Game Developer Magazine releases Top 20 publisher list

Game Developer magazine has revealed its annual Top 20 publishers report, with a new company taking the number one spot.

More than 300 industry professionals from all parts of the game production process were asked to give their opinions on the reputations of each publisher in the survey.

In addition, scores and commentary were gathered from respondents who had direct experience with the publishers in the recent past, either as workers or partners, including milestone, marketing and pay feedback.

The fifth annual countdown resulted in Nintendo taking the top spot previously held by four-time winner Electronic Arts.

"Adding reputation-based feedback to our survey for the first time has brought an interesting, more well-rounded angle to the much-anticipated countdown," said Simon Carless, publisher of Game Developer magazine and Game Developer Research series.

"As we can see from the new rankings, the rise of casual gaming, coupled with these new reputational elements, has contributed markedly to ranking shifts, and weâre eager to see how these industry changes affect the report in subsequent years."

Rounding out the top five publishers are Activision, Ubisoft, and THQ. Joining the list for the first time is import game publisher Atlus USA, which came in at number 18, helping to drop Atari out of the Top 20.

The rankings took into account the number of releases by SKU, average game review scores, and publisher revenue from August 2006 to July 2007.

The full countdown overview of the Top 20 Publishers 2007 is available in the October 2007 edition of Game Developer magazine.