Game Developer Magazine’s 6th Annual Top 20 Publishers Report Sees Nintendo Victorious Again

Market-Leading Publisher Holds Onto Top Spot In Latest Countdown, Research Report

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — Game Developer magazine’s
highly-anticipated annual Top 20 Publishers report has debuted for 2008,
revealing that publisher Nintendo, which last year unseated the
long-dominant Electronic Arts, has maintained its top position on the
chart. The countdown, which once again this year included a wide-ranging
reputation survey alongside revenue, release count, average review, and
anonymous partner feedback, sees the Kyoto-headquartered publisher’s
extremely strong stable of first-party game releases for Wii and DS,
alongside chart-topping reputation scores, again leaving it atop the chart.

After Nintendo and EA, completing the top five are: Activision, keeping
its #3 spot for the third year running; Ubisoft, which maintained last
year’s impressive four-place surge; and Sony Computer Entertainment, which
jumped into the top five thanks to an increased slate of titles, improving
on a review record already higher than most, and maintaining positive
relationships with its surveyed partners.

Further down the chart, back on the list at #18 after a two-year
absence is Codemasters, whose aggressive expansion and improving review
scores helped the company secure its spot in the countdown, in the process
displacing last year’s newly-ranked import game publisher Atlus.

The 2008 rankings were calculated by considering number of releases by
SKU, average review scores, and estimated publisher revenue from August
2007 to July 2008. It also included the results of a survey conducted to
gather opinions on the major video game software publishers.

More than 300 industry professionals from all parts of the game
production process were asked to give their opinions — including comments
– on the reputations of each publisher in the survey. In addition, scores
and commentary were gathered from respondents who had direct experience
with the publishers in the recent past, either as workers or partners,
including milestone, marketing and pay feedback.

“We’re delighted to present the result of our yearly publisher
countdown once again,” said Simon Carless, director, Game Developer
Research. “Nintendo’s second chart-topping appearance in a row underscores
the extraordinary popularity of the firm’s first-party Wii and DS
franchises — we congratulate them on their achievement.”

The full Top 20 Publishers 2008 countdown is available both in the
October 2008 edition of Game Developer Magazine and, for the first time
this year, on industry-leading sister site http://www.gamasutra.com. In
addition, a full Top 20 Publishers 2008 report featuring all statistics,
ratings and complete survey feedback — including specific comments for
each publisher — is available at http://www.gamedevresearch.com.

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