In the 2019 IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey, members of the digital game community were again asked which developer or publisher they would most like to work for. The question was asked to the 1116 respondents, 480 of whom responded with valid answers. In total, 151 unique responses were gathered, 94 of which were only selected by one person. Check out the full list below.
Nintendo came out on top with 10% of the vote (48 selections). They were followed by the considerable group of people who preferred to work for ‘my own studio’ with 31 votes (6.5%). Ubisoft took the 3rd spot with 29 votes (6%). Blizzard Entertainment was next with 25 votes (5%) and Naughty Dog and Sony tied for 5th (15 votes). For the first time, Valve Corporation was not in the top 5. But it was close. They were tied with Paradox Interactive for 6th place with 14 votes. Next came the three-way tie of Epic Games, CD Projekt Red and BioWare with 10 votes each. Combined with two votes for their parent Zeni Max Studios, Bethseda was 8th in a tie with Insomniac Games (9 votes). Rounding out the top ten were Square Enix (8 votes) and a tie between Double Fine Productions and Riot Games (7 votes).
This was a bit of a shake-up from previous years (see full posts below) with Valve losing its pinnacle position and dropping from the top 5. This was the first time Nintendo has topped the list, though they were in the top 5 in 2016. Blizzard, Ubisoft and Naughty Dog remained highly ranked. Epic Games, Square Enix and CD Projekt Red made gains.
Bethseda and Bioware dropped out of the top 5 but remain in the top 10. Riot and Double Fine also slipped but remain in the top 10.
As in previous years, for the purpose of this list different geographical studios for a company are compiled under the main parent company label (i.e., Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Halifax both counted as Ubisoft).
Not included in this list are the 5 people who said that they preferred to work for their current employer, the 6 people who said that they preferred to work for an independent studio and the person who said they wanted to work directly for American game director and script writer Amy Hennig.
Ranking | Response | Votes | Valid Percent |
1 | Nintendo | 48 | 10 |
2 | 'My own studio' | 31 | 6.5 |
3 | Ubisoft | 29 | 6 |
4 | Blizzard | 25 | 5 |
5 | Naughty Dog & Sony | 15 | 3 |
6 | Valve & Paradox Interactive (incl. Paradox Dev Studio) | 14 | 2.9 |
7 | Epic Games & CD Projekt Red & BioWare | 10 | 2 |
8 | Insomniac Games & Bethseda (including 2 votes for ZeniMax Online Studios) | 9 | 1.9 |
9 | Square Enix | 8 | 1.7 |
10 | Double Fine Productions & Riot Games | 7 | 1.5 |
11 | Arkane Studios & Bungie & Supercell & Google | 6 | 1.25 |
12 | Activision & Electronic Arts & Guerilla Games & Rockstar & Super Giant | 5 | 1 |
13 | Devolver Digital & Digital Extremes | 4 | 0.8 |
14 | Sega & Playstation & Obsidian Entertainment & NC Games & Kojima Productions & Hinterland Studios & Gearbox Software & FromSoftware & Firaxis & Creative Assembly & Capcom | 3 | 0.6 |
15 | Amplitude Studios & Avalanche Studios & Crows Crows Crows & Moon Studios & Motion Twin & Playdead & Remedy Entertainment & Respawn Entertainment & Samuri Park & Schell Games & Techland Publishing & 343 Industries & Turtle Rock Studios & Unity & Wizards of the Coast | 2 | 0.4 |
16 | A44 & Adult Swim & Annapurna Interactive & Apple & Arena Net & Asmodee & Bad Robot Games & Beat Games & Big Huge Games & Campo Santo & Chucklefish & Cryptic Studios & Deconstructeam & DesignerDave & Disney & Eidos Montreal & Failbetter Games & FiveZeroFive Games & Focus Home Interactive & Framebunker & Frictional Games & Frontier Developments & Funomena & Future play & Gbanga & Grasshopper Manufacture & Greyborn Studios & Grinding Gear Games & Harmonix Music Systems & Heart Machine & Hello-World & IGM Games & Immersed Games & Improbable & Infinity Ward & Inti Creates & IO Interactive & Ion Game Design & Kathy Smart Game Design & Klei Entertainment & KOOP Mode & Larian Studios & Lionhead Studios & Magic Leap & MAME & Matt Makes Games & MediaMonks & Microsoft & MontiGarr & Monolith Soft & Ndemic Creations & NetherRealm Studios & Nightdive Studios & Ninja Theory & Nix Hydra & Oculus VR & Petroglyph Games PlatinumGames & Private Division & Psyonix & PUBG Corporation & Radical Fish Games & Rare & Ratdog Games & Runaway Play & Serious Labs & Spry Fox & Studio Invisible & Subset Games & Sucker Punch Productions & System Era Softworks & Team Ico & Tencent Games & Thatgamecompany & Thekla Inc. Tin Man Games & Tripwire Interactive & Tru Luv Media Inc. & Unreal & Vlambeer & Volition & Warhorse Studios & Weather Factory & Winterborn & Xbox Games Studios & Yatatoy | 1 | 0.2 |