Mag Announces Top 50 Developers

torif — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:00:50 MST

A new study from Gamasutra and sister divisions Game Developer magazine and Game Deveolper Research division has selected the top 50 developers in the gaming industry today. It was based on reputation and sales data, through anonymous surveys and assessments of sales charts in the US, the UK, and Japan, the number of games released each year, and the average metacritic rating. While the sales data is handy, the all-encompassing approach taken by the study to include reputation, as well, makes this study interesting. According to Gamasutra, "the resulting report is the only multi-input empirical ranking available for game development studios."

Hit the jump for the top 20 devs on the list.

1. Nintendo Kyoto (Brain Age, Wii Play)
2. Infinity Ward (Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
3. Blizzard Entertainment (World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade)
4. Electronic Arts Canada (FIFA Soccer 08, NBA Street: Homecourt)
5. Valve (Portal, Team Fortress 2)
6. Konami Japan Studio (Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer, Dance Dance Revolution Universe)
7. Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank Future)
8. Capcom Osaka Studio (Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, Monster Hunter Freedom)
9. Electronic Arts Tiburon (Madden NFL 08, NASCAR 08)
10. BioWare Edmonton (Mass Effect, Jade Empire: Special Edition)
11. Bungie Studios (Halo 3)
12. Ubisoft Montreal (Assassin's Creed, Naruto: Rise Of A Ninja)
13. 2K Boston [& Australia] (BioShock)
14. Harmonix (Rock Band)
15. Bandai Namco Tokyo (Ace Combat 6: Fires Of Liberation, Beautiful Katamari)
16. Square Enix Tokyo (Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Front Mission DS)
17. Game Freak (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl)
18. Epic Games (Unreal Tournament 3, Gears Of War PC)
19. Hudson Soft (Mario Party 8, Mario Party DS)
20. Neversoft (Guitar Hero III, Tony Hawk's Proving Ground)

Nintendo, Infinity Ward, Blizzard Top First-Ever 'Top 50 Developers' Countdown [Gamasutra]

The Xbox Live Algorithm

Brian Crecente — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 05:01:54 MST

Xbox Live's new, and very sweet, skill-tracking algorithm for ranking gamers:

μwinner ← μwinner + σ2winner/c * v((μwinner-μloser)/c,ε/c)
μloser ← μloser - σ2loser/c * v((μwinner-μloser)/c,ε/c)
σ2winner ← σ2winner*[1-σ2winner/c2 * w((μwinner-μloser)/c,ε/c)]
σ2loser ← σ2loser*[1-σ2loser/c2 * w((μwinner-μloser)/c,ε/c)]
c2 = 2β2 + σ2winner + σ2loser

Yes, it looks like gibberish to me too. But the trademarked ranking system, called TruSkill, is Microsoft's attempt at improving on Arpad Elo's famous ranking system used in Chess and many other things. The new system bases its score for a given player based largely on two things: the average skill of the gamer and the degree of uncertainty in the gamer's skill. It will take a much better man than me to truly explain the process, but it looks like Msoft is trying to rework the formulas to allow a player's individual improvements to more easily effect the skill score.

And here's another batch of gibberish (this one shows how matchmaking is done) to make what I just said make relative sense.

exp(-(μA-μB)2)/(2*c2)) * √d
c2 = 2β2 + σ2winner + σ2loser
d = 2β2/c2

TrueSkill [Microsoft Research]

Kotaku: Ranking

Mag Announces Top 50 Developers

The Xbox Live Algorithm