Top 10 Video Game Publishers

Fus ro dah! In publishing Bethesda’s games, this publisher has conquered many a strange land. They’ve managed to deliver massively detailed worlds in “Elder Scrolls” and “Fallout” that have consumed us for hours on end. ZeniMax also recently acquired ID Software in 2009, and Arkane Studios, whose recent success came in the form of Dishonored. While they mostly use the Bethesda Softworks name for brand recognition, ZeniMax is at the top of the chain.

Not only the publishers of the Metal Gear series, which has consistently proven to be technologically and narratively impressive franchise, but also Castlevania which helped define the Metroidvania genre with Symphony of the Night. Now with the new Silent Hill game, starring The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus and co-directed by Guillermo Del Toro and Hideo Kojima, set to arrive soon, Konami continues to be relevant in an ever competitive field.

The RPG kings of the 90’s continue to dominate today. Made up of Enix who made the Dragon Quest powerhouse in Japan, and Squaresoft who brought us the poorly named JRPG Behemoth that is Final Fantasy. With the two merging in 2003 they were also able to acquire many other publishers, including Eidos in 2009, who’s IP’s including Deus Ex, Thief and the Tomb Raider series, Square Enix has become one of the largest publishers today.

Grab your crowbars! Sure, their Steam platform has come to dominate the PC space, and their catalogue of games is stupendous to this day with gems like Team Fortress 2 and Portal complementing their epic Half Life series. Plus, them being voted as one of the best companies to work at is a telling sign of how good their current position is. But as the tortuous wait for trilogy conclusions continues, the lower their rank as a video game publisher. Sorry Valve, but we all want Half Life 3 yesterday.

You might know them best as the guys who own Rockstar Games, the guys behind Grand Theft Auto, though work with other developers have also given ups Borderlands, Civilization and Bioshock, games that have conquered generations of hardware, and hit billions of sales within days of release. Their other games are good as well, seeing as they are the only consistent alternative in the sports world with 2K Games. It’s probably no surprise then that EA tried to take over this Juggernaut in 2008, but the value of the Company was just too much, even for them.

With a plethora of studios under their belt they certainly live up to their slogan: Greatness arrives. Ranging from Naughty Dog, makers of Uncharted and The Last of Us, to Geurilla, makers of Killzone, along with a myriad of may others games, Sony likes to make sure they control the who’s making the hits for their hardware. Quality can vary, but the sheer extent of unique experiences like Puppeteer and LittleBigPlanet make Sony a juggernaut. On top of that. their PS Plus and PS Now services are excellent values and proof that the software experience is consistently more important than the hardware.

Whoa whoa whoa whoa … Set the pitchforks down, internet. While their reputation has suffered in the eyes of gamers, voted twice as Americas worst company, their catalogue of games, from Battlefield to sports games like Madden and Fifa, continue to sell millions and cannot be ignored. They also, for better or worse, have acquired many other developers over the years. Most notably Bioware who brought us the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games under the EA banner. You might not like EA, but we’re willing to bet you like a few of their game.

They helped bring back video games from the crash of 1983 with Super Mario Bros. and their venture into videogames blazed the trail for others to follow suit. Even if you ignore the likes of Mario, Legend of Zelda and Pokemon under their belts as 1st party titles, over the years they’ve continue to surprise us by publishing external games we thought they’d never touch, notably Eternal Darkness, and Bayonetta 2. While the Wii U has struggled as of late, the 3DS is still going strong, and despite what the trolls say, they ain’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Originating from France and quickly becoming one of the strongest game companies around, many point to Ubisoft for feeding into the parkour craze with their Assasin’s Creed series. They didn’t rest on their laurels when they revived their 90’s Rayman franchise into Rayman: Origins and Legends, nor when they took a chance with their new major franchise “Watch Dogs”. The company also holds the rights to the Tom Clancy series with a slew of types of modern war games. And for the casual market: There’s Just Dance, one of the few reasons to hang on to that Kinect you don’t like to mention you own.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Bandai Namco Games
Sega
Warner Bros. Interactive
Capcom
Microsoft Game Studios

When these two behemoths converged in 2008, franchises like “Call of Duty”, “Diablo”, “Warcraft”, “Skylanders” and “Guitar Hero” suddenly fell under the same roof. Activision has been around since the days of the Atari 2600 with some of their early successes being Pitfall and River Raid, while Blizzard still holds the biggest MMORPG of all time in the form of World of Warcraft, and that’s not even mentioning their strategy franchises. With something for every gamer and 2 of the biggest household names in gaming under their belts, it’s impossible not to consider the sheer presence this company has had on gaming as a whole, and that’s why they’ve got the number one spot.


Do you agree with our list? What’s your favorite video game publisher? For more gigantic Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.