The Best Development Studios for 2007

Inaugural Report Assesses Both Market Data and Industry Reputation to Determine that Nintendo Kyoto, Infinity Ward, and Blizzard Entertainment Top List of Development Studios for 2007

Think Services' Game Developer magazine and Game Developer Research division have announced a major new study ranking the top 50 game development studios worldwide. By combining empirical market data with a detailed survey taken by game development professionals via Webby Award-winning sister site Gamasutra.com, the Top 50 Developers report features a first-ever holistic view of the top game developers, using both sales and reputation data.

For the first-ever countdown, of which the Top 20 Developers are listed and detailed in the March 2008 issue of Game Developer magazine, Nintendo's Kyoto studio came out on top -- thanks in no small part to incredible sales of a healthy lineup of DS and Wii software, notably Wii Play, Wii Sports, and two Brain Age games. These titles rarely left Japanese and Western sales charts, demonstrating Nintendo's mastery of the casual games market. Survey comments heaped praise upon the Japanese giant for its focus on quality, and this was reflected in high review scores all around.

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. Rounding out the Top 3 was the Vivendi-owned Blizzard Entertainment, with major critical and commercial success of its World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion, along with some notable praise in the reputation section of the report.

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