A research study done by GameDeveloper magazine, sister-companies Gamasutra.com, and Game Developer Research division has announced the Top 50 Game Developers in the gaming industry today. The entire report can be found in the March issue of Game Developer Magazine (pictured left) which also has the Call of Duty 4 postmortem written by our Lead Technical Artist Michael Boon and one of our Lead Designers Zied Rieke.
The report was based on reputation and sales data, through anonymous surveys and assessments of sales charts in the US, the UK, and Japan, the number of games released each year, and the average metacritic rating. While the sales data is handy, the all-encompassing approach taken by the study to include reputation, as well, makes this study interesting.
So how did Infinity Ward make out? Well, I don’t need a report to tell me that Infinity Ward is the greatest developer around today, but it’s always nice to see it recognized as such. The top 5 Developers from the list include:
1. Nintendo Kyoto (Brain Age, Wii Play)
2. Infinity Ward (Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
3. Blizzard Entertainment (World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade)
4. Electronic Arts Canada (FIFA Soccer 08, NBA Street: Homecourt)
5. Valve (Portal, Team Fortress 2)
I have to say that this is a huge honor to be in the company of such amazing developers and to rank #2 of the the top developers world wide is absolutely amazing. According to the report:
The second place went to Activision-owned developer Infinity Ward, thanks to both the resounding critical and commercial success of its 2007 release Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and high scores and healthy praise for the developer’s working conditions, professionalism, and attention to quality.
I can 100% vouch for that statement as there is absolutely no developer that I would rather work for. The report does a great job of breaking down why they were chosen and displaying some of the data used to determine their status. It’s great to see developers like Nintendo, Valve, and Blizzard topping the list with us as they are some of my personal favorite developers.
Meanwhile, in the same issue you can check out a postmortem for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, this time written by our Lead Technical Artist and one of our Lead Designers. It’s a fantastic read and goes over the top 5 things that went right (such as the switch to Modern Setting), and the inevitable top 5 things that went wrong (such as too much desert). So if you’re interested in an honest behind the scenes look and retrospective look back at the development of the game, check it out.
Hit the jump for the list of the Top 20 Developers of the Top 50 report.
