2006's Top 20 Game Publishers Ranked 33
simoniker writes "Game Developer magazine's Top 20 Publishers list for 2006 has been published online — the list from the industry magazine ranks publishers by using multiple factors, including revenue, average game review score, and anonymous feedback from game industry insiders. In the 2006 version of the poll, which looks at software produced (and doesn't factor in hardware), Electronic Arts came out on top, closely followed by Nintendo, with Buena Vista Games and NCSoft making first entries into the Top 20."
The List (Score:4, Informative)
1. Electronic Arts
2. Nintendo
3. Activision
4. Sony Computer Entertainment
5. Take-Two Interactive
6. Microsoft Game Studios
7. THQ
8. Ubisoft
9. Konami
10. Sega Sammy Holdings
11. Namco Bandai
12. Vivendi Games
13. Square-Enix
14. Capcom
15. NCSoft
16. SCi/Eidos
17. Lucasarts
18. Buena Vista Games
19. Atari
20. Midway
One line caught my eye, though: "Square Enix nurtured its online games business during the period, with Final Fantasy XI receiving an expansion during the year and increasing its subscriber base to over 500,000 users."
This is amusing, because prior to the release of WoW, they had 650,000 subscribers. Apparently their subscriber base has increased by an impressive -150,000 subscribers.