Blizzard takes third in comprehensive best developer of 2007 list
What do you get when you take Game Developer magazine, Game Developer Research division, Gamasutra and combine their various developer information gathering efforts? Well, you get an all-encompassing list of the top 50 best developers of 2007 that takes not only weekly sales and ratings into account, but an anonymous survey on developer reputation fielded by Gamasutra itself. The survey asked community members to score game developers on overall reputation and direct interaction working for or with said developer, where they had actually done such.
The list puts Blizzard at third for Burning Crusade, just under Infinity Ward at second for Call of Duty 4 and Nintendo Kyoto (Brain Age, Wii Play) at first. It's an interesting method of rating developers, since they have to of had a game released the previous year to be eligible -- yet rankings also depend on developer reputation, which is a longterm concept. We weren't surprised to see Blizzard sitting pretty high on the list, beating out a lot of other developers responsible for some pretty great titles last year. (sorry, Valve)
There is a nagging question in the back of our minds, however: Which carries more weight in determining placement on the list -- sales or reputation?
