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[Teddman]

Vagabond posted this story at Opa-Ages, and I hadn't seen mention of it yet over here. Though the criteria is not based strictly on sales, it does take into account the bigger picture and future potential of each publisher ranked... A big boost for Microsoft this year.

Game Developer Magazine Releases 2nd Annual Report on Top 20 Publishers
Thursday September 30, 1:01 pm ET
Market Defining Report Ranks Electronic Arts No 1, and Replaces Japanese Giants Capcom and Bandai With U.K. Publishers

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Game Developer magazine's October issue features the 2nd annual report on the Top 20 game publishers. This market defining study profiles the world's leading game publishers, analyzes the types of games the companies release and explores their relationships with external studios.

The publication enhanced the credibility of the annual report by overhauling the criteria used for ranking. Although revenue is still a key factor, this year's survey also measured game review scores, number of titles canceled, producer quality and the catalog of original IP to determine rankings. As a result of expanding criteria, the Top 20 list had a few surprises...

Other highlights from the report include:

* Four publishers now have more than $1 billion in revenue. Take-Two
Interactive is the new addition based on the strength of the Grand
Theft Auto franchise. EA, Nintendo and Sony continue to grow;

* Microsoft climbed the most spots from last year, ranking No 2 in
this year's survey, thanks to increased sales of the Xbox and a
strong reputation with developers. Last year Microsoft was No 9;

* EA continued its push towards titles based on licenses with more
than 51% of all its releases falling in this category. Vivendi
Universal Games, Activision, THQ and Acclaim also invested heavily
in licenses and sequels;

* Top 20 newcomer Empire topped the list of original IP games with
64%. Microsoft followed closely with 56%.

Full article at http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040930/lath057_1.html

 

[explodet]

<non-sequitur>
Hmmmm, nope. I still don't miss Acclaim.
</non-sequitur>

 

[Prine]

i believe this news

Edit: I guess its based on new IPs?

 

[Teddman]

Being that this is Game Developer Magazine, it seems as if Microsoft is the best-liked in the dev community out of all three console companies that are also publishers (Sony, Nintendo):

"We revised our survey criteria this year to better reflect for developers how publishers perform across the board," said Jamil Moledina, editor-in-chief of Game Developer magazine. "This is based on the fact that many developers value their working relationships with publishers and their ability to cooperatively create high quality games as much as the revenue the games generate."

Looks like throwing funds around and making PC ports cheap and easy will make you a few friends...

 

[Prine]

^^ And helping studios with online gaming

Nice to see deveopers appreciating MS contribution to the industry.

 

[BeOnEdge]

the UPRISING surges forward.

 

[TheGreenGiant]

* Four publishers now have more than $1 billion in revenue. Take-Two
Interactive is the new addition based on the strength of the Grand
Theft Auto franchise. EA, Nintendo and Sony continue to grow;QUOTE]

EA NINTENDO TAKE 2 + SONY.

Where's MS? Har har. I love the word revenue.

 

[Teddman]

Where's MS? Har har. I love the word revenue.

MS is there right about November 9th.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Survey?

lol

ok....

 

[Baconäger]

Survey?

lol

ok....

Yep.

 

[Joe]

it's a list of top publishers as voted on by the game development community.

 

[DopeyFish]

developers developers developers!

 

[Diablos]

I hope someone finally dethrones Sony next-generation, they've had enough success. Consoles need more competition. It figures, though, that M$ out of all companies is most likely to do this.

Come back, Sega

 

[Kon Tiki]

cause . . .you know . . . what the hell do developers know about videogames anyway, right?

A survey of dairy farmer on what yogurt yeild the biggest boners is still a survey.

I suppose this is slighty better than a gamefaq poll thread.

 

[Joe]

A survey of dairy farmer on what yogurt yeild the biggest boners is still a survey.

I suppose this is slighty better than a gamefaq poll thread.

what in gods name are you talking about?

 

[Tellaerin]

it's a list of top publishers as voted on by the game development community.

The 'game development community'? Or the Western game development community? There is a difference.

 

[DopeyFish]

The 'game development community'? Or the Western game development community? There is a difference.

Yeah, one is becoming a monster force and the other is a shadow of its former self.

 

[puck1337]

The 'game development community'? Or the Western game development community? There is a difference.

It's fucking Game Developer, not Nintendojo or TeamXbox. What more do you want?

 

[Tellaerin]

Yeah, one is becoming a monster force and the other is a shadow of its former self.

And one consistently produces the kinds of games I enjoy most, while the other turns out a handful of titles a year I want to play at best. There's more to my world than GTA and Halo, and I can't play sales figures on my consoles. I'm most interested in the opinions of development community whose output I care most about, and until the day when Western studios start producing titles indistinguishable from their counterparts in Japan (which I don't ever see happening), that's going to be the Japanese dev community.

 

[Shoryuken]

Yeah, one is becoming a monster force and the other is a shadow of its former self.

Considering two of the top 3 publishers in the US (and probably the world) are Japanese, I think they're not doing so bad.

 

[Kon Tiki]

Considering two of the top 3 publishers in the US (and probably the world) are Japanese, I think they're not doing so bad.

huh...

Going by the article, EA and MS are two of the three, neither are japanese.

 

[element]

the score relate more to milestone payments, development support, royalty rates, and game development as a BUSINESS. Which microsoft has excelled at the last couple years.

 

[thorns]

 

[Shoryuken]

the score relate more to milestone payments, development support, royalty rates, and game development as a BUSINESS. Which microsoft has excelled at the last couple years.

I thought the point of a business was to make money, which Microsoft as a game developer/publisher has failed to do.

 

[Kon Tiki]

I thought the point of a business was to make money, which Microsoft as a game developer/publisher has failed to do.

Step 1 : developers, developers, developers, developers
Step 2: ....
Step 3: Profit!

 

[Particle Physicist]

huh...

Going by the article, EA and MS are two of the three, neither are japanese.

i think hes talking about highest revenues.. this ranking is a bit more subjective: "this year's survey also measured game review scores, number of titles canceled, producer quality and the catalog of original IP to determine rankings."

 

[M3wThr33]

My roommate went over this article and I had a fit. I love how they changed their criteria and Nintendo falls about 6 spots on the list, even though they're one of the most profitable AND of one of the new criteria (Average game ratings) they came first in.

It's just biased crap that is out there to piss me off.

 

[Teddman]

I love how they changed their criteria and Nintendo falls about 6 spots on the list, even though they're one of the most profitable AND of one of the new criteria (Average game ratings) they came first in.

They also probably came first in another one of the criteria.

Number of titles canceled.

 

[Shoryuken]

i think hes talking about highest revenues.. this ranking is a bit more subjective: "this year's survey also measured game review scores, number of titles canceled, producer quality and the catalog of original IP to determine rankings."

I'm pretty sure he was joking.

 

[Shoryuken]

They also probably came first in another one of the criteria.

Number of titles canceled.

How would Nintendo come in first in titles cancelled as a publisher? Microsoft on the other hand has cancelled/decided not to publish quite a few games recently.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

My roommate went over this article and I had a fit. I love how they changed their criteria and Nintendo falls about 6 spots on the list, even though they're one of the most profitable AND of one of the new criteria (Average game ratings) they came first in.

It's just biased crap that is out there to piss me off.

Yeah, but since this is based on what I assume are votes by American/North American developers, MS would easily have a higher place than Nintendo...MS employs more US developers than Nintendo ever does. If this was a game development mag aimed at the Japanese market, it would be different.

 

[Teddman]

How would Nintendo come in first in titles cancelled as a publisher? Microsoft on the other hand has cancelled/decided not to publish quite a few games recently.

That's true, I was thinking more about how many titles have been canceled for GameCube by other developers, not canceled by Nintendo themselves.

 

[element]

I thought the point of a business was to make money, which Microsoft as a game developer/publisher has failed to do.

no the point of this survey is to find who is the best publisher for 3rd party developers. Who they rate as the best, in support, on-time payments, project managment, marketing support, and other such things.

this survey has little to do with money made. if so, then companies like empire would have been above namco or eidos over nintendo.

the survey tells if you are a 3rd party developer, who are the best companies to work with. the list shouldn't shock you. EA has amazing developer support and is always on time with their payments, as with microsoft. Sony has on-time payments and great project direction and managment, but lacks in support.

 

[Tellaerin]

I guess everyone has to love the stuff Western publishers put on shelves to the exclusion of all else, or we're 'hataz'. Give me a break. If anyone's doing any hating, it's the crowd who go around declaring that the Japanese development community is dead and trumpeting the supposed superiority of Western studios every chance they get. Oddly enough, they're also the ones that scramble to get behind announcements like this, too. So if you're handing out Hatorade, you better pour yourself a cup.

 

[Shoryuken]

no the point of this survey is to find who is the best publisher for 3rd party developers. Who they rate as the best, in support, on-time payments, project managment, marketing support, and other such things.

this survey has little to do with money made. if so, then companies like empire would have been above namco or eidos over nintendo.

the survey tells if you are a 3rd party developer, who are the best companies to work with. the list shouldn't shock you. EA has amazing developer support and is always on time with their payments, as with microsoft. Sony has on-time payments and great project direction and managment, but lacks in support.

I know what the point of the survey was, it's just that many people in this thread (which I thought included you, but apparently not) are now heralding MS as the number two publisher in the US/world based on this article. When in truth this survey doesn't mean much. I would however would like to see some statistics on publisher worldwide marketshares. I think that would prove much more interesting.

 

[Teddman]

I know what the point of the survey was, it's just that many people in this thread (which I thought included you, but apparently not) are now heralding MS as the number two publisher in the US/world based on this article.

Actually, they're the number one software publisher if you want to get technical about it. Easy to forget about that sometimes...

 

[Shoryuken]

Actually, they're the number one software publisher if you want to get technical about it. Easy to forget about that sometimes...

Not really (easy to forget that is). Everyone knows about the sucesses of their other products, but the point of this article is more or less limited to video game discussion.

 

[Teddman]

I meant it was easy to forget about in the context of a thread like this about video game publishing (and your last post didn't make a distinction for game publishing). For instance, almost every one of the companies listed in that survey is more or less a pure game publisher, except Microsoft, who have a lot more to their software publishing line outside of games.

 

[AniHawk]

This article is BULLSHIT.

MS should be #1.

 

[Alcibiades]

I read the Game Developer article a few days ago (when I got the issue).

I would have forgiven Game Developer Magazine for glossing over the underwhelming performance (online enabled sequels not reaching 1/2 the audience of predecessor) and quality of many XBox 1st party games (lood Wake, Azurik, Sneakers, Fever, Inside Drive, etc...) and layoffs in an admitted defeat to EA and Sega Sports, if it wasn't for this:


10. Nintendo
11. Vivendi Universal Games
12. Codemasters

13. Acclaim 13. Acclaim 13. Acclaim 13. Acclaim 13. Acclaim

14. Sega
15. Konami
16. Square Enix
17. Midway Games
18. Koei
19. Empire Interactive
20. Namco



Yeah, great call GameDeveloper!

 

[Teddman]

Good point about Acclaim, but none of those 1st party Microsoft Xbox games you listed came out within the last year... And it is an annual study.

 

[Shoryuken]

Efralope,

Is this study based purely on consoles (PS2,Xbox,GC) or does it include PC and GBA as well?

 

[Alcibiades]

Good point about Acclaim, but none of those 1st party Microsoft Xbox games you listed came out within the last year... And it is an annual study.

the canceled sport titles and/or layoffs just came this year after last falls': NHL Rivals 2004, NBA Inside Drive 2004

Plus, Sudeki is the Brute Force of '03: hyped games that don't live up to it.

 

[Teddman]

Your whole point about the quality of games for this study goes out the window when you list near-launch titles like Azurik, Sneakers, and Blood Wake though.

As for a sports division, Nintendo doesn't have one either.

 

[AniHawk]

Um, why is Namco #20?

-revenue per title: Probably not too high recently, which may be what hurt them most. They haven't had a ton of games out lately if we're just talking US.

-average review score: Okay, now I know they've done pretty well here. ToS, Time Crisis 3, KD have done well. Only ones to perform poorly have been Spawn and the two racing games.

-percentage of games that used original IP: 58.3%

-number of forthcoming releases: Taiko: Drum Master, Ace Combat 05, Baten Kaitos, Xenosaga Episode II, Tales of Rebirth, and more.

-number of games scrapped: None that I know of.

Really, compare this to #13 (which has had absolutely 0 games average above an 80%, 33% were original, and very few games coming out in the future). Strange.

 

[Alcibiades]

Efralope,

Is this study based purely on consoles (PS2,Xbox,GC) or does it include PC and GBA as well?

They don't really specify a focus, but THQ (#4) is mentioned to be doing some cell phone stuff and they get marks for their children's titles (13% of their output).

this is what they use for their scoring:

-revenue per title (instead of profability, which would seem to me to be a better long term indicator, since at some point, companies that continue to lose money are probably going to want to stop it one day)

-average review score (hmmm, did they gloss of some sports games from a certain company)

-percentage of games that used original IP (um, what does this mean, Sudeki is more original that Wario Ware Mega Party games?, see note below)

-number of forthcoming releases]

-number of games scrapped (didn't somebody just scrap almost their entire sports lineup, plus TFLO, plus hand off OddWorld in the past year).

The article seems to use contradictory statements and/or are unclear about what they are saying:

[/quote]Only 12% of Nintendo's games were original concepts, the rest relied on existing IP such as Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, and Zelda.[/quote]

so concepts = character usage?

I'd say stuff like Pikmin 2, Donkey Konga (especially Jam Session), Four Swords, Crystal Chronicles (which they did publish here) are much more likely to come off as "original concepts" here in the US than another Microsoft(#2), Ubisoft(#5), Eidos(#6) shooter (not they aren't original or use original IP, but in terms of the perception by consumers).

 

[Kon Tiki]

Only 12% of Nintendo's games were original concepts,

And MS were? FPS, Racer, and oh sports.

I think I am overlooking something.

Brute Force...Lizards with guns! Thats original, no really it is.

 

[Ghost]

Its pretty obvious they meant original Properties, seeing as they pointed it out later in the sentance you chastised.

 

[Alcibiades]

Its pretty obvious they meant original Properties, seeing as they pointed it out later in the sentance you chastised.

then why even bother with the word "concepts" as if to imply that Nintendo's output is 90% rehashes (their last 4 GCN games have been Wario Ware Mega Party Games, Four Swords, Pikmin 2, and Donkey Konga, which lean much more on using"original concepts" IMO than a simple attack on them for using Mario and Zelda).

even if they had said, "original characters", I would have questioned the importance of new properties, since it could very well be another military shooter or GTA-ripoff.

 

[Kon Tiki]

It is assinine to determine a publishers worth based on new IP when the publisher is less than a generation old. Obvioulsy they will have more new IPs. Every topic is loaded.