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Computer gaming is booming business worldwide. Most of the major game software companies are from Japan and the US. France and China also have growing game industries. Ten companies in the game industry have over 1 billion USD of software revenues. Together the Top 10 companies have gaming revenues of over 28 billion USD, about half of the total market estimated to be worth 55 billion USD in 2008.
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| Top Game Software Companies |
| Rank |
Company |
Game revenues |
| 1 |
Nintendo |
7,245 |
2
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Activision Blizzard |
4,622 |
| 3 |
Electronic Arts |
4,268 |
| 4 |
Sony |
2,603 |
| 5 |
Konami |
2,083 |
| 6 |
Namco Bandai |
1,569 |
| 7 |
Microsoft |
1,547 |
| 8 |
Ubisoft |
1,486 |
| 9 |
Take2 Interactive |
1,452 |
| 10 |
Sega Sammy |
1,407 |
| * Click here for the full Top 25 Game software companies |
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Nintendo, the biggest gaming company in the world today, experienced the most success, after opening up the world of gaming to a whole new audience with the Wii. Nintendo reached a peak of 7,248 mln USD in gaming revenue in 2008, several billions more than the nearest competitors Activision Blizzard (4,622 mln USD) and Electronic Arts (4,268 mln USD).
Online gaming is becoming more popular: many gamers are no longer satisfied playing against their computer; they rather go online to play against each other for a more realistic experience. For 2009, the market share of online games is estimated at one sixth of the total video game market. This share is likely to rise quickly, driven by the ongoing success of games such as World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) that requires a monthly subscription.
Frequent mergers and acquisitions keep shaking up the gaming industry. High profile transactions in recent years included the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games, the acquisition of VG by Electronic Arts (2008), and the merger between Koei and Tecmo (ranked 27th with 131 million USD revenue) in 2009. Square Enix, ranked 13th in the Top 25 Gaming companies, finished its 120 million USD acquisition of British Eidos in April 2009, tying the popular Tomb Raider title to its already impressive list of blockbuster games.
Not everyone is successful in the gaming industry: midsized gaming company Midway Games went bankrupt in February 2009. Warner Brothers picked up most of the assets in June. Traditional entertainment companies such as Warner Brothers, Disney Entertainment and Viacom (MTV Games) have become increasingly focused on the games business, attracted by the high profit figures of successful game producers.
A powerful market trend of late is the rise of Chinese online video gaming companies. The country lacks an industry of consoles and propriety games, but the internet has filled this gap, resulting in a thriving local industry of online gaming. This Top 25 contains four Chinese companies: Shanda, Giant Interactive, Changyou and Netease. Shanda Games was the largest IPO on the NYSE this year and is the only Chinese company in the Software Top 100. Changyou achieved the fastest growth of the Gaming Top 25, almost five folding software revenues in 2008. The company has only been in business for three years…
Click here to see the full list of 25 largest gaming software companies |
