Metacritic names 505 Games as the publisher of the year, beating out monolithic publishers like Activision Blizzard and Nintendo. The Italian publisher has grown into a force to be reckoned with in the AA space over the years, and this top Metacritic ranking shows that 505 Games is nigh unstoppable.
Established in 2006, 505 Games quickly made a name for itself publishing Nintendo's handheld hit Cooking Mama series in the PAL region, as well as a bevy of shovelware Nintendo DS and Wii titles. It's since found its niche producing a wide variety of middle-shelf games, like Sniper Elite and Rocket League, to bridge the gap in quality and quantity between small, spirited indie games and the massive but often soulless AAA market. Working with a broad spectrum of developers and genres is 505 Games' greatest strength. It allows them to take losses on the occasional disaster (remember Overkill's The Walking Dead?) without compromising on their ability to help games with modest but dedicated audiences see the light of day, such as console-bound racing sim Assetto Corsa.
That business model has garnered the publisher with a remarkably positive reputation at numerous critical outlets, which has not been lost on review aggregator Metacritic. In its tenth annual game publisher rankings, Metacritic placed 505 Games at the very top of the carefully curated list, even above Activision Blizzard and Nintendo in second and third place. Despite acknowledging that 2019 marked a "few misfires" from the publisher, 505's "steady stream" of warmly received titles put it a cut above the rest in Metacritic's eyes; the review aggregator specifically cited the acclaim of Remedy Entertainment's Control and the Kickstarter-funded Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
Also mentioned in Metacritic's glowing endorsement of 505 Games is its role in publishing Death Stranding's upcoming June PC release, an opportunity that's sure to be as lucrative and exciting for the publisher as it may prove for the rest of the industry. Having long positioned itself as a capable manager of projects that vary wildly in size and audience, 505 Games' hand in potentially breaking up the console-exclusive market further makes the case that there's ample room for competition among publishers up and down the aisle.
Alongside the likes of fellow AA publishers Focus Home Interactive and Annapurna Interactive (both of which also made Metacritic's list), mid-size publishers continue to provide a third option for developers and players alike. As design-by-committee-flops from AAA publishers expand in number and indie studios advance in size and capability, 505 Games' middle option looks more and more viable with each passing year.
Source: Metacritic