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[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Metacritic has published its 2021 Publisher Rankings, featuring a surprise on top of the chart, SEGA, which was propelled by Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza 0. Indie publisher Annapurna Interactive actually had a higher average Metascore, but it lacked SEGA's two great games mentioned above.

On the other hand, big companies like Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive didn't even make it into the Top 20; Bethesda Softworks ranked 16th, Ubisoft 14th, Square Enix 11th, while Nintendo narrowly made the Top 10 at the 9th place. Microsoft arrived 6th thanks to Flight Simulator and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, while Activision Blizzard secured 5th place through the releases of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 and Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.

Sony had a great year with The Last of Us Part II, Ghost of Tsushima, Demon's Souls and Dreams, though it also published the disappointing Predator: The Hunting Grounds, ending up in the fourth spot. Lastly, the podium is completed by CAPCOM which had another great year (Resident Evil 3 Remake, Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne).

In order to be listed in these Publisher Rankings, a company had to release a minimum of five distinct titles throughout 2020. The following four factors have contributed to the chart, with the first one counting slightly more than the others.

(1) Average Metascore for all games released in 2020
150 possible points (awarded at 1.5 x the average Metascore)

(2) % of scored products with good reviews (Metascore of at least 75)
100 possible points (ex: 80% good = 80 points)

(3) % of scored products with bad reviews (49 or lower; in this case, a lower % is better)
100 possible points (ex: 20% bad = 80 points)

(4) Number of "great" titles (Metascore of 90 or higher, min. 7 reviews)
Awarded as 5 bonus points for each distinct title with a 90+ score

More at the link:

SEGA Tops Metacritic's 2021 Publisher Rankings

SEGA has managed to top Metacritic's 2021 Publisher Rankings, thanks to the performances of Persona 5 Royal and Yakuza 0.

wccftech.com

Metacritic's 11th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

We reveal the past year's best and worst videogame publishers (based on their 2020 releases) in our 11th Annual Game Publisher Rankings.

www.metacritic.com

#1 - SEGA
Previous year's rank: 18
Average Metascore for 2020 releases: 81.6
38 scored products (28 distinct titles): 95% good, 0% bad
"Great" games: Persona 5 Royal (PS4), Yakuza 0 (XB1)
Total points: 327.2

Now in its seventh decade, the Japanese gaming company had quite a good 2020, shooting up 17 places in our annual rankings to take the crown as our #1 publisher of the year. Sega's average Metascore (including games published under the label of its Atlus subsidiary) was actually a fraction of a point below that of our #2 publisher, Annapurna, but Sega was boosted into the top slot by virtue of having two stellar 2020 games—though both (including Metacritic's 2020 Game of the Year, Persona 5 Royal) were ports of previously existing titles to new platforms.

In fact, Persona and Yakuza ports accounted for Sega's five highest-scoring products in 2020—while numerous console ports of Two Point Hospital and Bayonetta also helped bolster Sega's average score. The publisher's best completely new game last year was the strategy-adventure mashup 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. (Some of these games were released prior to 2020 in Japan, but we use North American release dates for our calculations.)

Original thread idea by K Kenshin775

 

[Kenshin775]

Man there was a point where I thought Sega was losing their way. Mediocre Sonic and Shining games. Valkyria Chronicles 3, Yakuza 5 not getting localized, No PSO2 either.

Then small successes started happening. Valkyria Chronicles was a hit on PC, Yakuza 5 finally came to the west followed by the massive success of Yakuza 0 on PS4 then PC and Xbox. PSO2 has found success i the west. Atlus is killing it. Sega's western devs were always consistent and they are still killing it. Now Sega has been a top 3 rated metacritic publisher 4 out of the last 6 years. 30 years ago Sega was at the top of their game and 30 years later Sega is still doing there thing. Just Amazing for a publisher that makes mostly AA games or small budget games

 

[Nvzman]

Man there was a point where I thought Sega was losing their way. Mediocre Sonic and Shining games. Valkyria Chronicles 3, Yakuza 5 not getting localized, No PSO2 either.

Then small successes started happening. Valkyria Chronicles was a hit on PC, Yakuza 5 finally came to the west followed by the massive success of Yakuza 0 on PS4 then PC and Xbox. PSO2 has found success i the west. Atlus is killing it. Sega's western devs were always consistent and they are still killing it. Now Sega has been a top 3 rated metacritic publisher 4 out of the last 6 years. 30 years ago Sega was at the top of their game and 30 years later Sega is still doing there thing. Just Amazing for a publisher that makes mostly AA games or small budget games

Can't forget Sonic Mania!

Really glad to see SEGA doing well for themselves, always had a lot of respect for them despite their messy internal structure.

 

[YCoCg]

Can't forget Sonic Mania

Sonic Team can and will, they absolutely hated the fact that Mania did so well and Forces bombed.

 

[LordBlodgett]

Love to see Sega doing well, they need to keep pulling awesome games out of their library. Streets of Rage 4 was awesome. Also great to see the platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) putting out quality releases.

 

[Nvzman]

Sonic Team can and will, they absolutely hated the fact that Mania did so well and Forces bombed.

Believe it or not, Sonic Mania supposedly was the one that sold worse. Even though critically (and by fans) it was very well liked, and Forces wasn't, Forces sold far more.
Source: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/02/07/sega-says-sonic-forces-sales-performed-strongly/
People going off of playcounts (which isn't exactly the most reliable) speculate it may have sold 5 million copies, and this was before it was free on PS+

 

[Bittermich]

So, Sony has in average 1.2 points higher metacritic score? People act like Sony produced the GOATs and MS has no games at all. Lol

funny thing is they both released the exact same amount of great games.

 

[PhaseJump]

SegaSammy winning popularity contests. They better use it as an excuse to ask Microsoft to pay an extra billion when they show up on a Wednesday.

 

[SLB1904]

So, Sony has in average 1.2 points higher metacritic score? People act like Sony produced the GOATs and MS has no games at all. Lol

funny thing is they both released the exact same amount of great games.

you trippin if you think ms release anything close to gow, tlous 2 ghost of tsushima and so on

 

[iorek21]

Woah! Looking cool Joker!

 

[Aion002]

Hopefully this year Sega will keep the momentum.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

you trippin if you think ms release anything close to gow, tlous 2 ghost of tsushima and so on

Who cares? God of War released in 2018. SEGA published more games in 2020 on more platforms to a higher critic average.

 

[Burythelight]

So, Sony has in average 1.2 points higher metacritic score? People act like Sony produced the GOATs and MS has no games at all. Lol

funny thing is they both released the exact same amount of great games.

Thanks to ori and flight simulator, not produced by microsoft studios. Do you understand now the difference?

 

[cireza]

They have been top 3 several years actually. Nice to see them first place again.

2016 : 1st

Metacritic's 6th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

We reveal 2015's best and worst videogame publishers our annual Game Publisher Rankings.

www.metacritic.com

2017 : 3rd

Metacritic's 8th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

We reveal the past year's best and worst videogame publishers (based on 2017 releases) in our 8th annual Game Publisher Rankings.

www.metacritic.com

2019 : 2nd

Metacritic's 9th Annual Game Publisher Rankings

We reveal the past year's best and worst videogame publishers (based on their 2018 releases) in our 9th annual Game Publisher Rankings.

www.metacritic.com

2021 : 1st it seems.

SEGA

 

[Captain Toad]

Average Metascore is meaningless. All that means is they only put out a couple games.

I'll ignore bad games completely, so all I care about is how many good to great games a publisher put out. This tells me Sega had two, one of being a remaster of a game from the same generation.

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

It never really occurred to me before how little Sega’s games appeal to me.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Average Metascore is meaningless. All that means is they only put out a couple games.

I'll ignore bad games completely, so all I care about is how many good to great games a publisher put out. This tells me Sega had two, one of being a remaster of a game from the same generation.

Except you don't ignore the bad published games when ranking the best and worst publishers of the year (2020).

In Sony's case, Predator: Hunting Grounds hurt its overall score with its 56% Metascore. For Microsoft, it was their published Battletoads (66%) and Bleeding Edge (62%). For Nintendo, it was Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Night (62%). And again we are talking about critic ratings, not user scores, so this is not some popularity contest either.

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

Believe it or not, Sonic Mania supposedly was the one that sold worse. Even though critically (and by fans) it was very well liked, and Forces wasn't, Forces sold far more.
Source: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/02/07/sega-says-sonic-forces-sales-performed-strongly/
People going off of playcounts (which isn't exactly the most reliable) speculate it may have sold 5 million copies, and this was before it was free on PS+

 

[Captain Toad]

Except you don't ignore the bad published games when ranking the best and worst publishers of the year (2020).

In Sony's case, Predator: Hunting Grounds hurt its overall score with its 56% Metascore. For Microsoft, it was their published Battletoads (66%) and Bleeding Edge (62%). For Nintendo, it was Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & The Blade of Night (62%). And again we are talking about critic ratings, not user scores, so this is not some popularity contest either.

You just don't play those games. All that matters is the number of good games. Average is stupid. Predator being mediocre doesn't make Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part 2 and Dreams any worse.

I'll take the company with 5 great games and 5 bad games (which, I just won't play) over the company with just 1 great game and nothing else. Who cares that their overall average is higher, if the other company has several games that each individually scored higher than that one game.

 

[Grand Theft Scratchy]

Predator being mediocre doesn't make Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us Part 2 and Dreams any worse.

No one said it did.

Who cares that their overall average is higher, if the other company has several games that each individually scored higher than that one game.

Because if you want an honest ranking, you don't only pick and choose the best games from your preferred publisher or anyone else.

You don't have to play bad games but it's silly and dishonest to pretend they don't exist.

 

[Boaty McBoatface]

It never really occurred to me before how little Sega’s games appeal to me.

Has it occurred to you that you have no taste.

 

[celsowmbr]

I love you, Sega

 

[SinDelta]

Sega's turnaround these past few years has been very impressive. Valkyria Chronicles (1 and 4), entire mainline? Yakuza series now on PC, and that's not mentioning Persona 5, or 13 Sentinals Ageis Rim (Though Vanilaware PC ports would be nice.)

I think it's similar with what Capcom has done with Monster Hunter World, Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Devil May Cry V (and safe to say Monster Hunter Rise).

Now what I really want from Sega is a Skies of Arcadia remake please.

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

Persona 5 is massively overrated

 

[Fat Frog]

Skies of Arcadia remake please.

.

 

[MrA]

kids like sonic forces, sure it's filled with so many original characters you don't know who to steel first, but uh, yeah, uh, kids like sonic and they actually do like customizing their own billy bob the hedgehog.
Doesn't mean I have to like it if it did.

 

[SpongebobSquaredance]

kids like sonic forces, sure it's filled with so many original characters you don't know who to steel first, but uh, yeah, uh, kids like sonic and they actually do like customizing their own billy bob the hedgehog.
Doesn't mean I have to like it if it did.

 

[MetalSlug]

Believe it or not, Sonic Mania supposedly was the one that sold worse. Even though critically (and by fans) it was very well liked, and Forces wasn't, Forces sold far more.
Source: https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2018/02/07/sega-says-sonic-forces-sales-performed-strongly/
People going off of playcounts (which isn't exactly the most reliable) speculate it may have sold 5 million copies, and this was before it was free on PS+

I bought Sonic Forces...

But I made up for it by buying 3 copies of Sonic Mania

 

[Unknown?]

Who cares? God of War released in 2018. SEGA published more games in 2020 on more platforms to a higher critic average.

He was responding to a troll... Not the point. Lol

 

[drganon]

Nice. Sega has been and continues to be awesome.

 

[Kenshin775]

Hopefully this year Sega will keep the momentum.

Warhammer 3
SMT5
PSO2 New Genesis
Judgment next gen versions with 60FPS

and whatever else they surpise us with. RGG studios new Super Monkey Ball perhaps? I think its going to be another stellar year

 

[Fat Frog]

Warhammer 3
SMT5
PSO2 New Genesis
Judgment next gen versions with 60FPS

and whatever else they surpise us with. RGG studios new Super Monkey Ball perhaps? I think its going to be another stellar year

Humankind
Lost Judgment or Kenzan Kiwami or Binary Domain Royal (Like a Dragon has been released in 2019 in Japan, i think we'll have a new RGG game in december and maybe the Creative Assembly FPS). Virtua Fighter X, Re:Fantasy won't come before 2022/2023.

 

[Saber]

Don't worry, the next Sonic game made by Sonic Team will put them back to the botton again.

On the matter, congrats to Yakuza. Its a solid series. I don't even need to say anything about Personna, Atlus is the king.

 

[Fake]

Sonic Team can and will, they absolutely hated the fact that Mania did so well and Forces bombed.

TOTALLY THIS.

 

[Guileless]

This is all a prelude to an E3 megaton: Quad A Altered Beast reboot starring a mocapped Russell Crowe as the Beast.

 

[Fat Frog]

Don't worry, the next Sonic game made by Sonic Team will put them back to the botton again.

On the matter, congrats to Yakuza. Its a solid series. I don't even need to say anything about Personna, Atlus is the king.

They've never been in the bottom:

- When Sonic Force has been released, Sega was still 3rd.

- Sega is the only big publisher staying so long in the top 3 (4 years out of 6)

- 2019 seems bad but wasn't in fact. They were 18th (metascore 73% which is not bad) because tons of tiny publishers with only 5 to 8 titles were included in the overall ranking.

- Sega is the only publisher who won 2 crowns...

They've never been six feet under.

 

[Fat Frog]

TOTALLY THIS.

What are your sources ?
Do you have specific names ?

Honestly, i think Takashi Izuka is an autistic person who doesn't listen or understand what old fans say. As for the rest of the Sonic Team ? Many have left the company long ago(indeed a guy like Yuji Naka could be jealous but he is working for Square Enix now) and the others must be tired to work on Sonic titles... I think most of the remaining staff don't care or are just living in their japanese bubble.

 

[Kokoloko85]

So, Sony has in average 1.2 points higher metacritic score? People act like Sony produced the GOATs and MS has no games at all. Lol

funny thing is they both released the exact same amount of great games.

Playstation has had GOTY winning games since 2009. MS has some great games with Gears 5, Ori, Forza and Sea of Thieves but not on the level of Sony this last 11-12 years.
Uncharted 2, TLOU, GOW, Bloodborne and alot more, you cant really compare them.
Nintendo also has so many great games since the Wii U, more so than both probably

 

[Kokoloko85]

Sega’s done a good job for awhile. Total Wars, Atlus games, Sonic Mania, Yakuza etc.
They went downhill after the Dreamcast died but have made a great comeback.

During the Saturn and Dreamcast they had so many great 1st party games, so many hits.
They messed up with 3rd party titles with the consoles not being as strong as the competition ( Saturn bad 3d chip ) and Dreamcast couldn’t handle what PS2 did

 

[Fake]

What are your sources ?
Do you have specific names ?

Sources for what?

For saying Sonic Forces bombed? Are you serious?

 

[Raven117]

I think finally, after really losing their way in the PS3 generation, Japanese developers and publishers finally figured it out in the midpoint of the Ps4 generation.

 

[Team Andromeda]

My beloved SEGA still got it. So glad Sammy saw sense and turned its back on mobile gaming for SEGA.

 

[Fat Frog]

Sources for what?

For saying Sonic Forces bombed? Are you serious?

No, a source that proves Sonic Team is jealous... interview ? Bitter comment from someone at Sega ?

Or just a crystal ball ?

I don't care about Sonic Forces, i want Sonic Team to focus on other franchises. (but the 100 millions dowloads of Sonic Forces on mobile probably boosted Sonic Forces sales on Switch)

 

[Mr Moose]

Did they title it incorrectly? Those are 2020 games.

 

[Fake]

No, a source that proves Sonic Team is jealous... interview ? Bitter comment from someone at Sega ?

Or just a crystal ball ?

I don't care about Sonic Forces, i want Sonic Team to focus on other franchises. (but the 100 millions dowloads of Sonic Forces on mobile probably boosted Sonic Forces sales on Switch)

You need to be more direct of what you want. Don't need to get defensive. What I saying don't have any source, I know Sonic Team by their recent crap work, and none of their recent Sonic games actually made sucess.

Sonic Mania at this point already should get a sequel, but looks like Sonic Team don't have interess of making a sequel by any means.

Christian Whitehead, aka Taxman, said Sega don't want any other partnership with his group.

And using 'donwloads' for a sucess metric is not a good sight by any means, neither using the mobile version. They're earning money by mobile bussiness (like everybody else on the entire world), this has nothing to do with the sucess of Sonic Forces as a game or saying that is a good game.


If is there anything SEGA should be proud, is the work of ATLUS.

 

[MrS]

Woah! Looking cool Joker!

Go to sleep

 

[Fat Frog]

You need to be more direct of what you want. Don't need to get defensive. What I saying don't have any source, I know Sonic Team by their recent crap work, and none of their recent Sonic games actually made sucess.

Sonic Mania at this point already should get a sequel, but looks like Sonic Team don't have interess of making a sequel by any means.

Christian Whitehead, aka Taxman, said Sega don't want any other partnership with his group.

And using 'donwloads' for a sucess metric is not a good sight by any means, neither using the mobile version. They're earning money by mobile bussiness (like everybody else on the entire world), this has nothing to do with the sucess of Sonic Forces as a game or saying that is a good game.


If is there anything SEGA should be proud, is the work of ATLUS.

I was just asking what were your sources.
Your Taxman quote is the type of answer i was asking for. (even if it doesn't prove Sonic Team is jealous. It could be just a clue though)


I didn't say downloads are a good metric but it will necessarly lead to a small sales bump for the console version of Forces. (we are talking about 100 millions people playing Forces...)


And No... Sega should be proud of all its Studios. There is almost no black sheep (except Sonic Team. Even ic they can do good job with PSO, Puyo Puyo Tetris)

Plus, Sega probably paid for the 200 new employees at Atlus

 

[Fake]

I was just asking what were your sources.
Your Taxman quote is the type of answer i was asking for. (even if it doesn't prove Sonic Team is jealous. It could be just a clue though)


I didn't say downloads are a good metric but it will necessarly lead to a small sales bump for the console version of Forces. (we are talking about 100 millions people playing Forces...)


And No... Sega should be proud of all its Studios. There is almost no black sheep (except Sonic Team. Even ic they can do good job with PSO, Puyo Puyo Tetris)

Before ask sources, SEGA should be more open with their numbers. We don't know what was the cost of games like Sonic Forces or Sonic Team Racing, so even if their proud release their number figures, we will still blind to know if was totally worthy or not.

I remember the director from Rise of Tomb Raider saying this game sold 3 million copies and he still say the game is a failure. Thats because he is opening to tell use the cost of all this minus the profit.

And yes, SEGA should be proud of ATLUS. Was a right choise to buy ATLUS without interfering in that group, unlike usualy Microsoft did with RARE. ATLUS are still making great games, getting high reviewers and more important, make profit.

 

[Saber]

I was just asking what were your sources.

Frankly dude...what sources do you have for Focres?
You know why you don't have sources? Because Sega didn't release any sources. What we have is pictures of game stores with Sonic Forces taking dust, sometimes on daily cheap discounts and not selling at all. Mania also don't have sources, but do people love to play it. Most of their fans and non fans buy it and love it, but for some reason Sega doesn't want follow up games(Taxman already said that Sega didn't reach him for more Sonic games). What more source do you want? You want Sega answering exactly your question?

It's pretty obvious. Sonic Team is on the market of main 3D Sonic games for ages. What do you think they would feel when their main game is considered a piece of garbage and a game some people offend as a "fangame" gets the better end of the stick? The only reason people even remember that crap of game is because Iizuka probably wanted Mania to reconect with the story of Forces.

 

[Zeroing]

Still waiting for Sega being bough next week... every week I get that feeling.. I am joking

Now being serious, that is good, it means that contrary to everyone's idea, not all Japanese gaming studios are out of touch with their audience.