Activision are often thought of as one of the, if not the leading publisher in the video game industry. With big name franchises such as Call of Duty, James Bond and Transfomers in their vast library of games, you’d think that only the best games get put out into the market by Activision.
You would be very wrong.
They may get the biggest sales when it comes to their golden-egg franchise, Call of Duty, but almost every other game the publisher touches gets mediocre/poor ratings.
Take a look at the list below, all of which are games published by Activision, and take note of the scores.
Quantum of Solace PS3 65 Xbox 360 65
Blur PS3 81 Xbox 360 82
Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts PS3 60 Xbox 360 55
Goldeneye 007: Reloaded PS3 72 Xbox 360 72
007 Bloodstone PS3 65 Xbox 360 62
Singularity PS3 77 Xbox 360 76
Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions PS3 75 Xbox 360 76
Transformers: War for Cybertron PS3 77 Xbox 360 76
Nascar The Game 2011 PS3 62 Xbox 360 62
Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure PS3 77 Xbox 360 78
The Amazing Spider-Man PS3 71 Xbox 360 68
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron PS3 77 Xbox 360 79
Skylanders Giants PS3 78 Xbox 360 81
Call of Duty: Black Ops II PS3 83 Xbox 360 83
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 PS3 88 Xbox 360 88
007 Legends PS3 41 Xbox 360 45
All scores are taken directly from Metacritic, any recent titles, or titles that are not on this list did not receive a Metacritic score, or are yet to receive a Metacritic score.
PS3 Average – 71.85
Xbox 360 Average – 71.75
It’s a bit of surprise to see that a “top” publisher is actually struggling to get an above average score, even with the huge library of franchises to work with.
Maybe it’s about time Activision started to wean themselves off Call of Duty, with the series game sales in decline and the military first-person-shooter genre in general becoming stale, Activision need to start taking their other games seriously. Eventually they will run the Call of Duty franchise into the ground, just as they managed to ruin Guitar Hero and Tony Hawks, and to some extent, Spyro.
There was once a time when as a child, I would get a new game and if the Activision logo animation was there, I knew I was in for a good time. These days when I see that logo, I start to get buyers remorse.
Hopefully Activision will change their ways and start putting out more top quality games, but as much of an optimist as I am, I can’t see it happening anytime soon.
What do you think? Should Activision put more money towards other games? Let us know what you think in the comments below.