Publisher chart
So here it is, the overall publisher ranking for 2007. As you can see, Nintendo is king, spoiling punters with games that - on average - are the best around according to critics. Nintendo's positioning at the top of the pile may be a tad predictable, but in a year when Sony has been under continued fire about the quality of games on both PSP and PS3, it's a pleasant surprise to see them ranked second, indicating that both systems are being well-serviced by Sony.
Three cheers for Capcom who published the least games, but score a victory for quality over quantity. And, indeed, Electronic Arts who published the most games and deserve credit for delivering both quality and quantity.
We were genuinely shocked to see Ubisoft place so low, but it paid the price for a release schedule clogged with mediocrity. In fact, we were genuinely expecting more publishers to accrue a review score average greater than 70% and certainly anticipating that there would be a greater divide between the first and last place publishers. As it is, only 13% separates Nintendo and Atari.
The most surprising thing about these results, however, is the fact that despite 2007 being a splendid year for games - one of the finest ever, in fact - it's been burdened with a frightening amount of very, very average releases and the triple-A titles are massively outweighed by C-list chaff.
Here's the final ranking:
1. Nintendo - 75.1%
2. Sony - 74.6%
3. Capcom - 74.1%
4. Take Two - 73.2%
5. Electronic Arts - 72%
6. Sega - 71.1%
7. Microsoft - 69.5%
8. Vivendi - 68.8%
9. Codemasters - 68.7%
10. THQ - 68.4%
11. Midway - 67.7%
12. Activision - 66.5%
13. Eidos - 65.5%
14. Konami - 65.2%
15. Namco Bandai - 63.9%
16. Ubisoft - 63.6%
17. Atari - 62.3%
