Nintendo – Best Publisher 2013
You could make the argument that a struggling home console doesn’t make the year’s best publisher, but in light of the never-ending streak of 3DS software, we’ve given Big N the nod. With six straight months of hardware chart domination by a portable gaming device, Nintendo’s heavy-hitters never really let up. Fire Emblem, Luigi’s Mansion, Donkey Kong, Animal Crossing, Mario & Luigi, Pokémon, and even Zelda titles all landed in 2013, but in this case Nintendo also takes the title thanks to smart third-party relationships.
Would Nintendo 3DS have put up the same numbers without Shin Megami Tensei IV and others from Atlus? What about Namco Bandai games and the never-gonna-make-it-to-America-but-it-did Project X Zone? Nintendo leveraged their handheld platform in almost every genre of gaming and proved that third-parties can still succeed on its platforms. Hopefully some of that magic will find its way to Wii U in 2014.
An honorable shout-out goes to Sony who missed this award, but still impressed us with its attention to core gaming with the PS4—a demographic that carries the medium on its back.
Runners Up:
- Sony
- Ubisoft
- Deep Silver
- Square Enix
