Top 20 Game Publishers

Patrick Caldwell writes "Game Developer magazine recently released a list of the top 20 video game publishers. EA, Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony are the first five, as could probably have been predicted." From the article: " For the third year in a row, Electronic Arts (EA) has grabbed the top slot on the "Top 20 Publishers" chart. EA reached an annual revenue of more than $3.1 billion, continued high output and received positive average reviews for its titles. However, the company faced some serious competition from fellow publishers like Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, all of whom had very strong showings this year and rounded out the top 5 in that order."

Comments

Human resources?

[tepples]

I wonder whether these companies' HR departments are going to be slashdotted with resumes from unemployed homebrew game developers now.

Re:Human resources?

[BushCheney08]

Yeah, cos obviously someone with an interest in working in the gaming industry would never have considered sending a resume to EA, Activision, MS, Sony, Nintendo, etc...

The Full List

[Sugar Moose]

...since the article doesn't give it to you, or link to it:

      1. Electronic Arts
      2. Activision
      3. Microsoft Game Studios
      4. Nintendo
      5. Sony Computer Entertainment
      6. Ubisoft
      7. Konami
      8. THQ
      9. Sega Sammy Holdings
    10. Take-Two Interactive
    11. Namco
    12. Vivendi Universal Games
    13. Atari
    14. SCi Games
    15. Capcom
    16. Square Enix
    17. Bandai Games
    18. Codemasters
    19. Midway
    20. LucasArts

News article

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's an actual news story about the list, at http://igo.ampednews.com/news/2798/ with a full list and more information from the article in the actual magazine:

For the third-straight year, Electronic Arts has taken home the top slot in Game Developer magazine's yearly list of the top-20 video game publishers.

The list, published in the magazine's October 2005 issue, reads like a veritable "who's who" of popular game companies. Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony followed EA in finishing off the top 5 -- though a number of factors, including both revenue and game quality, determined where the publishers ranked.

EA was a no-brainer. With an annual revenue of more than $3.1 billion, EA is the largest video game publisher in the world. The company released 126 games during the past year -- the most of any game publisher -- among them new titles in some of its flagship franchises, including The Sims, Madden NFL and Medal of Honor.

A number of business moves in 2004 and early 2005 helped cement the company's position atop the publisher pack.

The acquisition of Criterion Games landed one of 2004's most critically acclaimed titles, Burnout 3, in EA's hands. And the signing of exclusive contracts with the NFL and ESPN meant EA Sports' Madden NFL 06 was the only game in town with real-life NFL players, coaches and teams, as football aficionados responded by buying more copies of the football game than the year before.

Other than Criterion, EA's business connections with two other major game companies increased its slice of the development pie. It purchased 19.9 percent of Ubisoft -- which the magazine ranked at No. 6 -- and took over publishing rights of Valve Software's Half-Life 2 from Vivendi Universal Games, which ranked at No. 12.

But, the magazine said, EA faced strong competition from the other top 5, especially Activision and Microsoft.

Activision, publisher of Doom 3 and the Tony Hawk series, saw one of the biggest increases, from No. 7 to No. 2, this year as it added three new development studios: Toys for Bob, Beenox and Vicarious Visions. "Activision's policy of leaving studios more autonomous after purchasing them works just as well as EA's consolidation method," Game Developer noted.

Though it was Activision that bumped last year's No. 2., Microsoft Game Studios, down a spot, the magazine expects the company behind the Xbox and Halo to rebound. With a determined fall lineup that includes the release of the Xbox 360 and a bevy of "well-reviewed first-party games," Microsoft's switch from PC to Xbox game development has resulted in a swift ascension to the upper echelon of publishers. Expect a stronger commitment to the Japanese games market with the 360, as well, the magazine said.

Nintendo's claim of the No. 4 spot can largely be credited to the strong performance of its Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance platforms, while Sony slipped to No. 5 this year despite the critical success of games like God of War and Ratchet and Clank 3.

Take Two Interactive, which publishes Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series, saw a drop to No. 10, partly due to the controversy surrounding Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' "Hot Coffee" sexual conten mod and resulting political and economic fallout. And since Take Two also publishes value-brand games developed by Global Star, its ranking has suffered because the magazine's list takes into consideration average review scores of the publishers' games. But a strong showing from Take Two's new sports game line -- 2K Sports, formerly Sega's Visual Concepts -- means that "next year is anyone's game," the magazine said.

In selecting its list, Game Developer used more than "raw revenue vales" to determine the rankings. Six criteria determined a company's placing: annual turnover, number of title releases, average review score, producer quality, reliability of milestone payments, and quality of staff pay and perks.

"This year's research reflects the continuing

Re:Wow...

[Darune]

I'm trying not to be a fanboy, but try the DS for some innovation. True the franchises are the same, but some of the games are quite different. I suggest:

Feel the Magic XX/YY
Kirby's Canvas Course
Trace Memory

Castlevania is great, but is basically Symphony of the night in your pocket.
Games that follow the same franchise can be innovative, unfortunately most aren't. Also don't pass over a game just because the graphics look childish, sometimes those are the best ones.

Of course, these games may not be your thing, milage may vary, etc...

Re:'Top' Publishers. Right...

[Ghost_MH]

Before anything else, I would hardly call Game Developers a "gaming magazine". The magazine is very clearly not for gamers, so what gamers care about is not important here.

Now, with that said...

EA is a horrible company to deal with, but you can't say the quality of EA's games are heading down the crapper. EA's games averaged 81% in a Rotten Tomatoes-esque review of all the games they had released in the last year. The only companies in the top twenty that beat EA here were LucasArts with 81.6% and Microsoft with 80.56%. Even if you don't particularly like their games a LOT of people do and you can't hold that against EA.

Also, this has little to do with money made...Were that the case it would be EA first and Nintendo second. The first year Game Developer compiled this list, they went with profit..After that they went with a score based system.

Actually, I have the magazine here, so I'll just post their explanation...

The Game Developers Top 20 ranks publishers using a score calculated from each publisher's performance in several measures. First, a list of the top 30 publishers is drawn up based on revenue or, when revenue data is unavailable, estimates.

Then each publisher is given a score based on the following six measures - annual turnover; number of releases; average review score; quality of producers; reliability of milestone payments; and the quality of staff pay and perks.

Annual turnover figures come from the publisher's annual accounts or, when these are not public, from out own estimates based on the sales of games they release. The number of releases, which counts the publication of the same game on different formats as separate releases, come from the publishers or, when they were unable to provide this information, from their web sites and dedicated gaming sites. The average review score ratings were based on information from gamerankings.com. A confidential survey of developers provided data for the quality of producers, reliability of of milestone payments, and the pay and perks.

The top 30 publishers were ranked according to each of the six measures. The lowest scoring publisher received a score of one, the next lowest a score of two and so on until the highest scoring publisher received a rating of 30. This was repeated for all measures and totals were weighted and added together to give a final score which determined the Top 20 Publishers list for 2005.

Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy of the information contained within the article. But we cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. We do not accept liability for any direct, indirect, or consequential loss arising from its use.

Anyways, EA's scores looked something like this...
126 releases
17% externally developed titles
8.52 Producer Rating
8.50 Milestone Payment Rating
8.91 Pay and Perks
81 Average Review Score

I'm not going to go down the list, but the top five were...

Activision...
76 releases
63% externally developed titles
9.25 Producer Rating
9.60 Milestone Payment Rating
9.40 Pay and Perks
65.4 Average Review Score

Microsoft...
20 releases
60% externally developed titles
9.60 Producer Rating
9.85 Milestone Payment Rating
10 Pay and Perks
80.56 Average Review Score

Nintendo...
69 releases
32% externally developed titles
8.50 Producer Rating
10 Milestone Payment Rating
8.50 Pay and Perks
76.08 Average Review Score

Sony Computer Entertainment...
41 releases
37% externally developed titles
9.18 Producer Rating
9.55 Milestone Payment Rating
8.50 Pay and Perks
75.07 Average Review Score