A century of development stars
This month we've published the 2010 edition of the Develop 100.
Published in association with Deep Silver and based on data compiled by GfK Chart-Track, the Develop 100 ranks the world's games developers based on the amount of revenues their games generated at UK retail.
The Develop site is publishing major extracts from the book - here we present the full list of the top 100…
1 NINTENDO Japan £203.63m
2 INFINITY WARD USA £125.58m
3 EA CANADA Canada £100.99m
4 UBISOFT MONTREAL Canada £59.71m
5 FOUNDATION 9 USA £36.83m
6 SEGA STUDIOS JAPAN Japan £35.93m
7 CAPCOM Japan £31.87m
8 TREYARCH USA £30.99m
9 YUKE'S Japan £30.06m
10 LEVEL-5 Japan £29.14m
11 TRAVELLER'S TALES UK £28.52m
12 NEVERSOFT USA £22.01m
13 KONAMI Japan £21.48m
14 TURN 10 STUDIOS USA £20.79m
15 CODEMASTERS UK £19.20m
16 BUNGIE USA £19.04m
17 SLIGHTLY MAD STUDIOS UK £17.65m
18 VICARIOUS VISIONS USA £17.46m
19 VISCERAL GAMES USA £16.48m
20 ROCKSTAR NORTH UK £16.30m
21 THE SIMS STUDIO USA £16.22m
22 VALVE USA £16.15m
23 NAMCO Japan £15.63m
24 ROCKSTEADY STUDIOS UK £15.26m
25 EA TIBURON USA £14.41m
26 EA BRIGHT LIGHT UK £13.61m
27 UBISOFT FRANCE France £13.35m
28 EA BLACK BOX Canada £13.29m
29 NAUGHTY DOG USA £13.12m
30 SPORTS INTERACTIVE UK £12.81m
31 SCE LONDON STUDIO UK £12.25m
32 GUERRILLA GAMES Netherlands £11.27m
33 BETHESDA USA £10.83m
34 RADICAL Canada £9.92m
35 VOLITION USA £9.76m
36 MAXIS USA £9.54m
37 GEARBOX SOFTWARE USA £9.45m
38 HARMONIX USA £9.20m
39 1ST PLAYABLE USA £8.88m
40 PANDEMIC STUDIOS USA £8.81m
41 GAME FREAK Japan £8.70m
42 BIOWARE Canada 8.63m
43 ENSEMBLE STUDIOS USA £8.54m
44 A2M Canada £8.43m
45 SONIC TEAM Japan £8.30m
46 KUJU ENTERTAINMENT UK £8.29m
47 CAT DADDY UK £7.88m
48 HB STUDIOS Canada £7.79m
49 UBISOFT ROMANIA Romania £7.05m
50 RAVEN SOFTWARE USA £7.03m
51 EPIC GAMES USA £7.02m
52 KROME STUDIOS Australia £7.00m
53 INSOMNIAC USA £6.74m
54 MEDIA MOLECULE UK £6.43m
55 ROCKSTAR LEEDS UK £6.15m
56 LUXOFLUX USA £5.87m
57 HUDSON Japan £5.78m
58 TECHLAND Poland £5.59m
59 CREATIVE ASSEMBLY UK £5.53m
60 COOKING MAMA Japan £5.52m
61 FREESTYLEGAMES UK £5.23m
62 SUCKER PUNCH USA £5.20m
63 MIDWAY USA £5.12m
64 EA LA USA £5.06m
65 TRANSMISSION GAMES Australia £5.05m
66 GRIN Sweeden £5.03m
67 EXIENT UK £4.81m
68 EA DICE Sweeden £4.61m
69 INIS Japan £4.54m
70 ASYLUM UK £4.43m
71 RESPONDESIGN USA £4.33m
72 REBELLION UK £4.23m
73 EA SALT LAKE USA £4.16m
74 BLACK ROCK STUDIOS UK £4.03m
75 HEAVY IRON STUDIOS USA £4.00m
76 MONKEY BAR GAMES USA £3.92m
77 TERMINAL REALITY USA £3.90m
78 CRYSTAL DYNAMICS USA £3.88m
79 SORA Japan £3.86m
80 BLIZZARD USA £3.85m
81 CRITERION GAMES UK £3.80m
82 BIG FISH GAMES USA £3.80m
83 POLYPHONY DIGITAL Japan £3.79m
84 GENIUS SONORITY Japan £3.77m
85 N-SPACE USA £3.74m
86 MAGIC POCKETS France £3.72m
87 BEENOX Canada £3.62m
88 MONOLITH USA £3.59m
89 EUROCOM UK £3.53m
90 MIDWAY NEWCASTLE UK £3.48m
91 ROUTE 1 GAMES UK £3.39m
92 LIONHEAD STUDIOS UK £3.39m
93 RELIC Canada £3.24m
94 ALTRON Japan £3.22m
95 WIZARBOX France £3.20m
96 SLAM PRODUCTIONS UK £3.20m
97 GUSTO GAMES UK £3.18m
98 HIGH VOLTAGE USA £2.83m
99 ROCKSTAR SAN DIEGO USA £2.82m
100 5TH CELL USA £2.78m
Studio profit would be more relevant than retail standing.
You're right - it would be great to know how much profit Ubisoft Montreal generates, etc. But very, very few of the studios in the world - let alone those listed - would give over that data. And a lot of the time R&D costs for publisher-owned studios are rolled into one big figure. In short, it's impossible to *accurately* compile a list that way without forensic accounting and buy-in from every single person in the industry. (Key word is accurately there - sure , you could approximate it, but that undermines the listing.)
So knowing how much revenue specific studios and developer brands generate is the best solution.
Oh no, SEGA is dead... oh wait.
Sega's Japan team have never featured higher. Great showing from SI and CA in the UK, too.
So...blizzard making more then a billion per year is on position 80...what you guys smoked when made this top?
Certainly - crack that consisted of ground up GfK Chart-Track reports.
As we stress throughout the pieces we've run on the list, this is based on retail sales. And aside from sporadic updates, WoW isn't that big at retail.
Yes, we could take into account all the money it makes from subs, but either a) that would be unfair on everyone else making money in a similar way or b) the same other companies don't declare all the revenue the make in the same way a public company like Blizzard does.
no Blitz Games studios on there again.. well there's a surprise after the appalling Dead to rights... I see fellow Leamington Co. Slam! have made it tho.. just shows what quality can do, no matter how small a studio you are!
