Review scores are often make or break for video game companies, and with this in mind, Metacritic has released its 15th annual publisher ranking.
In the top 10 for 2024, Microsoft is ninth on this ladder with Astro Bot publisher Sony in fourth spot. Taking out first is SEGA (jumping from ninth place) with games like Metaphor: ReFantazio, and dethroning Capcom who recently released Monster Hunter Wilds.
While Microsoft's might not seem quite as impressive, its gaming division (including Xbox) has actually jumped from 15th place last time around, although Bethesda was ranked separately in eighth position last year.
Here are the full rankings as revealed by Metacritic this week:
- SEGA (325.5 points) - average Metascore of 82.9
- Capcom (323.1 points) - average Metascore of 82.1
- Aksys Games (318.1 points) - average Metascore of 78.8
- Sony (314 points) - average Metascore of 80.9
- Focus Entertainment (309.6 points) - average Metascore of 79.1
- Gamera Games (303.5 points) - average Metascore of 80.2
- Square Enix (303.5 points) - average Metascore of 78.5
- Raw Fury (301.1 points) - average Metascore of 78.5
- Microsoft (301 points) - average Metascore of 79.4
- Annapurna Interactive (298.7 points) - average Metascore of 79.2
And here's what Metacritic had to say about Xbox's first-party releases specifically:
It was Microsoft proper that was responsible for the company's highest-scoring 2024 release, a new Switch port of the one-time Xbox-exclusive RPG adventure Pentiment. Bethesda saw great success with its Indiana Jones game, while the highest-scoring 2024 titles from Activision and Blizzard were Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and World of Warcraft: The War Within, respectively. Microsoft's overall lowest-scoring title of 2024 belonged to Bethesda: It was the expansion Starfield: Shattered Space.
Xbox is likely set to climb this ladder again with sure-fire hits on the way such as DOOM: The Dark Ages, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 and Gears of War: E-Day, so it'll be interesting to see how the rankings look over the next few years.
Microsoft's new strategy to release more games across platforms has already paid off as well, making it the most-successful publisher in the world in December, ahead of companies like EA.
What high-rated games have you played from Microsoft's game library in recent times? Where do you expect it to be on this ladder next year? Leave your thoughts below.
[source metacritic.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 10
Also not much difference between the top nine all close.
I’m sure this year Xbox can push that score even higher with what’s to come.
Nice! Great to see them ranking so well and with the output at an impressive high, we should certainly see this again next time with (very likely) even higher positioning. Good stuff!
This confirms the significant increase in the quality of Xbox games, despite the "Xbox tax" that tends to underrate Xbox games. Also, their weighting system is quite strange, as they count PC ports (e.g., God of War) and remasters (e.g., TLOU 2 Remastered) in the same way. I think they should give more weight to original games.
@fatpunkslim I'm starting to wonder if it's an "Xbox tax" or just "Sony plus interest". I was playing spider man 2 on my mates ps5 and thinking "this is just the first one again that I played on PS4", and that was a 90 meta I think?
Then I play Indy, which is Sony PS4 heyday levels of great, and it hits 86.
Oh well, at least we have a really exciting lineup again this year!
@Coletrain Yeah there’s definitely some PlayStation bias across many gaming outlets but people refuse to see it.
@IOI I suppose indy is the first game in a while where it's been clearer to me, because it has a similar scope to a Sony title. Really interested to see if the ps5 metacritic ends up being higher (beyond the whole "oh well all the bugs were ironed out by then")
This is where owning so many dev studios pays off.
Since Concord was deleted from history was that not included in the calculations?
@Coletrain Spider-Man 2 is a sequel, what were you expecting? Also I think it’s disingenuous to act like SM2 is the same exact game as the first one. SM2 has a bigger map, you can switch between Peter, and Miles instantaneously, you can use symbiote abilities, the traversal is much faster, Peter can use the mechanical spider-arms, there’s more activities etc. I really don’t know what ppl expect from a sequel.
Also, you claim Indiana Jones is “PS4 hay day great.” What game on PS4 is anything like Indiana Jones? You can make a case for Uncharted 4, but Indy being in first person perspective, makes it very different from Uncharted. Indiana Jones reminds me of Xbox hay day, back in the Xbox 360 gen more than anything from the PS4 era
@Nicekix it didn't feel any different though. I'm not saying it's a bad game, the comment was that I can't understand how it hits a 90 metacritic.
And Indy is PS4 levels of greatness, it doesn't have to be a 3rd person game to be comparable. The polish, the writing, direction and cut scenes. That's all stuff that critics absolutely cream over on ps games whilst ignoring boring, repetitive gameplay. Indy didn't get the same media pass.
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