8 most powerful game studios in the world, decided by Gamepro

• Epic Games
• Bungie
• Rockstar North
• Maxis Software
• EA Tiburon
• Sony Computer Entertainment
• Blizzard Entertainment
• Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development

http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/08/07/the-eight-most-powerful-game-studios-in-the-world-as-decided-by-gamepro/

I feel that maxis should not be in the list ..

Never heard of Maxis.SpinoRaptor

The Sims ... and all "SIM" games?....

And now Spore ofc.

[QUOTE="SpinoRaptor"]Never heard of Maxis.PC360Wii

The Sims ... and all "SIM" games?....

And now Spore ofc.

Oh ok. I never played the Sims.

Epic and Bungie = lulz

Activision should be up there for sure, not sure what other but Epic and Bungie's games sell and get as much public attention as any of those owned by the other companies on the list. Maxis should definitely be on there, the Sims is MASSIVE.

Epic and Bungie = lulz

Activision should be up there for sure, not sure what other but Epic and Bungie's games sell and get as much public attention as any of those owned by the other companies on the list. Maxis should definitely be on there, the Sims is MASSIVE.

bobbetybob

Isn't the original Sims the number one selling game of all time?

Bungie #2. Those guys are great.Killer2401

There no order to the list

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]

Epic and Bungie = lulz

Activision should be up there for sure, not sure what other but Epic and Bungie's games sell and get as much public attention as any of those owned by the other companies on the list. Maxis should definitely be on there, the Sims is MASSIVE.

chazasul

Isn't the original Sims the number one selling game of all time?

Yes I think so, as a franchise it's sold a load as well but Mario and Pokemon are beating it.

And Chutebox I'll take your suggestion and put it into my other spot to replace Epic/Bungie, I forgot about SE,Activision + SE should be on there

Square Enix
Valve
Ubisoft
Capcom

????

Sounds about right. Surprising not to see any Japanese companies there besides Nintendo. No Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, Namco... my how things change.

EA Tiburon is the EA sports branch, right? I know they do Madden, but do they do NHL/NBA/MLB/FIFA etc? Blizzard and RockStar definitely deserve to be on there, Blizzard is the most consistently awesome company in the history of the biz and RockStar is responsible for popularizing sandbox games. Even their decent games like Red Dead Revolver kick a lot of games in the ass, and GTA, Bully, the Warriors... sublime. I hope they tackle another old movie or something like The Warriors, that game was a freaking awesome beat 'em up.

[QUOTE="chazasul"][QUOTE="bobbetybob"]

Epic and Bungie = lulz

Activision should be up there for sure, not sure what other but Epic and Bungie's games sell and get as much public attention as any of those owned by the other companies on the list. Maxis should definitely be on there, the Sims is MASSIVE.

bobbetybob

Isn't the original Sims the number one selling game of all time?

Yes I think so, as a franchise it's sold a load as well but Mario and Pokemon are beating it.

And Chutebox I'll take your suggestion and put it into my other spot to replace Epic/Bungie, I forgot about SE,Activision + SE should be on there

Mario and Pokemon are beating everything, they literally have 50 games between them just this gen. It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing what a cash-in the DS and the Wii are.

Activision is a publisher. If the list was about publishers and not the actual game studios (regardless of any semantics about EA actually being a game studio because they bought blah blah blah), it would be a short list: EA and Activision. Period.

Epic and Bungie = lulz

Activision should be up there for sure, not sure what other but Epic and Bungie's games sell and get as much public attention as any of those owned by the other companies on the list. Maxis should definitely be on there, the Sims is MASSIVE.

bobbetybob

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA. Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

Sounds about right. Surprising not to see any Japanese companies there besides Nintendo. No Konami, Capcom, Tecmo, Namco... my how things change.

EA Tiburon is the EA sports branch, right? I know they do Madden, but do they do NHL/NBA/MLB/FIFA etc? Blizzard and RockStar definitely deserve to be on there, Blizzard is the most consistently awesome company in the history of the biz and RockStar is responsible for popularizing sandbox games. Even their decent games like Red Dead Revolver kick a lot of games in the ass, and GTA, Bully, the Warriors... sublime. I hope they tackle another old movie or something like The Warriors, that game was a freaking awesome beat 'em up.

excelR83

The only other JPN companies that would come close are SE....MAYBE capcom although i would say not. Konami and Tecmo aren't that big at all. Tecmo wouldn't even be in the top 15.

[QUOTE="bobbetybob"]

Epic and Bungie = lulz

Activision should be up there for sure, not sure what other but Epic and Bungie's games sell and get as much public attention as any of those owned by the other companies on the list. Maxis should definitely be on there, the Sims is MASSIVE.

excelR83

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA. Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

Yeah good point I wasn't thinking when I wrote that. Valve or one of the Ubisoft studios should probably be up there then.

How are Epic and Bungie more powerful than Valve?Hexagon_777

When Bungie speaks the world looks on. When Valve speaks only the hardcore care to pay attention.

If you're thinking who makes better games, then making better games does not necessarily correlate to being more powerful.

Yeah good point I wasn't thinking when I wrote that. Valve or one of the Ubisoft studios should probably be up there then.

bobbetybob

Ubi Montreal could be up there, and despite being my most revered developer, I'm not sure if they have the pulling power these other devs have.

They seem to live on another planet altogether, and just bring the goods whenever they're ready.

Epic does belong on that list. Unreal Engine anyone ?

As for Bungie...meh, they made a couple of great games but imo they definitely shouldn't be there.

I feel that maxis should not be in the list ..

sdu_1111

well they did create one of the best selling franchise of all time The Sims.

also creating probably the most ambitious games of all time, Spore.

Epic does belong on that list. Unreal Engine anyone ?

As for Bungie...meh, they made a couple of great games but imo they definitely shouldn't be there.

Tykain

they have a lot of it. when they release a game, the world knows.

[QUOTE="SpinoRaptor"]Never heard of Maxis.PC360Wii

The Sims ... and all "SIM" games?....

And now Spore ofc.

[QUOTE="Tykain"]

Epic does belong on that list. Unreal Engine anyone ?

As for Bungie...meh, they made a couple of great games but imo they definitely shouldn't be there.

Dreams-Visions

they have a lot of it. when they release a game, the world knows.

Yes, the world knows. Thanks to Microsoft massively advertising Halo. If it wasn't for M$, Halo would be only known to hardcore gamers much like Half Life.

Imo, Square-Enix would make more sense on that list than Bungie. And Valve even more so.

Should be Valve instead of Epic. But then again, who cares? Epic has Gears of War, and Valve has a distribution service that has 15 million subscribers, Valve would take that over another triple A franchise any day of the week.Noldorin2646

And Epic has the unreal engine that pretty much every Dev is licensing. o.0 If anything Valve should bump bungie off, I'm not sure how there up there, they made an incredible game series yes..but i don't see how it makes them that good. o.0 Valve did Half life and much more.

[QUOTE="Hexagon_777"]How are Epic and Bungie more powerful than Valve?FrozenLiquid

When Bungie speaks the world looks on. When Valve speaks only the hardcore care to pay attention.

If you're thinking who makes better games, then making better games does not necessarily correlate to being more powerful.

And Epic has the unreal engine that pretty much every Dev is licensing. o.0 If anything Valve should bump bungie off, I'm not sure how there up there, they made an incredible game series yes..but i don't see how it makes them that good. o.0 Valve did Half life and much more.

CreepyBacon

Bungie commands the kind of media attention and fan following that rivals Blizzard and Valve with only its games, not services like WoW and Steam. Of course, some of that is Microsoft propping it up, but we haven't seen a decline in interest since the split.

As for Epic, the UT franchise is on life support after UT 3. Ironically, releasing the game on Steam has steadily helped it limping along. Sure, developing the Unreal Engine 3 solidified Epic's credibility, but even with that considered, basing on games solely, that doesn't make the studio superior to Valve, let alone the giant behemoth that is Steam

[QUOTE="CreepyBacon"]

And Epic has the unreal engine that pretty much every Dev is licensing. o.0 If anything Valve should bump bungie off, I'm not sure how there up there, they made an incredible game series yes..but i don't see how it makes them that good. o.0 Valve did Half life and much more.

Noldorin2646

Bungie commands the kind of media attention and fan following that rivals Blizzard and Valve with only its games, not services like WoW and Steam. Of course, some of that is Microsoft propping it up, but we haven't seen a decline in interest since the split.

As for Epic, the UT franchise is on life support after UT 3. Ironically, releasing the game on Steam has steadily helped it limping along. Sure, developing the Unreal Engine 3 solidified Epic's credibility, but even with that considered, basing on games solely, that doesn't make the studio superior to Valve, let alone the giant behemoth that is Steam

Creepy is right, Epic deserves a spot on that list more than Bungie. Lets face it Bungie has only made 3 games in the past two gens and they dont even own the rights to those games. If Bungie was left to its self without the Halo franchise or MS spending huge amounts of money publicising Bungie's games they would not command a huge media attention.

This list is about powerful studious and with no huge franchise behind their name I dont think Bungie deserves to be in that list. As for Epic altho their UT franchise is not what it used to be, they still have that franchise and Gears and compared to Bungie, which has none worth mentioning, that still puts them ahead. When you add the fact that they sell their engine to a lot of other game dev, Epic is a very powerful studio.

[QUOTE="PC360Wii"]

[QUOTE="SpinoRaptor"]Never heard of Maxis.SpinoRaptor

The Sims ... and all "SIM" games?....

And now Spore ofc.

Oh ok. I never played the Sims.

noob

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA.Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

excelR83

Actualy,VIVENDI is publisher of blizzard's games and activision is both developer and publisher

It seems kinda stupid to have SCE on there as a developer, when they're the umbrella over multiple development teams/studios. SCE basically refers to Sony internal studios, American, Japanese and European, all under one.

If that's the case, then Nintendo might as well just be listed as Nintendo, dropping the R&D bs. No other company in the industry has as many surefire hits created internally.

[QUOTE="excelR83"]

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA.Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

Lidve

Actualy,VIVENDI is publisher of blizzard's games and activision is both developer and publisher

[QUOTE="Noldorin2646"]Should be Valve instead of Epic. But then again, who cares? Epic has Gears of War, and Valve has a distribution service that has 15 million subscribers, Valve would take that over another triple A franchise any day of the week.CreepyBacon

And Epic has the unreal engine that pretty much every Dev is licensing. o.0 If anything Valve should bump bungie off, I'm not sure how there up there, they made an incredible game series yes..but i don't see how it makes them that good. o.0 Valve did Half life and much more.

Halo isn't their only game series...

No Valve? They pretty much dominate the DLC market...
Oh well.Doom_HellKnight

i was also surprised

hmm thought capcom would be on list o wells

presides that not too shabby of a list

[QUOTE="Lidve"][QUOTE="excelR83"]

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA.Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

Hexagon_777

Actualy,VIVENDI is publisher of blizzard's games and activision is both developer and publisher

Actually, I think they merged, which is different from acquired.

[QUOTE="Hexagon_777"][QUOTE="Lidve"][QUOTE="excelR83"]

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA.Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

Zhengi

Actualy,VIVENDI is publisher of blizzard's games and activision is both developer and publisher

Actually, I think they merged, which is different from acquired.

[QUOTE="Zhengi"][QUOTE="Hexagon_777"][QUOTE="Lidve"][QUOTE="excelR83"]

No? They are a publisher. If this was about publishers Maxis would not be on there, it would be EA.Blizzard would not be on there, it would be Activision. They are talking the actual studios that make the games, ie Bungie, Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Team Ninja, 2K Boston...

Hexagon_777

Actualy,VIVENDI is publisher of blizzard's games and activision is both developer and publisher

Actually, I think they merged, which is different from acquired.

So Vivendi is the majority shareholder at 52%? Interesting.