British industry publication Develop Magazine has unveiled its inaugural Develop 100 list of companies, which ranks individual development studios according to its success in financial terms at UK retail outlets. A supplement profiling all 100 companies was distributed free with trade paper MCV this week.
The rankings for Develop 100 are calculated according to revenues generated at UK retail, using figures provided by ChartTrack. The data used comes from sales between January 1st 2004 and December 31st 2004, across all formats and price points.
The top ten developers were listed as follows:
1. EA Canada - £93,513,089 ($176,889,836) generated at UK retail
2. Rockstar North - £71,067,230 ($134,425,159)
3. Maxis - £31,907,533 ($60,353,769)
4. EA Redwood Shores - £30,600,306 ($57,881,122)
5. Ubisoft Montreal - £22,930,009 ($43,375,877)
6. London Studios (SCEE) - £22,914,433 ($43,346,412)
7. KCE Tokyo (Konami) - £22,127,973 ($41,871,718)
8. Sonic Team - £20,762,935 ($39,288,721)
9. Codemasters - £19,153,610 ($36,243,472)
10. EA Los Angeles - £18,934,945 ($35,833,447)
The strong perfomance of EA Canada in the UK market can be put down to the ongoing success of the
FIFA Football franchise, for which the developer is responsible.
The highest ranking UK studio was
Grand Theft Auto and
Manhunt developer Rockstar (nee DMA Design) at number two, while the highest ranked U.S. developer was
The Sims creator Maxis at number three. Konami’s Tokyo studio was the highest ranked Japanese developer at number seven.
"It's been an interesting exercise, and surprising not just because of the positions attained by some of the largest developers behind the largest games, but also how much each team contributed to the UK games industry," says Owain Bennallack, editor, Develop Magazine. "It's time, at last, for the developers themselves to get recognition, and we're confident the Develop 100 will become a much anticipated and much discussed industry publication."
