While last year's top developer Nintendo still performed admirable, Blizzard Entertainment pulled ahead this year to score the top spot in the Develop 100. With more than $100 million in subscription revenue per month generated from World of Warcraft alone and the fastest selling PC game of all time in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack, Blizzard simply dominated all things PC and massively-multiplayer related last year. Considering they've got Diablo III and StarCraft 2 coming down the line, I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard held onto the spot for another couple of years.

Nintendo's numbers are still pretty amazing. Over the course of last year four titles saw sales of 3-4 million apiece - Mario Kart DS, Nintendogs, Brain Training, and The New Super Mario Bros. - with all but one of those titles being released in 2005. That's 3-4 million sales each of games two to three years old. That's some serious longevity.

Rounding out the top ten developers we have Rockstar North, EA Canada, Capcom, Ubisoft Montreal, Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Epic, and Bethesda. Perhaps the most interesting take away from that list is Treyarch trumping Infinity Ward despite the fact that many gamers consider them to be the inferior Call of Duty developer.

Hit the link below for the full list of 2008's most bankable video game companies.

The Develop 100 [Official Site]

EA Canada grabbed number one mostly attributed to the popularity of the FIFA and Need for Speed games. Number two was Nintendo who jumped from the number five slot because of DS and Wii sales.

Right now the Development 100 site looks like it has last year's listings, so I'm guessing we'll have to wait to find out the full listing. I'll keep y'all posted. Kim Phu

Develop 100 rankings hit the web [MCVUK]