Nintendo

Review aggregator site Metacritic has published its yearly rankings of video game publishers, providing a list which shows how well each company performed as a whole throughout the year based on average review scores. Nintendo ranked fourth amongst all "major publishers".

For the rankings, all game publishers have been split into two lists, "major" and "mid-size"; to qualify for the "major" list, a publisher must have released 12 or more games in 2018. From there, the lists are based solely on the quality of each publisher's 2018 games as determined by qualifying critics' scores; sales and user reviews are not counted towards the totals. As well as the average review score, other factors such as the number of high-scoring and low-scoring releases per publisher also affect the ranking.

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So, without further ado, here's the list of the best-perofmring major publishers of 2018 based on Metacritic's data (the average review score is written in brackets):

1. Capcom — 79.3
2. Sega — 78.5
3. EA — 77.5
4. Nintendo — 76.4
5. Ubisoft — 73.7
6. Sony — 71.8
7. Square Enix — 71.0
8. Bandai Namco — 71.8
9. Digerati Distribution — 69.9
10. NIS America — 69.5
11. Plug In Digital — 69.4
12. Focus Home Interactive — 69.8
13. THQ Nordic — 64.4

Further information is also provided for each publisher; Nintendo's highest scoring game was Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (93), its best-scoring new IP was Octopath Traveler (83), and its worst-scoring release was Kirby Battle Royale (57). Fan favourite games included Bayonetta + Bayonetta 2, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and Octopath Traveler.

One "mid-sized" publisher, Activision Blizzard, did also beat Nintendo's average review score with a total of 77.4. This list, which also features publishers like Bethesda, Microsoft, Team17, Warner Bros., and Konami, can be viewed here.

Any surprises on that list? Do you have a favourite publisher of 2018? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[source metacritic.com]