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Ubisoft is the 'least consistent' publisher according to Metacritic photo

A new study of Metacritic data suggests that Ubisoft, aka the Activision of Europe, is the least consistent publisher when it comes to game quality, coming bottom of the pile, while Rockstar triumphed as the best.

The study assigned points values to different Metacritic scoring brackets. Those games avering 90-100 review scores received 2 points, while games with a Metacritic score of 80-89 got 1 point. 70-79 received no points, 60-69 got -1 point and anything under that got -2 points. Not exactly rocket science, and I hate this idea that games rated in the seventies receive nothing (since it's a good score as far as I'm concerned), but you can get a general idea of how each publisher fares. 

Rockstar was branded the most consistent publisher with 19 points over 23 titles. By incredibly stark contrast, Ubisoft's 237 games dragged the publisher down to a score of -148. Unsurprisingly, Activision didn't do a lot better, with a shameful -138 points. Looking at this, I don't know if "least consistent" is an accurate description, however. It seems Ubisoft and Activision are consistently crap.

Of course, Ubisoft and Activision make a lot of money despite churning out garbage, so this is hardly going to make them weep with shame. However, this study has merit simply because I get a chance to insult Ubisoft and Activision along with the bargain-bucket, exploitative trash that they dare to call "videogames." That, my friends, is worth more than any Metacritic score.


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21 comments | showing # 1 to 21

Wedge's Avatar
Wedge at 03/05/2009 20:34
Well considering Ubi's whole extensive and gigantic "Imagine" line, it's hardly surprising.
Josh Tolentino's Avatar
Josh Tolentino at 03/05/2009 20:36
All this really proves is that large publishers with a wide-spectrum lineup get the short end of the stick. Then again, "diverse" is often used as code for CRAP.

But seriously, Metacritic bites.
Chronic Logic's Avatar
Chronic Logic at 03/05/2009 20:45
Holy fuck! Who's in charge of the Quality Assurance Department?!
Count Grishnack's Avatar
Count Grishnack at 03/05/2009 20:47
What this should have been:
90-100 = 5
80-90 = 4
70-80 = 3
60-70 = 2
50-60 = 1
50 and under = 0
ajaxender's Avatar
ajaxender at 03/05/2009 20:57
Yup, sounds about right. I cant find an Ubisoft game in recent memory that didnt fuck something up pretty badly. Whats frustrating is that many of their games of the last few years are great, even fantastic in concept.

Activision, on the other hand, are just jerks. They buy up devs who make a fantastic game or two, and then just throw as many variations out there as quick as possible. They assume the selling power of the brand, established by the first game, will make the others sell too... and unfortunately, theyre right.
eternalplayer2345's Avatar
eternalplayer2345 at 03/05/2009 21:02
how did squenix not get a game with a F on that report?
atastysammich's Avatar
atastysammich at 03/05/2009 21:21
BUT
THEY
CAN
DANCE
whormongr's Avatar
whormongr at 03/05/2009 21:59
kinda unfair to have 2d boy on the list of the best as they have made only 2 games
megaStryke's Avatar
megaStryke at 03/05/2009 22:42
Didn't Beyond Good and Evil come out in 2003, not 2005?
Qraze's Avatar
Qraze at 03/05/2009 23:27
i thought rockstar was the dev and take2 was the publisher.
bVork's Avatar
bVork at 03/05/2009 23:28
I like a lot of Ubisoft's games, but they put out a lot of absolute garbage as well. For every FarCry 2 or Prince of Persia, there seems to be an Imagine Babyz or Hell's Kitchen.

Also, game scores suck, Metacritic sucks, and the very criteria they used would cause games that Destructoid reviewed and somewhat liked (such as Sacred 2 and Noby Noby Boy) to reflect negatively on the publisher's overall scores.
TheToiletDuck's Avatar
TheToiletDuck at 03/06/2009 03:55
@bVork : i'm guessing it's the imagine Babyz'z and Hell's Kitchens that make them profit. I'm okay with them shipping out crap, as long as they ship out good stuff too.
UglyDuck's Avatar
UglyDuck at 03/06/2009 04:03
It kinda went downhill for me after 2004. That was when they were in their prime. Some really incredible games came out in the year following that - BG&E came out in November 2003, there was the first PoP, Rayman 3, Splinter Cell, Brothers in Arms, XIII, Far Cry, the list goes on.

I fucking loved Ubisoft back then.
Lord The Night Knight's Avatar
Lord The Night Knight at 03/06/2009 05:26
I've got to put that method on TV Tropes as a really blatant example of the "Four point scale". Everything below 7 somehow cannot be average, but negative? Bullshit. This is total snobbery, designed to lump mediocre in with the actual garbage.
PMantix's Avatar
PMantix at 03/06/2009 07:12
What a strange way to rate publishers.

I mean seriously, can they be any more arbitrary?


How about this.. why not make a game scoring 93% be worth... 93 points! That way you can just rank a publishers consistency based on their metacritic score.

Whatever.. flawed system based on another flawed system taken as data.
Markusdragon's Avatar
Markusdragon at 03/06/2009 09:45
Rockstar isn't a publisher, it's a brand.
pascuz46's Avatar
pascuz46 at 03/06/2009 10:17
The latest Ubisoft games I have played I loved and hated at the same time. They started out amazing but then they became annoying and repetitive nearing the end. I approach Ubisoft products with caution from now on.
ShadowKirby's Avatar
ShadowKirby at 03/06/2009 10:54
Yeah, that's a pretty fucked up way to rate things.
But I,m happy to see people are at least questioning the system here. Back on Kotaku, it was 2 pages of "pffft, Ubisfot never made anything good". And that statement makes me a sad panda :(
Jetsetlemming's Avatar
Jetsetlemming at 03/06/2009 12:11
I'm having trouble finding out what 12 games of Valve's they counted and what the F, D, and two Cs were. Looking on Metacritic Valve's name is next to Ninja Reflex: Steamworks Edition, which hardly seems fair. They had nothing to do with making it, it's a console port from some completely unrelated company. It's also attached to Audiosurf, and if you include Audiosurf as a Valve product you'd have to list everything on Steam.
The Games Valve directly had a hand in:
Half Life
Counterstrike
Day of Defeat
Half-life 2
HL2 ep1
HL2 ep2
Counterstrike Source
Portal
Team Fortress 2
Day of Defeat Source
The Ship
Garry's Mod

That's 12, but not a single one of those games has a ranking less than 70.
silvain's Avatar
silvain at 03/06/2009 12:33
Stupid metric based on a stupid metric? Sign me up!

What are we measuring again?
Xonticus's Avatar
Xonticus at 03/06/2009 13:01
Jetsetlemming, I agree with you. I think Valve, based on the games that they actually developed and what is not purely supplied under steam (which should not count, its purely a download/update client) should be on the top of the scores list. Their games are quality, pure and simple. Metacritic studies are like any other study, and should be taken with a grain of salt.
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