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Top-Selling Videogame Publishers Ranked

Posted by simoniker on from the bling-bling dept.

Thanks to GameSpot for their piece revealing the highest-grossing videogame publishers for 2003 so far, as taken from the U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray report previously excerpted on Slashdot. Although numbers "don't include the always-crucial Q4", the article notes: "Unsurprisingly, Electronic Arts is on top with nearly $600 million in sales - some 20 percent of the entire market", and Nintendo and Sony are second and third-placed, with Microsoft's game software sales currently down in fourteenth position. The report also pointed out that "...2003 has been a rough year for Activision so far. Its earnings dipped nearly $80 million compared to the same period in 2002. Take Two's numbers took a similar nose dive, sliding from $213 to $134 million."

16 comments

  1. Most Interesting Part? by Babbster · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I think it's the fact that the fourth quarter seemed to account in 2002 for just about half of total sales for everyone. Concurrent with that is that in 2002, EA's share from Q1-Q3 dropped just about right in half from 17.3% to 8.6% with Sony beating them in the fourth quarter to finish out with 8.8%. That tells me that the Q1-Q3 numbers, while interesting, mean very little about how the total year's numbers will shake out (and also that Madden is always released in Q3).

  2. Top-Selling Videogame Publishers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    How much do videogame publishers go for these days?

  3. Glad to see the drops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    EA maintains their market share by releasing expansion packs disguised as full games for each of their franchises once a year, that's how they maintain market share. It's beginning to look like this is the new paradigm in game development, and it sucks. It this happened in Hollywood we'd still have dozens of Matrixes and Star Wars to sit through.

  4. Open your eyes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It *IS* hollywood.

  5. Let me do some math by imperator_mundi · · Score: 2, Informative

    The total 2002 share of EA is wrong, otherwise how could it be that a more than a billion $ sales (1'021'832'000$) correspond to 8.6%, or 0.2% less than what the 483 millions of Nintendo do... I suppose that someone made some copy/past mistakes... the right figure should be 18.6% (=483/1000*8.8%)

    1. Re:Let me do some math by Babbster · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You got me (and whomever is proofreading at Gamespot) there. I shouldn't have to do math when reading a video game news blurb, damn it! :D

      Of course, what I should be able to do is write a post without typing "Sony" where I should be typing "Nintendo."

      So, if someone could knock my post down a couple points for stupidity, that would be great.

    2. Re:Let me do some math by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Slashdot is fucked.

      Your initial post is being moderated up, beyond the score threshold of your correction. And you can't edit your initial post.

      And the moderators at fault are obviously not reading deeply enough into the replies to see your correction. They are ignoring your mistakes.

      Meta-mod will not undo the poor moderation that's been done, either. And even if it could, meta-moderators would be unlikely to see your correction anyways, because viewing the post in its original thread context is not enforced, though it is allowed.

      Although, I'm sure that this very post I'm typing will get moderated down as off-topic somehow.

  6. BIg Surprise by M3wThr33 · · Score: 1

    This is nearly the same as last year, EA, Nintendo and Sony ranked in that order. Is this supposed to illustrate some major change?

    1. Re:BIg Surprise by Snowmit · · Score: 2, Informative

      This is nearly the same as last year, EA, Nintendo and Sony ranked in that order. Is this supposed to illustrate some major change?

      No, but it's still news to point out that things have stayed the same. In fact, in a world where people keep going on and on about "Nintendo 3rd Party by 2004" or whenever, it's a piece of information that's pretty valuable. Despite perception on message boards and everywhere else, Nintendo is doing fine. In fact, they're doing very well indeed.

      --
      I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
    2. Re:BIg Surprise by SleazyC · · Score: 1

      The truth to this article is that EA will probably always be in the top 5 just because of the sales it makes on its sports titles. Then you tack on that they also make other games such as Medal of Honor and you got them raking in major cash every year

      The thing that surprised me was that Nintendo landed second place. I guess you could say it was their SP sales because until just a couple months ago, the Gamecube wasn't selling so hot. Square didn't make it in either but thats not a huge surprise considering they lost a lot of money this year.

    3. Re:BIg Surprise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nintendo doing so well (#2 in terms of software sales behind EA) is not a big surprise to me. Cube system sales were still up from the previous year, as were GBA sales. If you're buying either of these systems, you are buying Nintendo software as well, and most likely in the form of multiple titles.

  7. Hollywood Expansions by angelspit · · Score: 1
    It this happened in Hollywood we'd still have dozens of Matrixes and Star Wars to sit through.

    Wasn't Scary Movie 3 an expansion pack? Maybe the fact that it was a standalone allowed them to charge full price for that...
  8. The real surprise here is Atari by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It you think of how close Atari came to death; number three is great.