That makes two thrones monolithic publisher EA has been ejected from this year, the first one now crushed beneath the enormous buttocks of Activision, new ruler of third-party publishers (and source of disturbing visual imagery). Nintendo has taken the top spot in this year's Top 20 Publishers report, as compiled by Game Developer magazine according to number of releases by SKU, average games review score, revenue and reputation. The Japanese giant pushes EA to the second position, away from the comfy spot it had occupied for the last four years.Rival Activision places third, followed by French publisher Ubisoft and in fifth place, THQ. Gamasutra notes that Atlus USA makes its debut at number 18, contributing to poor Atari's fall to number higher-than-twenty. That's rough -- even in the rare event of the company's numbers going up, it's bad news.
