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2006's Top 20 Game Publishers Ranked

Posted by Hemos on from the who's-your-favorite dept.

simoniker writes "Game Developer magazine's Top 20 Publishers list for 2006 has been published online — the list from the industry magazine ranks publishers by using multiple factors, including revenue, average game review score, and anonymous feedback from game industry insiders. In the 2006 version of the poll, which looks at software produced (and doesn't factor in hardware), Electronic Arts came out on top, closely followed by Nintendo, with Buena Vista Games and NCSoft making first entries into the Top 20."

5 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. EA is the best game publisher? by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Geez, that's nice. I bet by their metric WalMart is the best place to shop, McDonald's is the best place to eat, and MySpace is the best way to have a presence on the Internet.

    1. Re:EA is the best game publisher? by MrAnnoyanceToYou · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Looks to be ordered by revenue. Shows that games are just like movies - quality is not king.... Sad, unfortunate, unsurprising.

      --
      My little site.
  2. Atari... Still there... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm surprised that Atari is still on the list and NWN2 was not mentioned (should've been the big title for this past holiday season). Atari been in a downward spiral since I left the company as a lead tester in 2004 after being there for six years. Most of the studios that were originally acquired at two to four times their actual worth before the dot com bust been sold off for pennies on the dollar. The only thing they have left is the back catalog and a few new titles. Looks like all hope is riding on the re-launch of the "Alone in the Dark" franchise. This is the same company that thought that the Matrix franchise would save the day.

  3. The List by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The list is helpfully spread out over nine pages, so here it is in full:

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

    One line caught my eye, though: "Square Enix nurtured its online games business during the period, with Final Fantasy XI receiving an expansion during the year and increasing its subscriber base to over 500,000 users."

    This is amusing, because prior to the release of WoW, they had 650,000 subscribers. Apparently their subscriber base has increased by an impressive -150,000 subscribers.

  4. Best Practices? by ThinkWeak · · Score: 5, Funny

    FTA: For the fourth year in a row, EA resides at the top of our ranking. Despite a loss reported in its earnings for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2006, a $15.6 million settlement paid to end a lawsuit over the company's labor practices, and results below company expectations in 2005's holiday season, the publisher managed to maintain robust revenue.

    So aside from mistreating employees, monopolizing sports licenses, and releasing buggy/featureless/innovationless drivel - they are the #1 Publisher? Fantastic. Maybe the rest of the world will catch on to this business model. Imagine, the next time you go out to a restaurant you are greeted by a hostess who spits in your face, serves you Chef Boyardee, and then proceeds to drop-kick the bus boy.

    I hope everyone enjoys their next copy of Madden with New live-action direct bank account debits. It'll be the shiz.