The PocketGamer.biz Top 50 developers of 2014: 20 to 11

Considering the tens of thousands of publishers and developers who are daily making new mobile games and supporting live titles, the task of picking out the relatively small number of 50 as being 'top' may seem to be a Sisyphean exercise.

Yet, that process provides a wealth of useful information, while the rigor of directly comparing companies - one against another - forces us to think about what we mean by the term 'top developers'.

In terms of our process at PocketGamer.biz, we used metrics such as creativity, critical acclaim, sales performance, innovation especially in terms of business model, and that certain je ne sais quoi that only the best studios exude.

The full list - produced in conjunction with Chinese mobile game development platform Chukong Technologies and Everplay's Applifier gameplay video sharing technology - will be revealed daily through our Top 50 Developer of 2014 section.

2013 proved to be tricky year for Disney's mobile game developers. They launched plenty of new content, but the Mickey Mouse version of Where's My Water? didn't catch the gamers' imagination, despite its craft.

Meanwhile, the franchise's first proper free-to-play release caused a storm of protest over its energy mechanic. Standard for many F2P games, it apparently wasn't acceptable for a Disney game and was subsequently removed.

Yet there were successes too. The Chinese-culturalised Where's My XiYangYang? demonstrated a global vision, while the Disney Infinity tie-in Toy Box extended the brand to iPad.

The perennial question of when Glu Mobile will post a profitable year remains unanswered. Yet the signs are improving, thanks mainly to one game - Deer Hunter 2014. It generated $27 million in Q4, increasing the company's revenue for the period by 32 percent. Annual sales for 2013 were down a touch, however, to $106 million.

Still, the quality of Glu's games is increasing, as are its community and monetisation techniques, while franchises such as Frontline Commando, Contract Killer and Eternity Warriors provide a solid basis for growth. Although what its Kim Kardashian game will be like is anyone guess.

Demonstrating how quickly the industry is changing, 2013 saw US casual developer and publisher Big Fish Games make some key decisions.

The most important was focusing on its free-to-play mobile business; something which lifted games such as Big Fish Casino and Fairway Solitaire to higher levels of success. Indeed, Big Fish Casino is now the top grossing casino game on iOS, with revenues up 250 percent year-on-year.

This helped push Big Fish's annual sales - across mobile and PC - to $275 million.

However, the year wasn't with its struggles, with Big Fish shutting down its Unlimited streaming service and closing its Vancouver office.

Despite being one of the largest mobile gaming companies with annual sales of $2 billion, 2013 was a year of upheaval for DeNA. Its core Japanese market rapidly moved from feature phone to native smartphone gaming. Combined with this, there weren't any big hits on its Mobage platform such as Rage of Bahamut and Blood Brothers in 2012.

Card-battlers Transformers Legends and MARVEL War of Heroes performed robustly, but The Drowning and Lawless - two games from its western division - failed to make any impact.

The result saw sales drop 20 percent, something DeNA hopes to turnaround by releasing more casual and midcore titles in 2014.

16. Square Enix
New entry
Key games: Million Arthur, DQM Super Light, Tomb Raider

Square Enix (also including Eidos and Taito) is finally demonstrating that it gets mobile gaming. Sure, outside of Japan, the core of its business often appears to be limited to porting over Final Fantasy games and charging $15, but in Asia, it's demonstrating free-to-play success.

Developed by Shanda Games-owned Actoz Soft, Million Arthur has been a top grossing game in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China, while the Cygames-developed Dragon Quest Monster Super Light currently rules the Japanese charts.

If it can combine such smarts with western brands such as Tomb Raider, Hitman and Deus Ex, Square Enix's mobile future will be very bright.

Previously known for PC MMOGs, Korean publisher WeMade started investing heavily in mobile games during 2012. That decision paid off big time in 2013, with mobile game revenue rising over 1,000 percent to $132 million. That's 62 percent of the company's total sales.

The key performer is Wind Runner, a casual side-scrolling game which proved to be ideal for the new social mobile networks such as Kakao and LINE.

Versions of the game have been popular in Korea and Japan. Now WeMade is looking to build on that success with titles likes Wolf Moon, Iron Slam and Dog Fight, which Kabam will publish internationally.

2013 proved to be an interesting year for Gameloft. In terms of business, its financials numbers were good. Sales were up 12 percent to $320 million, while the global success of Despicable Me: Minions Rush saw the company riding high in terms of the downloads charts.

Lifetime downloads across iOS and Android now total more than 800 million, and it has over 150 million active users per month across all titles.

Yet, surprisingly, 34 percent of revenues are still generated from feature phone games, and Gameloft is still to have a massive breakout free-to-play hit that demonstrates it can operate games-as-a-service.

While its businesses includes online advertising and its Ameba social platform, Japanese mobile conglomerate CyberAgent is interesting in this context for its mobile game developers Cygames, Applibot and Sumzap.

They've been performing excellently, with annual sales up 25 percent to $570 million thanks to their ability to ride the transition of the Japanese market from feature phones browser games to native smartphone gaming.

Legacy card-battlers such as Mobage's Rage of Bahamut and Legend of the Cryptids continue to do well, but more recently, it's the Square Enix-published Dragon Quest Monster Super Light (from Cygames), which has been ripping up the Japanese top grossing chart.

China's internet giant, Tencent has been leading the charge from PC to mobile, notably with its QQ instant messenger and WeChat mobile social platform. These bring virality to social mobile games; something Tencent has demonstrated with titles such as WeRun and Airplane War.

They've been downloaded hundreds of millions of times, boosting Tencent into the global top 10 in terms of iOS games revenue.

The question of how Tencent opens up WeChat for thirdparties remains unresolved, however. To-date, only western titles such as Plants vs Zombies 2 have been released. Widening access will reposition Tencent as China's dominant mobile games company.

One of the pioneers of social mobile gaming, San Francisco-based Storm8 continues to go from strength to strength.

Operating under the TeamLava, Ice and FireMocha and Shark Party brands, the company ranked as one of the top 10 global companies by revenue on iOS every month during 2013. Other impressive figures are 10 million daily active users, 50 million monthly active users and 600 million downloads.

Next up for the company is a switch of roles as it moves from being a developer to publishing third-party games, with Mad Head's War of Dragons - a #1 top grossing game in China - its first release.