A new study has been published by the magazine, Game Developer. The study looked at the best and most successful game developers of 2009. The rankings they came to were based on the Metacritic score aswell as the retail performance in Japan, UK and the US.

Here’s the list of the top 20 game developers that were announced and what games they got ranked for. You can find the full list of 50 game developers here.

1. Nintendo Kyoto Studio – Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit
2. Blizzard Entertainment – World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. Ubisoft Montreal – Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia
4. Rockstar North – Grand Theft Auto 4
5. EA Canada – FIFA Soccer 09, NHL 09
6. Konami Tokyo Studio – Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
7. Valve - Left 4 Dead
8. Epic Games – Gears of War 2, Unreal Tournament 3
9. EA Tiburon – Madden NFL 09, NASCAR 09
10. Treyarch – Call of Duty: World at War
11. HAL Laboratory – Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia
12. Capcom Osaka Studio – Devil May Cry 4, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
13. Traveller’s Tales - Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones
14. Bethesda Game Studios - Fallout 3
15. Insomniac Games – Resistance 2, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
16. Namco Bandai Games Tokyo Studio – Soul Calibur 4, We Ski
17. EA Redwood Shores – Dead Space, MySims
18. Koei Yokohama Studio – Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11, G1 Jockey 4 2008
19. Kojima Productions - Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
20. Harmonix Music Systems - Rock Band 2

Nintendo were announced the best developer of 2009 because of it’s “incredibly strong sales and high industry reputation.” This statement is backed-up their game releases, Wii Fit which saw 18.2 million units worldwide, and Mario Kart Wii which saw 15.4 million world wide sales.

Blizzard was named second place due to the release of the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which sold over 2.8 million units just one day after release, which set a new gaming record. Blizzard was ranked third in Game Developer’s top 50 game developers 2008 list for the second World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade.

The third place went to Ubisoft Montreal who saw game success in games like Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia and finally Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The developer saw a considerable rise in rankings from last year where they were ranked 12th, rising 9 positions in 2009.

I must say that every one of the developers in that top 20 list deserve to be there because they have collectively supplied a huge number of great games to play, and they have certainly kept me entertained for alot of hours. It also looks like the Game Developer magazine will have trouble ranking the developers based on the amount of brilliant games that are due for release at the end of 2009 and beginning of 2010.

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