The Evolving European Video Game Software Ecosystem - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 207

Table 11.2 Top Game Publishers 2010

2010 Position Name of Publisher Country

1 Nintendo Japan

2 Electronic Arts U.S.

3 Activision Blizzard U.S./France

4 Ubisoft France

5 Take-Two Interactive U.S.

6 Sony Entertainment Japan/U.S.

7 ZeniMax Media U.S.

8 THQ U.S.

9 Square Enix Japan

10 Microsoft U.S.

11 Konami Japan

12 Sega Japan

13 Capcom Japan

14 Nexon Japan

15 Namco Bandai Japan

16 Warner Bros. Interactive U.S.

17 Namco Japan

18 Valve Corporation U.S.

19 Atlus Japan

20 Zynga U.S.

Note: The ranking is not based on revenues but rather on the experience of working with the
publishers.
Source: Adapted from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_publisher (a ccessed
December 13, 2011), referring to Game developer magazine of September 21, 2010. 8

strive to reduce risk and uncertainty through portfolio thinking, genres,
inclusion of strong brands and intellectual property from other and sequels
(Kerr 2006), similar to other content and media industries (e.g. the motion
picture industry).
As a result of taking advantage of these economies of scale and scope,
during the 1990s, the global publishing industry consolidated around ten
to twenty major companies (like EA, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Infogrames/Atari),
whereas the 2000s saw a trend of vertical integration with developers (and
distribution) rather than further consolidation, in order to better control
production, deadlines and intellectual property (Kerr 2006).
Indeed, U.S. and Japanese companies hold the lead in the publish-
ing stage of the video game value chain. Among the world's top twenty
video game publishers (Table 11.2 ), there are only one or two European