Microsoft was named the best game publisher by Metacritic after its Xbox Game Studios releases achieved an average score that surpassed 85 — a first for any publisher on the platform. Some titles from the company reached an average of 90 points on Metacritic’s scale.
Top-scoring Xbox Game Studios releases
According to Eurogamer, three Xbox Game Studios titles scored above 90 on Metacritic: Forza Horizon 5, Psychonauts 2, and Microsoft Flight Simulator. Those high scores helped push Microsoft’s overall publisher average past the 85 threshold.
Sony and other publishers on the list
Sony Interactive Entertainment ranked second in the Metacritic publisher list with an average score of 81.3, despite having more than twice the number of releases as Microsoft. Metacritic noted that Sony’s lower average was influenced by the poor performance of Destruction All-Stars, which scored 62 on the site.
Humble Games placed third and Activision Blizzard came in fourth. The full ranking names 43 game companies in total; the complete list is available here.
How Metacritic ranks publishers
Metacritic has been analyzing a broad range of media for 12 years and evaluates game publishers using four factors:
- average Metascore for all games released in the year;
- percentage of products that received positive reviews;
- percentage of products that received negative reviews;
- number of “major” titles.
Xbox initiative for women in games
Separately, and recently timed with International Women’s Day, Xbox announced a program aimed at bringing more women into the games industry. The initiative seeks to connect established professionals with emerging talent through one-on-one coaching sessions to support career development. More details and livestreams related to the program will be shared throughout March.
