Blizzard Entertainment, the developer behind the ever popular World of Warcraft has topped a list of the 100 most bankable studios worldwide. The list, dubbed the Develop 100, was assembled by the team of Develop Magazine and takes into account a number of factors to reach its ranking decisions. These include sales figures, aggregated review score data, industry standing, studio reputation and publisher relations. Considerations such as the impact of casual and social network gaming were also made, as well as that of platforms like the iPhone.
With over 10 million WoW subscribers worldwide and annual revenues of $1.34 billion, it isn't hard to see how Blizzard achieved its leading position in the rankings. Other notable studios include Nintendo and Rockstar North (makers of Grand Theft Auto), who round out the top 3. As a sign of the times, developers of online and mobile games such as PopCap (35th) also appear on the list, showing just how far gaming has moved into new formats and platforms. If you want to find out how the developer of your favourite game fared, then you can take a look at the full Develop 100 here. You can also check out a much more in depth online magazine version of the rankings, which comes complete with information and/or statistics on each of the ranked studios.