ALPHA | NEWS
Editorial
When it comes to crunch Develop has charted major industry trends since our first issue almost ten years ago. At the moment the rise of digital distribution, market expansion, small disruptive platforms, and a boom in team sizes and costs – plus the ways technology fits into the gaps around all these – is broadly the current state of play for our sector. Previously the rise of middleware and the tortuous dismantling of the old studio model in favour of outsourcing were our preoccupations. But so much for progress. As our salary survey in January and now our Quality of Life questionnaire prove, there is always sub-surface tension surrounding areas like staffing and human resources. Specifically when it comes to pay and overtime. Crunch has been part of industry for some time. Yet the testimonials given in our survey show that 75 per cent of developers don’t think it is necessary for creating good games. Similarly, 80 per cent or so say that unreasonable or unrealistic expectations cause crunch. 60 pe cent also say it has ruined their health. So it’s clear that bad planning and unchecked ambition have created a vicious circle of overtime and misery for the troops. There is an easy answer to all this – producers should plan better and, if it becomes necessary, overtime should be paid for. But that’s hard to execute. And it’s easy for us to throw stones from up here in our ivory editorial tower of words. Studios being told to spend extra money is probably the last thing they want to hear right now. But if you want proof that the best studios are built on a philosophy that take these important issues into account, just look at two of the studios in the Develop 100 who have been vocal about these issues. Epic Games (which rewards staff generously for crunch, by all accounts) and Relentless (which claims to have never worked overtime) might appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum given that one is pro and the other anti crunch. But ultimately they have the same aim, to make sure staff are happy and their bank balances well-fed. It says a lot that both can claim decent places in the 100 when other, reportedly less-rewarding, workhouses have slipped down the listing this year.
Michael French michael.french@intentmedia.co.uk
06 | MAY 2009
Blizzard topples Nintendo from the Develop 100 throne World of Warcraft studio takes first place in fifth edition of our controversial and widely-discussed global development team list World of Warcraft isn’t just famous for big swords and bigger quests – it’s a huge commercial and creative hit, too
by Michael French
WORLD OF WARCRAFT creator Blizzard Entertainment has taken the crown as number one studio in this year’s Develop 100. Nintendo has been dethroned in the fifth version of our annual list detailing the worlds most successful and bankable studios. The Japanese giant had ruled the listing for the last two years. Blizzard takes the top spot thanks to its sterling success with World of Warcraft – the franchise generates over $1bn in revenue each year, its expansion packs cause genuine excitement when launched at retail, and the MMO has truly entered pop culture’s collective consciousness. The result will no doubt be much discussed and argued, but still an
authoritative guide to the key studios shaping the games industry today. Free with this issue, the Develop 100 2009 edition is based on different criteria than in previous years. Ditching the UK-only sales figures focus, the list has been put together by the entire Develop team, taking into account a number of factors: end of calendar year 2008 charts distributed by GfK-ChartTrack (UK), NPD (USA) and Famitsu (Japan); Gamequarry.com reports aggregating review score data and critical commentary from Metacritic.com; we considered general industry standing including studio reputation, publisher relations and general all round brilliance. The new criteria hasn’t just widened Develop 100’s focus to include the power of
online distribution giants – the smaller companies making a big splash manage to make it into the list too. So for the first time Nexon also makes the list, as does Club Penguin and even Facebook gaming pioneers Playfish. But old favourites make it to the list too – the top ten features Nintendo, Rockstar North, Infinity Ward and Ubisoft Montreal, four studios which factor highly in the list every year due to their commercial clout and overall product quality. In total, 31 European studios make the list (25 of them from the UK), with 30 USA teams, six canadian studios and 23 Japanese. The full list is printed for reference to the right – the full book itself should have been included in the bag with this issue when you received it.