THE WORLD’S MOST SUCCESSFUL GAME STUDIOS
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P
erhaps unsurprisingly, Nintendo storms to the the Marios and the Zeldas of the world, are top of the charts after what marked a no longer the sole flagships to be relied upon. renaissance year for the company, with its Wii Of course, this list excludes one key Nintendo title completing a tide-change sparked by the DS two which has been praised year-round but gets no years previously. revenue credit: pack-in game Wii Sports, which is What’s most interesting about the titles owned by every Western Wii owner and is one of developed by the numerous teams at Nintendo’s the most popular pieces of software at the moment, HQ in Kyoto, Japan, isn’t their highly-regarded despite never having sold a single unit in Europe or quality level or innovative content – but how they the US (but it is sold separately in Japan). actually buck sales trends. It’s worth noting also that Nintendo Nintendo has has performed impressively in the For all of the key titles listed left which were released prior to 2007, Develop 100 since we started four performed sales revenues have gone up year on years ago. The company has gone year – there are no economic long impressively in from a relatively pitiful (for such an tails here. The first Brain Training the Develop esteemed company) number 28 in made £21.22m at UK retail in 2007 – 2004, at a point when the GameCube 100, going more than double the £9.61m made was all but dead, to the top spot, the year previously, for instance. New from 28th to dethroning stalwart ruler EA Canada Super Mario Bros kept things ticking on the way. In that time, its revenue first in four over also, making £14.68m in 2007, a growth has been against market few million more than 2006’s trends also, the company often years £12.72m. growing revenues by over 200 per Part of this trend will be undoubtedly bound cent year on year at times when the UK market’s closely to Nintendo’s savvy marketing of its overall growth was flat or only up by a few percent. hardware platforms, which have been sustained For the 2009 Develop 100, we’re predicting that successes year-round and brought with it more and Nintendo will once again sit at the top of the more new players buying must-own games such as listing, given that staple games Smash Bros and the best sellers listed opposite. But it’s also part of Mario Kart are due and new game Wii Fit and its an interesting change in Nintendo’s IP strategy, new Balance Board peripheral will reach out to where its traditional key character-based games, mass-market consumers the way Brain Training has.
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