Game Developer magazine’s highly anticipated annual Top 20 Publishers report has debuted for 2009, revealing that publisher Nintendo has maintained its top position on the chart for the third year running. The countdown, which builds on six years of ongoing research, includes a wide-ranging reputation survey distributed to industry professionals, alongside revenue data, release counts, average review scores, and anonymous feedback from development partners.The report, which is available in overview form in the October 2009 issue of Game Developer magazine, is also accompanied by a major Top 20 Publishers 2009 report from Think Services’ Game Developer Research Division. This detailed supplement lists the numerical reputation scores, written comments, and partner feedback for the publishers in the final listing, alongside game release and review score specifics by platform, and is now available for purchase at www.gamedevresearch.com.
Kyoto-headquartered publisher, Nintendo, held chart-topping scores in revenue and partner feedback, as well as strong reputation scores, allowing the company to once again stand at the top of the countdown. Electronic Arts garnered the impressive second slot again this year, followed by Activision Blizzard, which held the 3rd place spot, Ubisoft, remaining strong in 4th, and Take Two, which had risen from the 6th to 5th place, switching spots with Sony Computer Entertainment.
Joining the line-up for the first time are Bethesda Softworks, Viacom’s MTV, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. Bethesda Softworks and parent company ZeniMax (#7 on the list) have been busy with the internally-developed Fallout 3 and its new acquisition, noted developer id Software. MTV debuted for the first time on this list at #14, thanks to the success of subsidiary developer Harmonix’s numerous Rock Band releases, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment takes #16.
The 2009 rankings were calculated by considering the number of releases by SKU, average review scores, and estimated publisher revenue from August 2008 to July 2009. It included the results of a survey conducted to gather opinions on the major video game software publishers. Nearly 900 industry professionals from all parts of the game production process were asked to give their opinions – including comments – on the reputations of each publisher in the survey, a dramatic increase in sample size over the previous year. In addition, scores and commentary were gathered from respondents who had direct experience with the publishers in the recent past, either as workers or partners, including milestone, marketing and pay feedback.
The full Top 20 Publishers 2009 countdown is available in the October 2009 edition of Game Developer magazine. For more information about this issue, and to access it in digital format, visit www.gdmag.com. A full Top 20 Publishers 2009 report featuring all statistics, ratings and complete survey feedback is available at www.gamedevresearch.com.