Second Runner Up: Nintendo
Nintendo has had its issues with home consoles in recent years, but the gaming giant still knows how to put out some stellar experiences. A major focus of 2016 for this publisher was Pokemon, seeing as how it was the 20 year anniversary for the highly popular RPG. Free monsters for everyone, a re-release of the original trio of games, Pokemon GO (which Nintendo didn’t publish but certainly benefited from), and what may be the best entries to the core series we’ve seen in over a decade.
To be honest, Pokemon alone is reason enough for many to sing high praise for Nintendo, but the company did a bit more than that to really make its presence felt during the year. Mobile gaming is a giant market, it’s no secret. With Nintendo having arguably the best lineup out of any publisher around, one that is full of classics that have stood the test of time, them hitting the mobile scene was a no-brainer. Finally, after years of keeping all of their properties close to their chest, Nintendo is publishing games on mobile, and so far interest has been very high.
Super Mario Run was downloaded over 40 million times in just a few short days proving that Mario can sell anywhere. Pokemon GO set records and earned Niantic $200 million within a short period of time after the game’s release. If this pattern keeps up, Nintendo’s next two mobile projects, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing, will make serious waves while also making tons of money. Nintendo is really branching out and that’s a good thing as it has helped the company to reach a much wider audience.
When you take into account the other releases from the publisher this year such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess remaster, Super Mario Maker 3DS, and Star Fox Zero, Nintendo had a really strong publishing year in 2016. Let’s just hope it carries over to 2017 with the release of the Switch.
