Nintendo had a pretty good year
Blizzard overtakes as 2008's most bankable game studio
Develop Magazine's annual list of studios' brilliance at taking all of our money has been released, and Nintendo has lost their 2007 top spot to World of Warcraft devs Blizzard.
The top studio jumped up an astonishing 46 places from last year's list, mostly due to their $100 million revenue per month in subscriber fees from WoW players, but also for providing $1.34 billion to Activision-Blizzard's bottom line. Yikes.
Nintendo's runner-up spot was in honor of the evergreen sales trajectory its games are enjoying, with Develop noting that Mario Kart DS, Brain Training, Nintendogs and New Super Mario Bros. each sold between three and four million in 2008. Not bad for games from four years ago.
Other notable devs include Capcom coming in at 5, Pokemon-house Game Freak at 30 and Intelligent Systems, creators of Fire Emblem, WarioWare and Paper Mario in at 97. Sony in-house devs SCE London and SCE Japan take 36 and 82 respectively, and LittleBigPlanet devs Media Molecule rank 17. Unless I'm wildly mistaken, the highest MS-exclusive studio is Bungie at 53.
The list is based off sales data, review aggregate scores and "instinctual elements" like reputation, publisher relations and that twinkle in their eye.
1. Crazed
11 May 2009, 18:16 BST
Wow (no pun intended), with the news of there being one out of every 5 people owning a DS in Japan (theoretically), and that Nintendo is second in the Develop Magazine's top 100 means that Nintendo is doing really well. Even though they dropped from first to second on the list, that's still really good. Just a question, though... where is Microsoft and Sony on the list (or are they not on the list at all?)
Edit: Wow, what a stupid question... or was it. I just checked the top 100 list on the website you posted (my bad), but I didn't see Microsoft or Sony on the list. Is that right?
2. Panda
11 May 2009, 18:25 BST
The Sony in-house spots I know of are is SCE London at 36 and SCE Japan at 82, but LittleBigPlanet devs Media Molecule ranked 17. Unless I'm wildly mistaken, the highest MS-exclusive (for 2008) dev is Bungie at 53.
I'll fix the story, thanks for pointing out that glaring omission!
3. Viral
11 May 2009, 21:22 BST
That's sad...honestly I thought that WoW wouldn't bump up Blizzard. It should've been D3 making them rise.
4. Panda
11 May 2009, 21:32 BST
@Viral: D3 isn't out yet.
5. KDR_11k
11 May 2009, 21:37 BST
The list is based off sales data, review aggregate scores and "instinctual elements" like reputation, publisher relations and that twinkle in their eye.
i.e. bullshit.
6. theblackdragon
11 May 2009, 21:53 BST
@KDR_11k: totally.
7. Neomega
11 May 2009, 21:57 BST
I luvz me some financial talk.
Anythang 'bout Zeldy in there?
8. comefrutas
11 May 2009, 22:26 BST
hahahaha people will get confused by the last sentence, oh wait... people got confused with the last sentence in my opinion mr. Wahlgren;
great article!
9. motang
12 May 2009, 03:37 BST
Wow...Blizzard is kicking ass, and congrats to Nintendo.
10. Holocaust
12 May 2009, 08:02 BST
It's still okay Nintendo. You're still one of the best. I'm pretty okay with the result, WoW has been one of the most successful games ever released and everything keeps getting better. To add more fun to your WoW life, I found a site wherein there is this contest that you need to Name the Twitter Pig and the best entry will win 500,000 gold. Isn't that cool?! I hope my entry will win. Anyway, still good job Nintendo!
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