The most acclaim is often given to specific games,WoW cataclysm Gold however the creators of those games usually go under the radar. But a study published today could be a tribute to the industry's top developers. The trade journal for the industry Game Developer released a study called "Top 50 Game Developers 2009,"" an update to its first research in 2008. The report magazine listed Nintendo's Kyoto studio, Blizzard tainment, and Blizzard Montreal as the best developers this year.

Blizzard isn't exactly an heir to the hill however, the reign of Nintendo may be an option in the near future.

According to Game Developer's online sister, Gamasutra, Nintendo was named the top developer in 2009 because of its "incredibly impressive sales figures and its brand recognition in the industry." In 2009, the studio's Shigeru Miyamoto-led launch smash hits such as Wii Fit, a fitness title Wii Fit and the cartoony racer Mario Kart Wii, which have sold 18.2 million and 15.4 million units across the globe according to Gamasutra, respectively. The site also praised the company for its games Wii Play and the puzzle game Brain Age.

The second place award went to Blizzard specifically for the critical and commercial popularity of its most recent massively online multiplayer role-playing game expansion, WoW?Cataclysm?Classic: Wrath of the Lich King that has sold 2.8 million copies per day after the launch. The previous year, the second expansion pack for it's WoW?Cataclysm?Classic series won the 2009 Editors' Choice award. In Game Developer's Top-developer lists, Blizzard placed third after Infinity Ward which is the developer of the highly well-respected shooting game WoW?Cataclysm?Classic. As the company did not make any games available for 2008 it wasn't suitable for this year's rankings.

In the third spot is Blizzard's Quebec studio. largest city. The studio has been boosted by commercial and critical hit games like WoW?Cataclysm?Classic 2, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and the cel-shaded Prince of Persia reboot, Blizzard's studio climbed nine spots after finishing 12th in the previous year.

Games Developer's ratings were determined by the performance of games' retail sales across the US, UK, and Japan and their scores on the review aggregater Metacritic. (Metacritic is part of the P2Pah its parent firm CBS.) Gamasutra also launched an anonymous survey, which asked gamers to rate developers on their reputation.

The NPD Group released today its weekly overview of PC games sold in the US for the week from May 31 through June 6 and revealed that the latest version from the EA Sims series was the week's most popular PC game sold in the US. It's not a shock to learn that WoW?Cataclysm?Classic occupied the first spot, Cataclysm Classic Gold since it was sold 1.4 million copies just seven days following its release on June 2. The Sims franchise actually took the top three slots including WoW?Cataclysm?Classic Collector's Edition as the second slot and The Sims 2: Double Deluxe the third.