Whether you’re 14 or 40 you can’t deny the impact of
video games and the change it has had on pop culture over the years. From Atari
to the Virtual boy console, the video game industry is now a 60 billion dollar
franchise and will only continue to grow over time, but what games can be
accredited for helping this power house
industry grow? Which franchises have had their finger dipped in the pie? And
what characters have won over the hearts of billions of kids across the world
and burn the pockets of countless amounts of parents every year. Today I will
be going over the top 5 “most successful video game developers”
5. Sonic Team
Although the sonic team may not have
had the most titles under their belt they were successful in 1 particular title that would eventually end up giving
them video game gold in well…sonic the hedgehog. Established in 1990 the sonic
team has had the grueling job of basically carrying SEGA on its back, the blue
speed demon has accounted for over $20 million dollars in sales (ALL BY HIMSELF
might I add), $20 million might seem like a lot but the fact that this company
has been around for over 15 years makes that money look more like nickel in a
sea of quarters. The sonic team is also responsible for the less popular
“virtual fighter” series and the “phantasy star online” series, what these 2
games lacked in overall mainstream popularity they made up for in creativity
and have since had a heavy fan cult following. I guess if there’s just 1 thing
we can thank the sonic team for doing it would have to be for making a figure
to rival the great mario
4. Bungie
When Microsoft announced that they
would be jumping into the gaming race heads spun. Bungie had been working on a
game that had the interest of both Microsoft and Macintosh, that game would later
be named halo. When the game made its appearance at E3 in 2000 Microsoft liked
what they saw and had to have it, halo would eventually be developed as an
exclusive 1st person shooter for Microsoft’s new experiment “XBOX” the game sold over 6 million copy’s. With the commercial success of halo
bungie studios would now have the pressure of creating a sequel to what could
have been the best 1st person shooter at that time, bungie would
further feel that pressure with a 3 way buy out of there studios, splitting ties
with both “Microsoft” and “Take two interactive” due to the debts of a massive
recall for bungies previous games Myth 2.
Halo 2 would be released in 2004 setting the standard for the gaming industry
with a record $125 million on release day, halo 2 would be later followed by 3
more games and about 10x the money. Bungie is currently preparing for the release
of their newest game “destiny” which
will be available for the PlayStation 4 console, as Sony hopes to have the same
success with the studio as its competitor has in the past years
3. CAPCOM
Ahh the company responsible for 50%
of my childhood, mega man, street fighter, strider?! Working the minds such as Tokuro
Fujiwara, Hiroshi Matsumoto, and Takahiro Arimitsu how could you not be making
money? Capcom has reeled in more than $700 million in the u.s alone, and that
number continues to grow with ongoing titles such as marvel vs Capcom and devil
may cry. Games however, have not been the only field Capcom has been involved
in. The “resident evil” series has not only found success as a franchise video
game, but on the silver screen as well. Capcom has been very profitable in the
way they market and promote themselves and in my opinion people should start
taking notes because with an all-star lineup of directors and developers this
is a company that is going to be in business for a long time
2. Konami
Corporation
Now I’m sure a lot of people are
just about done reading at this point, I mean Konami at the #2 spot? And a lot
of people are probably thinking “how exactly does this guy measure success?”
$2.4 billon u.s dollars as of 2012, you can’t have that much money without
being in an elite class of success and to think it all started with a jukebox
repair and rental shop in 1969. Konami has since been the LeBron James of the
video game world producing such hits as (as if I even have to list them)
-Metal gear
-Dance dance revolution
-Castlevania
-Contra
-Frogger
-Gradius
-Silent hill
-Yugioh
Part of the reason konami has had so
much success over the years is the company’s ability to venture off into other
aspects of the gaming world. Yugioh is currently the most played card game in
the u.s as well as the most profitable. Konami has also found itself at the
paying end of a series of casino games in paradise, Nevada. If you throw card
games, dancing arcade games and casino slot machines all in a pan bake at about
300 degrees for 45 minutes you should be left with a product that will have you
not only making money but a product that can maintain a powerful fan base for
over 30 years
1.
Game Freak
Game freak is at
the top of my list for 1 reason and 1 reason only, Satoshi Tajiri, Ken Sugimori,
and Junichi Masuda, these are the men responsible for giving us a little
portable game by the name of POKEMON. I don’t think this 1 needs a whole lot of
explanation, pokemon has been the highest selling handheld game in gaming history, the top of its class really. Game freak can continue to make
pokemon games for the next 10 years and will not see a drop in revenue and this
is because of the creativity in these 3 men. Nintendo really landed on a gold
mine with this one, I predict Nintendo to exclusively sell hand held consoles in
the future and when that happens game freak will be seeing a lot more work and
possibly be forced to release more titles but until that happens there children’s
children can live off the success of their franchise game Pokemon
thanks everyone for reading please comment below i want to hear everyones thoughts on this be sure to follow me on twitter and facebook
like
share
comment
subscribe
thanks
