kyle MacLachlan's Enthusiasm)
