Develop Magazine has released their list of the top “most bankable” development studios. Specifically, the website states that: ‘Develop 100 ranks the world's most bankable games development studios based on a variety of key criteria including sales data, critical success and industry standing.” In order to qualify for the list, companies had to have released “key titles” in 2008. The magazine’s editors took into account such factors as: review scores (as per Metacritic and Gamequary), general industry standing, studio reputation, publisher relations and more.

Focusing strictly on the MMO studios, Blizzard Entertainment took the number one spot overall. The next closest MMO company, Nexon, followed Bliazzard at 19th overall. The remaining MMORPG developers followed as such: 44 - Square Enix, 55 - EA Mythic, 58 - Codemasters, 62 - NCsoft, 70 - CCP, 77 - EA Bioware, and 83 – Funcom.

Blizzard taking the #1 spot as the most bankable game development studio shouldn’t take anyone by surprise, but how did you feel about the rest of the ranking order? Do you agree? Disagree? Let us know!

Check out the entire list at www.develop100.com

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