Blizzard tops list of 2008's 'most successful' game devs

by Jason Dobson { May 11th 2009 at 8:30AM }

The game industry's annual popularity contest has begun making the rounds, and among game developers in 2008 there was none more in vogue than Activision stepchild Blizzard. According to Develop 100, a list of "the world's most successful games developers," the dev WoW-ed its peers from atop a mountain of money with more than a billion dollars in revenue each year from retail and online sales.

Other notables on the list include 2007's top company, Nintendo, which was forced to settle for second, followed by GTA's Rockstar North in third. LEGO everything manufacturer Traveller's Tales ranked 12th on the list, while LittleBigPlanet's Media Molecule came in at a respectable 18th, the highest among indie UK studios. The complete list can be found on the official Develop 100 website. Check it out, and let us know if your personal favorites made the cut.

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, activisionblizzard, blizzard, blizzard-entertainment, develop-100, littlebigplanet, media-molecule, nintendo, rockstar-north, travellers-tales, world-of-warcraft, worldofwarcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jeff @ May 11th 2009 8:44AM

Ya think?

Samo @ May 11th 2009 8:47AM

In other breaking news: there are 7 days in the week.

ScottG13 @ May 11th 2009 8:56AM

They released SO many high quality games last year...

I mean. That expansion pack. Woopideedoo.

Gerik @ May 11th 2009 9:05AM

An expansion pack that contains more content and polish than the vast majority of other full retail games.

It's not quantity, it's quality.

Brazen @ May 11th 2009 9:07AM

Well as expansion packs go, that one was rather fantastic. Hell, I would have paid the asking price just to fly around the zones exploring, they're that good.

MrSpaceCowboy @ May 11th 2009 9:13AM

Yay Popcap!

Plants vs Zombies = Awesome.

JXCgunrunna @ May 11th 2009 9:21AM

IW was 8th and they released a few maps, and a few patches... Treyarch was 7th with 3 full game releases. Valve, Epic, Sora and Kojima released games that sold millions a piece and were all behind IW. seems kinda weird.

Ed @ May 11th 2009 10:04AM

In regards to Valve, I wonder if steam sales data was available and taken into consideration by 'Develop 100' when they calculated this list. Since Valve self-publish and deal directly with their customers through steam, I'm inclined to doubt (and too lazy to find out).