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[TI82]

Data derived from

And yes, I know that 2015 isn't over yet. But there are only two titles left for 2015, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

So, let's assume both will match the scores of their previous titles (which Xenoblade is unlikely to do given import impressions) that would give us a +149 for total score (90 theoretical for Xenoblade, 59 theoretical for Mystery Dungeon) and a 29 for total software in 2015.

Which leaves us with 70.2 average, still the lowest in the past ten years. Just some food for thought, could be because the extremely low software output this year or because of low quality titles such as Amiibo Festival and Mario Tennis.

Edit: 2015 from Sony and Microsoft from user sörine:

Average Scores 2015
Nintendo: 69.89 (27 games)
Sony: 76.06 (16 games)
Microsoft: 80.82 (11 games)


Unscored 2015 games:

Nintendo
amiibo Tap: Nintendo's Greatest Bits (Wii U)
EarthBound Beginnings (Wii U)
Flipnote Studio 3D (3DS)
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (3DS)
Nintendo Badge Arcade (3DS)
Nintendo Presents New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward (3DS)
Pokémon Shuffle (iOS)
Super Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (3DS)
Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U)

Sony
Beyond: Two Souls (PS4)
Fat Princess: Piece of Cake (Vita)
Hardware: Rivals (PS4)
Hustle Kings (PS4)
Helldivers (PS3)
Helldivers (Vita)
Journey: Collector's Edition (PS4)
MLB 15: The Show (PS3)
MLB 15: The Show (Vita)
Run Sackboy! Run! (Vita)

Microsoft
Happy Wars (One)
Halo: Spartan Assault (iOS)
Screamride (360)
Squid Hero for Kinect (One)
State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition (PC)

 

[@MUWANdo]

edit: on second thoughts, I don't care.

 

[mclem]

Did you really just use 'all time' in the same sentence as 'for the past 10 years'?

 

[MrBadger]

Did you really just use 'all time' in the same sentence as 'for the past 10 years'?

It sounds more dramatic like that.

 

[gdt]

69 and 72 aren't thaaaaat different.



They've just had some duds recently....it's allowed.

 

[privitsan02]

A bit of both. Reviewers are becoming harsher as the days pass by so mediocrity, bs excuses, poor game design, false advertisement, padding and etc, doesn't get a pass like it used to back in the days. Nintendo's output this year, bar a few has been very poor as well. You can blame that on the transitional phase to NX, but given the general output of Nintendo games on Wii U this generation, its been pretty slow.

Expect an increase next year though, given the likelihood of better game releases. It's been pretty obvious the B-teams were getting their launches out of the way this year.

Best wishes.

 

[DownGrader]

But there are only two titles left for 2015, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros too.

 

[blast processed]

69 and 72 aren't thaaaaat different.

There is a difference and you should know that.

 

[cireza]

Personally I find that the quality has been down since the 3DS launch, even on their major franchises.

 

[Atwa]

I really think this is one of those pointless statistics.

As the average doesn't really matter, getting a bunch of 75's would then be better than a few 90's and a few duds.

 

[Vital Tundra]

Hardly a difference between 70 and 73 or whatever. Doesn't really mean much as it's just an average. I'm sure many other companies have similar outcomes.

 

[TI82]

It sounds more dramatic like that.

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros too.

True, but not until 2016 in America unfortunately. Definitely looking forward to it though!

 

[Zalman]

This reminds me of those pointless Polygon pie charts.

 

[OfficerRaichu15]

There is a difference and you should know that.

Anyway I think its mostly due to the fact that most of the games are filler.
2016 should be better.

 

[Crayolan]

Super Mystery Dungeon is already out, but for some reason there are no reviews, or at least none on Metacritic. Though if there were reviews for it, I'm sure it'd be pretty low on average as the press seems to hate the PMD series.

 

[TheMoon]

And it's officially Sunday.

 

[Empty]

crushing blow for whoever buys all 27 nintendo published games this year

 

[RichiRamjag]

A bit of both. Reviewers are becoming harsher as the days pass by so mediocrity, bs excuses, poor game design, false advertisement, padding and etc, doesn't get a pass like it used to back in the days. Nintendo's output this year, bar a few has been very poor as well. You can blame that on the transitional phase to NX, but given the general output of Nintendo games on Wii U this generation, its been pretty slow.

Expect an increase next year though, given the likelihood of better game releases. It's been pretty obvious the B-teams were getting their launches out of the way this year.

Best wishes.

As the rude gentleman from Nintendo told me last night. "Nintendo just likes to do things different".

 

[jacobeid]

Did you really just use 'all time' in the same sentence as 'for the past 10 years'?

Made me o.0 too.

 

[gogogow]

Why do you only do this for Nintendo games and not MS and Sony too? Thought that would be way more logical, since all them three gets compared all the time you know, from software to hardware...

 

[Ansatz]

Who has the best first party lineup this year?

 

[TI82]

Why do you only do this for Nintendo games and not MS and Sony too? Thought that would be way more logical, since all them three gets compared all the time you know, from software to hardware...

Took like 2 hours to do just Nintendo and I feel Sony/Microsoft put out more games so it would take longer. Maybe I'll do them later but not right now.

 

[TheMoon]

Who has the best first party lineup this year?

The guys who put out Splatoon

Other pubs wish their line-ups were as strong as Nintendo's worst year lol.

Why do you only do this for Nintendo games and not MS and Sony too? Thought that would be way more logical, since all them three gets compared all the time you know, from software to hardware...

Spoiler

Because TI82.

 

[GrotesqueBeauty]

crushing blow for whoever buys all 27 nintendo published games this year

I bought the lowest rated ones multiple times, so it's even worse!

 

[Visualante2]

Pretty interesting data.

A bit of both. Reviewers are becoming harsher as the days pass by so mediocrity, bs excuses, poor game design, false advertisement, padding and etc, doesn't get a pass like it used to back in the days.

Are they? Plenty of straight up broken games are getting waved by as far as I can tell. We say this every generation regarding Nintendo, oh they're going to have a great launch. Then they announce the launch window and it turns out to be vapourware.

I really think this is one of those pointless statistics.

As the average doesn't really matter, getting a bunch of 75's would then be better than a few 90's and a few duds.

It does matter, when sales are down Nintendo leans on critical reception to project success.

 

[JoeM86]

Took like 2 hours to do just Nintendo and I feel Sony/Microsoft put out more games so it would take longer. Maybe I'll do them later but not right now.

I believe that Nintendo put out more games annually than Sony and Microsoft do, though. At worst, the number would be within a similar value range.

 

[TI82]

The guys who put out Splatoon

Other pubs wish their line-ups were as strong as Nintendo's worst year lol.

Splatoon is a fun game, but it can't carry an otherwise lackluster year.

I believe that Nintendo put out more games annually than Sony and Microsoft do, though...

Metacritic has 496 games listed for Nintendo, 511 for SCEA, and 345 listed for Microsoft. So it'd take about as long for each of them

 

[cyba89]

Averaging scores from multiple reviews is already questionable but taking the average of multiple vastly different titles... What's the point?
Do I buy all Nintendo titles available? Is my fun level of these titles based on the average fun I have with every title?

 

[TheMoon]

Splatoon is a fun game, but it can't carry an otherwise lackluster year.

It doesn't need to since that's what the other games are for. Splatoon is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Amused]

The most interesting part is 2010. 34 games, and an average score of 86.5?

That's... crazy.

 

[JoeM86]

Splatoon is a fun game, but it can't carry an otherwise lackluster year.

What about Mario Maker? Or Yoshi? Or Kirby? Or Majora's Mask 3D?

 

[Sandfox]

Pretty interesting data.

Are they? Plenty of straight up broken games are getting waved by as far as I can tell. We say this every generation regarding Nintendo, oh they're going to have a great launch. Then they announce the launch window and it turns out to be vapourware.

It does matter, when sales are down Nintendo leans on critical reception to project success.

It really feels like people just like to throw around the term vaporware now.

 

[Daedardus]

The most important part are the games that stand out, not the worthless filler nobody buys anyway. In that regard it's been a pretty decent year.

 

[TI82]

The most interesting part is 2010. 34 games, and an average score of 86.5?

That's... crazy.

Sin and Punishment 2, Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Epic Yarn, Dragon Quest IX, HeartGold SoulSilver

some real good games

What about Mario Maker? Or Yoshi? Or Kirby? Or Majora's Mask 3D?

Level maker less robust than Little Big Planet, Yoshi looks fun but not at full price, sequel to a DS game I hated and didn't review well, and remake of n64 game

I mean sure they are games but not games with much mass appeal other than Mario and even thats ehh

 

[DXB-KNIGHT]

So Nintendo is sexy this year.

 

[redcrayon]

Considering they didn't really end up with any big hitters coming out this year, and that Splatoon is both doing better than expected and also a better game than it was when reviewed at launch (like a lot of online titles), I'm really not surprised.

The ratio of their major efforts compared to smaller titles became pretty small this year after Starfox and Zelda were delayed, even their major first-party 3DS output was a port and a remake.

3DS being close to end-of-life and WiiU titles getting delayed are just as much to blame as the pile of filler games.

Mario Maker ended up having a lot more attention to detail than I thought it would though.

 

[User 479360]

Nintendo isn't putting enough effort into certain titles, and they feel phoned in. It's substance over quality.

 

[Plinko]

Averaging scores from multiple reviews is already questionable but taking the average of multiple vastly different titles... What's the point?
Do I buy all Nintendo titles available? Is my fun level of these titles based on the average fun I have with every title?

Plus, for this to be relevant, you'd need other things:

1. Aggregate scores for Sony/Microsoft
2. In-depth analysis of media positivity/negativity toward each company over those ten years as well. Company relationships with media outlets play a huge role in affecting review scores, and let's not forget that Nintendo's relationship with media has been rocky at best over the past five years. Some people in the industry are still mad that Nintendo stopped doing stage presentations at E3 (which I find a bizarre sentiment) and started doing Nintendo Directs throughout the year instead of going through media outlets.

Not defending these scores--the recent Nintendo output (AC:HHD, AC: AF, and Mario Tennis Ultra Smash) has been abysmal. It's just that the numbers on their own in the OP are nearly meaningless.

 

[Dr. Buni]

90 theoretical for Xenoblade

I really don't see Xenoblade X having a 90 metacritic rating.

 

[sinxtanx]

The most interesting part is 2010. 34 games, and an average score of 86.5?

That's... crazy.

AND it's the year in which Other M released

averages across entire game libraries mean almost nothing

 

[TI82]

I really don't see Xenoblade X having a 90 metacritic rating.

Neither do I, upper 70s most likely

 

[Ansatz]

The guys who put out Splatoon

Other pubs wish their line-ups were as strong as Nintendo's worst year lol.

I fully back both statements.

 

[TheMoon]

Sin and Punishment 2, Galaxy 2, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Epic Yarn, Dragon Quest IX, HeartGold SoulSilver

some real good games



Level maker less robust than Little Big Planet, Yoshi looks fun but not at full price, sequel to a DS game I hated and didn't review well, and remake of n64 game

I mean sure they are games but not games with much mass appeal other than Mario and even thats ehh

And none of this matters in regards to this topic

 

[jeffers]

Taking a mean isn't that telling, as people hand pointed out. It means having more middling titles is better and more stable than a couple hits and a couple flops. Should maybe band them into 70-80 81-90 etc.

 

[DownGrader]

Pretty interesting data.

Are they? Plenty of straight up broken games are getting waved by as far as I can tell. We say this every generation regarding Nintendo, oh they're going to have a great launch. Then they announce the launch window and it turns out to be vapourware.

What do you think "vaporware" means?

 

[Illucio]

Interesting.

Zelda U, Twilight Princess HD, Pokken Tournament, #FE, and StarFox U will probably help a lot next year.

But what else other then those 5 are coming out next year? I doubt we will see Animal Crossing U, a 3D Mario game, and or any good new IP's like Splatoon was.

But who knows? Nintendo has been very secretive and not wanting to be show off games early. I still think they're holding games back for NX.

 

[Lionel Richie]

Dat 2010 though.

 

[JoeM86]

Level maker less robust than Little Big Planet, Yoshi looks fun but not at full price, sequel to a DS game I hated and didn't review well, and remake of n64 game

I mean sure they are games but not games with much mass appeal other than Mario and even thats ehh

Really? Just because you can't make other stuff in it means it's less robust? Ever hear of the saying "less is more"? It's a Mario Maker, not an anything maker.

Yoshi reviewed pretty well, too. Unfortunately, 2D platformers seldom review well in this day and age, but the majority of people who have played it would agree that it's a fantastic game.

Reviews aren't always the best indicator, and metacritic isn't the best.

 

[Nightbird]

The most interesting part is 2010. 34 games, and an average score of 86.5?

That's... crazy.

Yeah, that made me say wow loud

 

[TI82]

Interesting.

Zelda U, Twilight Princess HD, Pokken Tournament, #FE, and StarFox U will probably help a lot next year.

But what else other then those 5 are coming out next year? I doubt we will see Animal Crossing U, a 3D Mario game, and or any good new IP's like Splatoon was.

But who knows? Nintendo has been very secretive and not wanting to be show off games early. I still think they're holding games back for NX.

The usual Just Dance, Skylanders, Infinity, etc. But other than those slim pickings and some obvious VC releases it doesn't seem like Wii U will see much next year. Probably a game a month at best.