Game Developer Research lists 'Top 50 Developers' of 2009

by Griffin McElroy on Jun 17th 2009 1:15PM

Game Developer magazine (and its brainy Game Developer Research division) recently published its second annual enumerated accolades for the fine folks who make the games that you crudely jam into your home entertainment consoles -- or, in layman's terms, the "Top 50 Developers 2009" report. The rankings are based on how many games a studio created, the sales for those games, and their metacritic ratings. Quality of box art and amount of 'tude possessed by the games' protagonists, however, were not taken into consideration.

The results are utterly shocking -- for the second year in a row, Nintendo took top honors, with fellow money-printing organization Blizzard taking second place. Ubisoft Montreal skyrocketed from 12th place in the '08 report to third place in the most recent rankings. Regardless of your fanboyism for a certain developer, we think we can all agree -- in such a financially (and employmentmentally) challenging time, we're just glad to hear there's at least 50 game developers that haven't been forced to shut down.

The full list is posted after the jump.

[Thanks, Braz!]
1. Nintendo
2. Blizzard Entertainment
3. Ubisoft Montreal
4. Rockstar North
5. EA Canada
6. Konami
7. Valve Software
8. Epic Games
9. EA Tiburon
10. Treyarch
11. Hal Laboratory
12. Capcom
13. Traveller's Tales
14. Bethesda Game Studios
15. Insomniac Games
16. Namco Bandai Games
17. Ea Redwood Shores
18. Koei
19. Kojima Productions
20. Harmonix Music Systems
21. Media Molecule
22. Lionhead Studios
23. Vicarious Visions
24. Maxis
26. Neversoft Entertainment
26. Game Freak
27. Square Enix
28. Digital Illusions CE (Dice)
29. Success
30. Ready At Dawn
31. Atlus
32. Criterion Games
33. TOSE
34. Mythic Entertainment
35. Firaxis Games
36. Volition
37. Sega
38. SCE Japan Studio
39. Ironclad Games
40. Marvelous Interactive
41. Yuke's Future Media Creators
42. SCE London Studio
43. Visual Concepts
44. Intelligent Systems
45. Omega Force
46. Monolith Productions
47. Funcom
48. SCE Studios San Diego
49. Rare
50. Treasure

Source

Tags: blizzard, developer, game-developer-magazine, game-developer-research, list, ranking, top-50, ubisoft-montreal

Reader Comments (65)

Interesting. Treasure at spot 50

I love treasure, but have they ever had a financially successful game past WarioWorld? Or is my head up my butt?

We all know it isn't going to be Sin & Punishment 2, that's for sure.

Iz it shmup tiem now pleez?

When are we gonna see Ready At Dawn's new project?

I figured Guerilla would be there. Or are the one of the SCE devs.

AAA list though

I also might not know what the hell I'm talking about......

guerilla is under SCEE, but not the SCE studios listed.

What the hell, Naughty Dog was 27th last year, and this year they aren't even mentioned?....

It's only because they don't spew out games every 3 months like most of the other developers on this list. Nevermind the fact the Uncharted is an amazing game. There's a lot of mistakes on this list.

uh,

"This is a detailed supplement to this month's Top 50 Developers countdown in Game Developer magazine, which saw over 600 industry professionals from Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com surveyed regarding their opinions on more than 150 developers, as well as allowing them to rate any relevant experiences with working with the companies in question"

As you can see, games release do influence the results, but they are not solemnly based on them, hence why I find it shocking for Naughty Dog to not even be mentioned.

"This data was used along with sales chart data for the calendar year 2008, number of SKUs from January through December 2008, and average review scores from Metacritic (with the exception of those titles not covered by Metacritic), to determine company rankings. "

The data must be weighted heavily toward recent activity. I mean, if the number of SKUs and sales, as well as Metacritic rating for those SKUs, are part of the calculation it would be tough to make the list if you released 0 SKUs during that year. IMO, Naughty Dog is better than most on that list, but they are certainly not very prolific so it's easy to understand why they wouldn't be there this time.

lets just assume the list is compiled based on the games released for the past 12 months or so (since it's an annual list). If you dont release anything new, then you're not on the list. That doesn't mean Naughty Dog is not good though, coz uncharted was awesome! :D

so is it ironic that the Uncharted developer is uncharted?

So why is Konami at 6 while Kojima is 37th? Pretty sure those should at least be switched. And Sega's only 37th because Sonic Unleashed was bad. If they didn't release it, they would've been higher with just Valkyria Chronicles.

Castlevania and Winning Eleven?...

maybe because kojima prod. didnt release games as frequently as konami itself? just my opinion though.

33. TOSE wiki their resume and explain to me how they're even on this list much less beating anyone behind them?

Yeah. I seriously doubt the game sold THAT well.

Starfy motherfuckers, get familiar

TOSE does like everything for everybody, if I'm not mistaken. They're basically coders, but they've done a lot of games.

It probably sucks ass to work there, though, seeing as they apparently have such a merc like mentality when it comes to business.

Yeah, TOSE are basically the unsung heroes of the gaming world. Only recently have they started to get credit for their work.

KOEI 4 LIFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I approve of Atlus, but where is my Team ICO?

They haven't had a game published since 2005 (this covers 2008). Also, I'm guessing they'd be covered under SCE Japan Studio and not get their own spot.

Has Team Ico had a successful game? ICO did awful, and Shadow of The Collosus was a sleeper hit at best. Hopefully, Sony can Market The Last Guardian well.

5th Cell?

Why would they be on this list?

You can be a top 10 developer for ruining COD?

Who knew.

treyarch before bethesda, insomniac, and kojima? i guess that's where sales come in, right? don't get me wrong, i love me some nazi zombies with friends, but damn that's a high position.

especially for changing almost NOTHING

guns, time period, settings, characters, stories, gun effects (explosions, shotguns and MGs rip apart body parts), nazi zombies, a new multiplayer mode...

seems like a good number of changes to me. just because they used the same engine doesn't mean "they barely changed anything". yeah, the WWII era is tired, yeah COD4 is better, but no, world at war is not a mediocre game.

didnt say it was mediocre. said they didnt change almost anything.
Guns: same classes, same attachments, same type of leveling, same
Story was nothing ground breaking and CoD4 had better story telling
characters were no better than CoD4(which werent awesome either. good but nothing too special)
the gun effects in CoD1 were as good as the ones in W@W
the gore was an improvement as was the zombies
game modes were a nice change

Co-op too.

how the hell did koei beat konami.

giant robots

When I saw this article I was all like

http://media.ign.com/games/image/article/738/738102/gaijin4koma_peersblog_1200684654.jpg

then I read the list and was all like

http://media.ign.com/games/image/article/738/738102/gaijin4koma2_peersblog_1200684608.jpg

Sempre visito o blog daqui do Brasil, sempre que possível levo as notícias até o povo "Brazuka" e seria uma honra ter um dia a visita em meu blog de jogos de algum dos escritores deste brilhante blog, muito sucesso!

______________________________________________

http://www.tecnojogos.com.br

começ da OU dos inglês do fale o um foda para para o também do A., blogue do seu do sobre dos cuidados do ninguém

I told you I don't speak Spanish! English please.

fail. lol

But that's portuguese, not spanish.

Ah Portuguese, the old South American language of love...

top 50 devs of 2009 are not about games that are from 2009. they are games from sometime in 2008 through sometime in 2009. its the reason IW was number 2 in 08. its the reason treyarch is 10 in 09.

So, after reading your guys' comments, seeing that this list is somehow more about 2008 than 2009, and that we're only halfway through 2009, and the company in the second spot hasn't released anything this year (so far), this list pretty much means nothing, right?

If you go to the link you'll see that they used sales and review data for games released in calendar year 2008. Wrath of the Lich King was released in 2008.

That's exactly my point.

Treyarch is garbage.
They came out with two games, one proving they can't make games for crap. Quantum of Solace was a disgrace. On the other hand they come out with WAW, a relatively good game, with the guidance and assistance of IW, in order to keep their originally created franchise name in good standing due to previous mishaps by Treyarch, the garbage producing company. If one company doesn't deserve any recognition for their gaming development its Treyarch. They aren't worth jack, never made a good game on their own. QoS is proof that today they still cannot.

lol they had 3 games. spider man web of shadows was last year to

I completely agree.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 221 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 161 comments
Blizzard taking Valve to court over 'DOTA' trademark 116 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments

Game Developer Research lists 'Top 50 Developers' of 2009

Reader Comments (65)

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:19PM Rentaro said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 3:44PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 8:18AM ArthurSA said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:19PM Joeybeast said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:25PM Giggman said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:26PM Giggman said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:53PM Sly C said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:29PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:32PM StormEagle said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:46PM Vidikron said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:46PM rockies123 said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 7:11AM xxxsam said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:33PM KingBroly said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:48PM rockies123 said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:35PM StormEagle said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:39PM StormEagle said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 3:38PM samfish said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 3:48PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 7:50PM Greg0fTheDead said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:39PM Professor Lario said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:45PM cuteSAVAGE said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:50PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:48PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 3:50PM einhanderkiller said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:51PM snarfoogle said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:51PM Sly C said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:09PM JXCGunrunna said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:31PM Sly C said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:54PM JXCGunrunna said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:57PM Vidikron said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:51PM Typicalgamer said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 1:58PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:08PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:08PM Petebot330 said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:49PM rockies123 said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 3:49PM Mr Khan said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 4:13PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:01PM JXCGunrunna said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:10PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:57PM Vidikron said

Posted: Jun 18th 2009 2:13PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:20PM kornkid8600 said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 2:55PM JXCGunrunna said

Posted: Jun 17th 2009 3:10PM (Unverified) said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Barricading 'Dead Souls' within Yakuza's red-light district

WRUP: All the Reckoning

Xbox Live Indie Gems: Nyan Cat Adventure

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days