Interbrand has released its Top 100 brands of 2006 - and it's interesting to see how the big players in the videogame industry stack up against other consumer giants. Microsoft, of course, performs the best, scorching in at number 2 - but it cheats by having something to do with operating systems as well as games. Sony rumbles in later at number 26 (up two places from 2005!), which doesn't sound great but, hey, it's above Budweiser and Nike. Nintendo, meanwhile, makes do with 50, down one from the previous year, but still reasonably impressive.
No EA? Apparently not. Tellingly, one of the key criteria in deciding on the top 100 is, 'what percentage of a company's revenues can be credited to a brand...' Is the EA Sports logo what drives people to buy its games en masse, or is it the names and faces of the sports stars the company pays to appear on the boxes? Or is it that the games are really good and no one cares who publishes them?
The scarcity of videogame giants on the chart isn't really that surprising. There are only two other media entertainment brands on the list: MTV and Disney. Buying the right fizzy drinks, cars and credit cards is still more important to us than anything else.
