CRITICS’ CHOICE
In association with INTRODUCTION EVERYONE’S A CRITIC
But not everyone is a games critic. So we asked them, for this volume of the Develop 100, what they think the best games are. Michael French critiques the critics
ver the years the Develop 100 has measured the success of global game studios with a mix of metrics, such as commercial scale, review scores and even reputation. Each time, we revealed
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different flavour-of-the-moment studios from a variety of perspectives. Whether that’s Nintendo’s Wii-DS commercial juggernaut, Blizzard’s time with
“The latest 100 is sequels aplenty. The No.1 game is a sequel. Seven titles in the top ten are direct follow-ons or spiritual successors.”
the crown in the online world, or the rise of indie and online studios, we’ve summed up relevant trends in a changing industry. This latest volume, also a
prequel to the upcoming Develop 100 2013 edition and its three volumes, takes a different tack. It is simultaneously deeper in
terms of historical perspective, but also more anecdotal –we’ve ranked the top 100 games as according to a panel of hundreds of journalists globally. The methodology here was pretty simple, and intentionally
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mirrors that used by Sight & Sound for its regular critics’ choice list. Critics from all types of media – online and print, national and specialist, longread writers and reviewers – each submitted a list of up to ten games they felt were the best ever made. We then attributed a point to each game and ranked the result. There were clear winners in the upper end of the list, specifically the top ten, and clearer groupings for every ten games after that. We also asked journalists to
offer a list of the best developers
Uncharted 2 is one of the many examples where refinement of an original IP can lead to critical acclaim
in their opinion. We also analysed the results to work out what the most beloved franchises are. The results, starting on the
following pages, are revealing, if a little predictable. Of course Valve, at a time when it is the most revered firm in the business either as a content creator or distributor via its Steam shop, reigns supreme. It scored well both in the overall 100 (with Half-Life 2, Half-Life and Portal all in the top 10, and Counter-Strike, Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 in the rest of the list), and as No.1 developer.
CRITICS’ CHOICE
develop 100
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