The 100 Top Game Development Studios

@Pho_Hybrid says: yes I know its based on sales however the title IS HIGHLY MISLEADING! SERIOUSLY you guys should change it to like the "top100 bankable stuidos in UK" some people don't read text ************************************************** This can't be based on sales. Where is Blizzard Entertainment? They probably make close to a billion in the U.K. with their World of Warcraft and Starcraft games alone. I'm surprised Insomniac Games and SquareEnix isn't on the list. They really should base it on Worldwide sales, and not just the U.K. It explains why Activision and Microsoft isn't on the list.

yes I know its based on sales however the title IS HIGHLY MISLEADING! SERIOUSLY you guys should change it to like the "top100 bankable stuidos in UK" some people don't read text

this list is an absolute JOKE! take 17.Vicarious Visions, its an average developer making Medicore game for portable systems, ocassionally good games for systems but they are better than Viscreal, Guerilla, Valve, ETC

Pandemic dosent even exist anymore

This list is so a joke

reminds me of that lame Guinness list, crap list

@ Scoops - it's based on sales in the UK for the previous year. A studio could be disbanded and yet their games continue to sell - presumably MS is still selling Ensemble's old games

@Scoobes wow, look at this hateboy. Microsoft has nothing to do with this list dumbass. And this list is based on UK SALES RANKINGS (not only this year or this month). At least read the whole article before posting stupid things like that. Freaking tool...

LOL! Ensemble Studios are still in the list after being disbanded. Real clever Microsoft! Idiots. And Infinity Ward at No. 2 after all the politics and the massive exodus. Will Infinity Ward remain in the list next year or the year after?

This list is terrible, in my opinion.

If this is based on an objective measure like sales, you can't argue with any of it.

Can't argue with Number 1, but I can argue against almost everything else. Bioware, Naughty Dog, Valve, Harmonix, and Bethesda should all be higher, while Neversoft, Sonic Team, and Pandemic should be lower

saw the list and got mad because Bioware was #42. than I saw it was based on sales. I feel better now... but still a bit of anger.

Interesting that 5 of the top 10 are japanese studios, especially when everyone is ringing the death toll of japanese development... i would like to see worldwide take on this.

Thought Rockstar, Naughtydog and Bioware would be higher up

The Nintendo Age is near...

nintendo ftw

@ Mad55 Perfection > Innovation Also, wasn't this list about how bankable the studio is?

Surprise Nintendo is number 1.

What has blizzard done great recently or innovative i wanna know lol

This must be for consoles only. Blizzard would have to be in the top 5 otherwise.

problem with splitting nintendo up is that they never actually state which EAD team do what game as far as i'm aware, you just have to work it out for yourself

Nintendo is a publisher...

Nintendo isn't a game studio either just the publisher

i guess they didn't know that SCE isn't a developer company just the people who publish

@bobsmith Isnt SCE more the publishing/hardware company like Microsoft Games Studios is for the Xbox. Some SCE studios are on the list. For that reason, Im not sure why Capcom and Nintendo are there (should be Nintendo EAD)

I take it this is only for consoles. Otherwise, Blizzard not at number 1 or 2 would be weird.

Codemasters? I can't remember the last good game they made! How did they break the top 50!

Where's Sony Computer Entertainment?

Why bulk Nintendo all in as one single studio but not other companies? That goes for Foundation 9 as well.

Why bulk Nintendo all in as one single studio but not other companies?

Way to be inconsistent. All Nintendo and Capcom studios are bundled into one, but EA, Ubisoft, SCE and Rockstar are split

@Kupomogli It's only UK, not all of PAL. As far as I know, X360 is bigger in UK compared to the rest of PAL territories so ODST might have sold more in the UK than U2 did.

I had my doubts, but all these are going by sales in PAL land only. I looked up quite a few and actually it looks like this is correct.... until I looked up Naughty Dog. Uncharted 2 is the only game released this year and last and it's over 1.5 million in PAL territories. Halo 3 ODST is the only game Bungie has released this year and last, selling at 1.3 million. Naughty Dog should be above Bungie.

oh yeah this year... so no Epic, my bad.

Bungie only 16? ok sales are limited to one platform... umh... Valve 22.... (probably don't count PC?) and errr what is the studio name for Epic's Gears?

Insomniac only released one game last year, and that was "Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time". It didn't sell that great, so that's why Insomniac is not up there.

Level 5 below Yuke's? Who ever made this list was off his rocker.

Wheres Insomniac? HUH?

DAMN IT, got ninjad by Yakuzaice.

This list is false! Nintendo gets all their studios in 1 group while others get splits?!? For example: 29. Naughty Dog 31. SCE London Studio 32. Guerrilla Games If they all were under Sony (plus other developers), then it would have easily been 2nd! It said "Developer" 100 not "Publisher" 100. So the fact is Nintendo's team meant to be split up and Infinity Ward takes the number 1 spot!! A FAILURE LIST...and the people that praising Ninty need to get a reality check!!! :-P

I've never understood why Nintendo's studios are always just lumped together while every other company is split up. Also some of these just seem odd. Several studios seem to be associated with the Sims 3 otherwise they don't really make sense on this list. None of the Traveller's Tales games even hit 100k and yet it's above a lot of studios that definitely sold 300k+ to 600k+ in '09. Foundation 9 seems to just be a collection of developers that do outsourced work for other companies.

I'm glad two Canadian studios are in the top 5 (I'm from Canada)

thelifatree says: This is just for UK. It's for just 2009. @bhutto, Square Enix I believe only released 1 or 2 FF remakes and Kingdom Hearts 358/2, in the UK during that period.

#1: Nintendo Yep, this list is good. Move along now.

Damnit thought it was based on awesomeness. Expected to see all Sony devs and Ninty lol :P

Rockstar North, Valve, Bungie are all surprisingly low. EA Canada was surprising then I remembered Fifa (I think they are the ones responsible for the series)

Its by sales guys...I am kinda surprised at #10 though.

Oh it's about sales? :/ Yeah that make sense then.

Naughty Dog at #29? yeah right.. where's Media Molecule? Bungie at #16???????????????? LOL

@Boutros Bioware typically only release one or two games MAX per year and those sell generally pretty well but not AMAZING well. BUT YAY CODEMASTERS at #15

No surprise at #1. [x2] But, no Square-Enix in top 50... LOL

Bioware is way too low.

No surprise at #1.