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Top 50 Developers 2009

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Overview Table of Contents Availability

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Overview

Game Developer Research is pleased to announce the debut of its thirteenth report, 'Top 50 Developers 2009', an exhaustive survey of the game industry's major developers worldwide. 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. 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.

This expanded report features an in-depth analysis of the developers in question. As well as providing specifics regarding the peer response sections (the “Reputational Survey” and the“Detailed Survey”), company sales chart performance and details regarding developer releases and average review scores according to Metacritic, it also offers detailed comparisons between the top 50 developers in many of the detailed sub-categories.

The full Top 50 Developers report includes over 190 pages and over 28,000 words of data, statistics, charts, comments, and summaries, and should be of eminent interest to game developers, game publishers, game investors, and other business-people inside and outside the game industry.

Sample Data (back to top)

The creators of the report are making available a sample from the 'Top 50 Developers' research report [.DOC link] showing a small subsection of the final data, the entry in the research report for development studio Ubisoft Montreal. This includes the listing for the developer with reputation rankings and survey comments, game listings, average review scores, and more information. [The extract doesn't include any graphs featuring Ubisoft Montreal compared with other developers; this information is included in the complete report, however.]

Table Of Contents (back to top)

The full table of contents for the 'Top 50 Developers 2009' report is as follows:

Methodology 7

1. Nintendo 9
Releases And Review Scores 10
Reputation Survey 11

2. Blizzard Entertainment 13
Releases And Review Scores 14
Reputation Survey 14

3. Ubisoft Montreal 16
Releases And Review Scores 17
Reputation Survey 18

4. Rockstar North 20
Releases And Review Scores 21
Reputation Survey 22

5. EA Canada 23
Releases And Review Scores 24
Reputation Survey 25

6. Konami 27
Releases And Review Scores 28
Reputation Survey 29

7. Valve Software 30
Releases And Review Scores 31
Reputation Survey 31

8. Epic Games 33
Releases And Review Scores 34
Reputation Survey 34

9. EA Tiburon 36
Releases And Review Scores 36
Reputation Survey 38

10. Treyarch 39
Releases And Review Scores 39
Reputation Survey 40

11. HAL Laboratory 41
Releases And Review Scores 42
Reputation Survey 42

12. Capcom 43
Releases And Review Scores 43
Reputation Survey 44

13. Traveller’s Tales 46
Releases And Review Scores 47
Reputation Survey 48

14. Bethesda Game Studios 49
Releases And Review Scores 50
Reputation Survey 50

15. Insomniac Games 52
Releases And Review Scores 53
Reputation Survey 53

16. Namco Bandai Games 55
Releases And Review Scores 56
Reputation Survey 57

17. EA Redwood Shores 58
Releases And Review Scores 59
Reputation Survey 60

18. Koei 61
Releases And Review Scores 62
Reputation Survey 63

19. Kojima Productions 64
Releases And Review Scores 64
Reputation Survey 65

20. Harmonix Music Systems 66
Releases And Review Scores 67
Reputation Survey 68

21. Media Molecule 69
Releases And Review Scores 69
Reputation Survey 70

22. Lionhead Studios 71
Releases And Review Scores 71
Reputation Survey 72

23. Vicarious Visions 73
Releases And Review Scores 74
Reputation Survey 75

24. Maxis 76
Releases And Review Scores 76
Reputation Survey 77

26. Neversoft Entertainment 78
Releases And Review Scores 79
Reputation Survey 79

26. Game Freak 81
Releases And Review Scores 81
Reputation Survey 82

27. Square Enix 83
Releases And Review Scores 84
Reputation Survey 85

28. Digital Illusions CE (DICE) 86
Releases And Review Scores 87
Reputation Survey 88

29. Success 89
Releases And Review Scores 90

30. Ready At Dawn 91
Releases And Review Scores 91
Reputation Survey 92

31. Atlus 93
Releases And Review Scores 93
Reputation Survey 94

32. Criterion Games 95
Releases And Review Scores 96
Reputation Survey 96

33. TOSE 97
Releases And Review Scores 98

34. Mythic Entertainment 99
Releases And Review Scores 100

35. Firaxis Games 101
Releases And Review Scores 101
Reputation Survey 102

36. Volition 103
Releases And Review Scores 104
Reputation Survey 104

37. Sega 106
Releases And Review Scores 107
Reputation Survey 108

38. SCE Japan Studio 109
Releases And Review Scores 110
Reputation Survey 111

39. Ironclad Games 112
Releases And Review Scores 113

40. Marvelous Interactive 114
Releases And Review Scores 115

41. Yuke’s Future Media Creators 116
Releases And Review Scores 117

42. SCE London Studio 118
Releases And Review Scores 118
Reputation Survey 119

43. Visual Concepts 120
Releases And Review Scores 121

44. Intelligent Systems 122
Releases And Review Scores 123
Reputation Survey 123

45. Omega Force 124
Releases And Review Scores 124
Reputation Survey 125

46. Monolith Productions 126
Releases And Review Scores 126
Reputation Survey 127

47. Funcom 128
Releases And Review Scores 128
Reputation Survey 129

48. SCE Studios San Diego 130
Releases And Review Scores 131
Reputation Survey 131

49. Rare 132
Releases And Review Scores 133
Reputation Survey 133

50. Treasure 135
Releases And Review Scores 136
Reputation Survey 136

Additional Developer Metrics 137

Additional Developer Feedback 140

Top 50 Metric Comparisons 145
Average Metacritic Review Score 145
Average Reputation Survey Scores 145
Average Weighted Reputation Survey Scores 146
Average Weighted Detailed Reputation Survey Scores 146
PC Releases By Top 50 Developers 147
Xbox 360 Releases By Top 50 Developers 147
Playstation 3 Releases By Top 50 Developers 148
Wii Releases By Top 50 Developers 148
Playstation 2 Releases By Top 50 Developers 149
Nintendo Ds Releases By Top 50 Developers 149
PSP Releases By Top 50 Developers 150

Reputation Survey Comparisons 151
Average Weighted Detailed Reputation Survey Scores 151
Overall Satisfaction With Developer 151
Developer Pay & Perks Average Score 152
Developer Professionalism Average Score 152
Likeliness To Work With Developer Again Score 153

Developer Sales Chart Score Data 154

Game Data Sorted By Sales Rank 157

Game Data Sorted By Metacritic 179

Availability (back to top)

The 'Top 50 Developers 2009' report is now available for paid digital download for a price of US $2,995. Any questions about payment, delivery methods, or further licensing of the data can be directed to Game Developer Research at research@gdmag.com.