develop 100
Latest
iOS devs appear in new Develop 100 listing
The Develop 100 is a list put together every year of the top video game developers in the world, and this year there's a surprising trend showing up: a lot of iPhone and iOS developers are starting to make the grade. Touch Arcade spotted around 50 iPhone and iPad developers in the list, which is more than I've ever seen in a list usually populated with the likes of Bioware, Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment. Sure enough, Nintendo is number one this year, but World of Goo creator 2D Boy is in the second spot, with Cut the Rope developer Zepto Lab in third. A little further down, there's Chaos Rings developers Media Vision, along with 1337 Game Design (Dark Nebula), Rockstar Leeds (GTA: Chinatown Wars for iOS) and The Coding Monkeys (Carcassone). That's pretty amazing -- these little iOS developers are beating out much larger devs, like Halo's Bungie and Call of Duty's Treyarch, for the top spots on a pretty prestigious list. One reason for the changes is probably that the list is now weighted more towards the ratings on Metacritic, where iOS games tend to do very well compared to other video game titles (for a number of reasons, from a lower price to a completely different type of media and market). Still, it's interesting to see upstart iOS developers we know and love stacked up in such a favorable way against much larger and more experienced traditional game developers.
Nintendo once again tops the Develop 100
Develop magazine has published its latest Develop 100, a list of 100 video game developers ranked by the amount of money they made at UK retail. There's a digital version of the whole book online, but the list is available in quick-browse form over on the website, and there are plenty of big industry names. Nintendo has topped the list -- it did the same thing a few years ago before Blizzard stole the No. 1 spot last time around (down to No. 80 this year). Infinity Ward, a development house whose best days may be behind it, sits at No. 2. The biggest surprise in the top 10 may be Yuke's at No. 9, the company behind a long history of wrestling titles and creators of the popular UFC Undisputed line. It's been around this list before, though, having reached as high as No. 8 a few years ago. Midway Newcastle is on the list at No. 90, despite having shut down last year. The US claims both the most studios on the list (40 percent) as well as the most profit earned (£484.78 million). And, in general, profits are up from previous years -- Nintendo itself is making about £70 million more than it did the last time it was in first place. Remember, these are all UK totals, but Develop has worked hard to make a fairly representative list of worldwide developers.
Blizzard bumps Nintendo off #1 spot on Develop's top 100 studios list
Develop Magazine releases a list every year of the 100 most bankable game studios in the world, known as the Develop 100. The list for 2009 has just gone out, and guess who has moved up in the world? Going from #47 last year all the way to the top this year is Blizzard Entertainment -- you know, those chaps that are responsible for World of Warcraft, among other things. Fellow money-printing outfit Nintendo was relegated to second place due to this mighty ascension. Our sister-site WoW Insider did a bit of digging to find out why Blizzard jumped so much in a single year. It seems to be due to a few things combined; Blizzard's Activision merger, the release of Wrath of the Lich King, and a change in the way Develop is calculating their figures, particularly in relation to MMOs. Here's a summary of the judging standards found on the Develop 100 page:Develop 100 ranks the world's most bankable games development studios based on a variety of key criteria including sales data, critical success and industry standing.Things get a bit wonky when it comes to sales data and MMOs, due to significant revenue coming from subscriptions and online purchases instead of retail sales. WotLK's release and resulting retail sales undoubtedly had a great deal to do with Blizzard's new number one standing, and we wonder how old Blizz' would have fared on the Develop 100 without a new box to put on store shelves. Regardless, they're the champions for 2009. For those interested, the top 5 in order are: Blizzard Entertainment, Nintendo, Rockstar North, EA Canada, and Capcom.
Blizzard tops list of 2008's 'most successful' game devs
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.
Nintendo tops 2007's Develop 100 list
And what such a prestigious achievement amounts to is, well, an awfully large amount of money. You see, the Develop 100 aims to rank "the world's most successful game studios" based on the revenues earned by their products at UK retail. Leaping to the top of the list for 2007 is Nintendo, its titles earning £129.83 million ($256 million) and boasting a significant lead over the £68.78 million ($136 million) belonging to number 2 producer, EA Canada.Other notable studios in the top ten include Ubisoft Montreal with £52.17 million, Konami with £41.67 million and Maxis, which raked in £36.84 million. You'll also spot Infinity Ward with £39.6 million and Bungie with £31.45 million, both of which coasted in on a single game.[Final "million" word count: 9. 10 if you count that "million." Oh, great, now it's 11.]
