Metacritic has posted a first look at its annual game publisher rankings, where the site judges publishers based on game scores. As it turns out, Microsoft is sitting pretty at number 1 by some margin!
Microsoft achieved the ranking with a fantastic output from Xbox Game Studios last year. Their overall Metascore average was 87.4, more than 6 points ahead of 2nd placed Sony, with 81.3.
Xbox's score will have been bolstered by some huge releases that really resonated with fans, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, Forza Horizon 5 and of course, Halo Infinite. Interestingly, Activision Blizzard and Bethesda round out the top five, which is surely good news for Xbox going forward.
These are interesting findings, particularly as Xbox is often dunked on for being somewhat inconsistent when it comes to high-quality releases. This table doesn't lie though, and we hope Microsoft continues on this path through 2022 and beyond.
Which 2021 Xbox release was your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
[source metacritic.com]
Comments 46
Well deserved! Hoping to see more of this in 2022.
Very well deserved, 2021 was a great lineup. Hopefully more of this to come in 2022 and beyond!
They had a great year last year and I'm really looking forward to Starfield later this year. Fingers crossed its awesome!
Metacrytic isn’t really accurate. It’s an average score of all reviews. If a game gets 25 10/10 review scores, then a hater gives it 3/10 it’ll lower it’s Metacrytic score.
All good and well but it's a average of all games so if someone else has more exclusive etc really by laws of averages those with less games will rate higher!
Congrats but of the games i played above, Halo, Deathloop and Psychonauts, i only finished Halo which was kinda a let down for me. Only one on my list for xbox that has a date is Starfield
@sjbsixpack Haha the known Sony fanboy would be the one to try and downplay it...somehow I don't think you would of made the same comment if it was PlayStation at number 1...why not just say nothing?
@sjbsixpack Metacritic’s critic score isn’t just an average. There’s a hidden algorithm that gives more weight to mostly older publications who are likely more reputable.
So in your example of 25 x 10/10 and one 3/10 an average would be 96% (hardly disappointing lol) but assuming the 3/10 was from a lesser renowned publication it would likely be around 98% on Metacritic.
Not entirely sure what you mean by “Metacritic isn’t really accurate”. It’s just a review aggregator, but is likely to be more ‘accurate’ or representative of the general view of a game than reading just one review.
@sjbsixpack That's the point - its still going to give an average of 9.7/10 so that '3' doesn't drag the score 'right' down. Scores are just a persons opinions and the 'average' score is used more to show how well a game has been received 'critically'.
25 10/10 and 1 3/10 review is no different from 26 reviews giving a 9.7/10. Its still a 'good' indication that the 'majority' of reviewers still thought the game was better than 'average'.
What it tells me is that these games were well received by the critics and average a 'high' score across 'numerous' reviews. It doesn't matter if a troll brings the 'average' down a fraction of a point, its offset by some 'fanboy' awarding '10's' just because they are 'big' fans of the developer, publisher or platform so can you 'trust' every 'score'. That's why 'averages' tend to be more useful.
I never buy a game based on just 1 person's review. I read many reviews - not just the positive ones, but also some of the more negative ones too to try and see if what they disliked was something that would bug me.
If I read just 1 Elden Ring review, its a 'must' have, however, after numerous reviews etc, I know its erratic and unstable performance alone would irritate me very quickly and therefore 'not' a 10/10 (or even a 9 or 8/10) to me. But that's 'my' opinion - just like every reviewer had their opinion on the 'score'. Its NO less valid!!
Anyway, the point is that Metacritic takes all the scores and averages them out to get a more 'general' overview of the critical reception. Its not 'perfect' by any stretch of the imagination but its a relatively quick and easy way to get a 'general' overview and 'average' score.
Averages can be calculated different ways too - there is the method above, there is also the method of using the most popular score, removing the top 5 highest, top 5 lowest and averaging the rest (to remove troll/fanboy influence) etc but its done to show the 'average' score a game is receiving and if it's receiving an 'average' 8+/10, then those games are being reviewed as 'above' average in general and above '9/10' are 'must-plays', Game of the Year contenders...
Yes its NOT a perfect system - but it does collect ALL reviews to one place and gives you the 'average' score. Forza Horizon 5 has 'averaged' 92/100 (9.2/10). That's including all those reviewers that maybe gave it 4/5 (80/100), which is still a 'great' game on their scale so having an 'average' above 90 shows that 'overall', the critics 'loved' this game.
So can we stop hearing "Sony has the best exclusives"? It's absolutely subjective because it depends on the kind of games you like but I'm tired of that self-entitlement and arrogance that some Sony fanboys have.
PS: Congratulations, Xbox Game Studios!
Forza horizon 5 for me gets the crown , it’s one of my favorite game this year.
I say this with zero snark, but it would be nice if all of those games were on Xbox right now. I guess the consolation is they're coming.
@Banjo- which is really pathetic because people try to act like they had anything to do with it.
Hey, everyone, I bought a game a lot of other people loved. I'm so amazing!
@IronMan30 Good point. What are they proud of?
Little misleading as two of the five, and two of the top three, were developed when they were not the publisher.
Deathloop they had nothing to do with but the other's they nailed it seems. End of the day a good list with some diversity. Still have to finish Halo and Phsychonauts!
Wish i was a teenager with gamepass.... would play through so much stuff.
@IronMan30 I think the bigger point here is the studios do everything. The corporate heads at Sony don’t make the games. Naughty Dog, Insomniac, and others do. Same here. Microsoft didn’t make the games. Playground, double fine, arcane and asobo did. But here’s the point. Moving forward, those studios are owned my MS and will make exclusives. So what this means is some of the best studios are now published by MS, so they will get as much credit moving forward as Sony does for Naughty Dog and Insomniac.
@Banjo- you will still keep hearing it precisely because its subjective unfortunately so opinion which some will still be very vocal about regardless. Nature of the beast unfortunately!
I for one am very happy with this though. MS first party output so far is light years ahead of the latter part of last gen. No matter what console anyone owns (or multiple) in for a cracking 2022 and beyond.
Only downside is how big everyones backlog is going to get. Mines already insurmountable as it is lol.
@xMightyMatt14x oh yeah. I'm glad MS is doing well. I bought an Xbox for the random exclusives along with the excellent third-party support the consoles get. I wasn't trying to sound troll-ish with my comment, I'm just semi-impatient but I know it will pay off.
@IronMan30 ah gotcha. I feel ya man! I have enough to distract me so I’m okay but I am anxious to play some of these games we’ve been teased about for the last few years.
@xMightyMatt14x This award had nothing to do with development. It was a Publisher award. And Microsoft did just that, publish the games. Which means they threw the time, money, and resources to the developer to make these games. So the point here, in that regard, is that they did have something to do with them as a publisher.
Congratulations Microsoft! My favorite one out of that lineup was Psychonauts 2. It was a fantastic game and would have been so much less had Xbox not stepped in and gave them the budget needed to finish the game properly. Let’s hope 2022 is another great year for them.
@lolwhatno not really. PS gamers, even fanboys have no need to do this. It is a well stated fact PS exclusives are the best games. Thst makes them number 1 target for fanboys.
@themightyant but reviews are nothing more than gamers opinions. If 10000 people say game A is great an 100 people say it’s poor it’s likely great but those 100 opinions would harm its score.
@Dracavius that’s fair. I was mainly commenting on Others mentioning how they shouldn’t get credit for games like deathloop.
@StylesT i’m not a fanboy, i have both machines. Just a simple statement.
@Banjo- they do tho. 🤦♂️🤦♂️😂😂
@sjbsixpack That, too, is an opinion. I'd argue Nintendo's exclusives are far superior as games than what Sony offers.
Personally, PlayStation exclusives are just one and done games. I never replay them. So using them as an argument or point against another company is completely moot to me. And when I dropped my PS4 Pro after Sony's bullish behavior towards cross play and cross progression, I really didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. It wasn't until well after the PS5 launch did I give them a chance again as it seemed they were lightening up on those policies. And again, I'm playing my Xbox and Nintendo exclusives over what PlayStation proffers. Though I can't get my FFXIV fix anywhere but PS5 currently.
@StylesT you were on pushsquare calling horizon forbidden west overrated you can't really talk
@Would_you_kindly And? Do I have to pretend it's a masterpiece or I'm a fanboy? just think it's no better than a 8 out of 10...
The guy I was referring to is a fanboy he throws tantrums if you don't think PlayStation games are all brilliant...look at his comments to see his huge bias
I also think halo is overrated.....I guess I must be a Nintendo fanboy then ...despite not owning one
@Dracavius What's so bad with one and done? I got better things to do. SO great!! I don't like crossplay with PC. Idk why anyone wants that, especially with mnk advantage and hackers. Cross-pogression made sense but there's less of those.
@sjbsixpack You know you can't say that on an xbox forum though. Even if it's an honest unbiased opinion, people won't like it. I agree though. Only Capcom imo are the only ones that can compete quality wise... for now. Nintendo too.
@StylesT He is saying that on a the year where Sony released an 87 and 88 (I'm using opencritic) while xbox won't release anything until fall. He's not attacking xbox directly. Just in general. That's what I got.
Wait. You said it's overrated but gave it an 8? It's 8 more points really that much of a difference?
Jesus why are we still on this topic?
@RevGaming Final Fantasy Tactics is played by me once a year because it is just that great. Most PlayStation games are touted to be as great, but they simply aren't. Especially as is concerned with me.
I never explicitly stated crossplay with PC. But I see no reason why the Big 3 can't have crossplay and cross progression. Makes no sense in this day and age. Its an archaic train of thought to think otherwise.
PC crossplay should be optional if allowed at all. In games like FFXIV there really isn't an issue. However, in highly competitive games the potential for cheaters is just way too high and detrimental to the play experience for most. Crossplay is simply the way to go forward in the industry. Aside from the aforementioned PC nuisance, cross play only helps the games that utilize it.
@Dracavius Yeah. with xbox and switch is fine.
Not a deal breaker.
I think sony makes the best games with exclusion of nintendo, but whatever. It's my opinion.
Removed - flaming/arguing
@Jaxx420 But nothing won't stop them as you can see, even if critics say the opposite of what they're claiming (see the user above). He doesn't make any sense.
@Dracavius Sony's games are like films, interesting to watch (sometimes) but boring to play. The Last of Us has so bad gameplay that I almost gave it up but I just wanted to see the end.
@xMightyMatt14x Exactly, Sony don't make games. They acquired studios that make games, just like Microsoft.
@Banjo- easier to not respond to them. Fanboys spend more time rabbitting on than actually playing the games they pretend to be so loyal to.
@lolwhatno Maybe I should just pretend to like everything equally to dodge such labels.....every exclusive is a masterpiece
@Banjo- sales speak loudest. Biggest PS5 exclusive, Spiderman with over 25 million sales. TLOU 2 with 22 million sales, God of War with 20 million, Uncharted 4 with 18 million. Xbox biggest selling exclusive, Halo 3 i think it was, just over 5 million sales.
An i didn’t say it was fact, i said a well stated fact an it is, lots of people, both gamers an reviewers say PS exclusives are the best games.
Removed - flaming/arguing
@Jaxx420 You are absolutely right as some of them apparently have children, why not spend time on playing games with them instead of promoting the brand they're so proud of and trying to sink the other brands? Is that the best thing they can do with their time?
@StylesT You should start praising Sega as a hardware maker or any extinct software developer so nobody gets overprotective 😂.
@sjbsixpack Of course individual reviews are nothing more than gamers opinions, hence the same game can get 5/10 and 9/10. But the metascore, or any aggregate score, represents more towards a general consensus of the games standing.
Of course it's not perfect, no system is, as many have said games like sports games like FIFA, Madden or the recent Elden Ring are more likely to be reviewed by fans of the genre and thus more likely to be looked upon favourably and get an artificially higher score.
Of course individually none of this really matters. There are many games i've personally enjoyed more that scored around 70% over those that scored a 90% usually because I prefer one genre over another, same for most gamers. But the aggregate scores are still useful for weighing up options within genres and most importantly being aware of the classics and the stinkers.
Congratulations to Microsoft for this! Even though not all these games are my cup of tea i can see them being rated this high. I absolutely loved Psychonauts 2 and had a good time playing the Halo campaign. Deathloop i didn't play yet since i only recently got my ps5, so i'll wait until it is on Gamepass. Fh5 and MSFS are not for me but i tried them both a bit so see what they and can understand people can find enjoyment in these type of games. Aoe4 ill wait playing until the console version comes out.
It was a great year for Xbox!!
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