Industry magazine Develop has compiled a list of the 100 most profitable videogame development studios, based on the revenue they generated at UK retail last year. The full results are being released tomorrow, but for now, the press release hints at a decent 2004 for British studios, and makes some surprising discoveries about who is really pulling down the big bucks. Here's the best snippet:
Whilst US Developers pulled around £350million through UK tills, native developers managed a hugely creditable £250million, demolishing totals from Asian teams (£100million) and embarrassing our continental cousins (£30million).
EA's Canada studio (FIFA Soccer, Need For Speed Underground 2, Total Club Manager 2005) topped the chart by some margin, pulling in £93.5million during 12 months and beating its nearest rival Rockstar North (GTA: San Andreas, GTA Vice City, Manhunt) by over £22million.
Further down the chart, things get really interesting. Who would have thought Reflections (Driv3r) would have beaten Pandemic (Full Spectrum Warrior, Star Wars: Battlefront) by six clear places? Or that Eurocom (Sphinx and The Cursed Mummy, Athens 2004) would sit two places above Nintendo (Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords and Pokemon Colosseum)?
