Branżowy serwis Next-Gen.Biz przedstawił własne zestawienie stu najbardziej wpływowych twórców gier, których pracy powinniśmy poświęcić szczególną uwagę w 2006 roku.
Kryterium wyboru był rynkowy sukces ich produkcji w ubiegłym sezonie oraz potencjał skrywany w projektach, którym patronują obecnie.
Warto dodać, że raport nie jest rankingiem - jego autorzy postanowili nikogo nie wyróżniać w sposób szczególny. Autorzy zdecydowali się też nie uwzględniać osób pracujących nad grami na telefony komórkowe, a także twórców wszelkich poważnych symulatorów i projektantów tzw. "casual games" ("swobodne, dorywcze, przypadkowe, niezobowiązujące gry"). Dziennikarze starali się też uwzględnić tworzące gry kobiety, ostatecznie okazało się, że w tej dziedzinie jest tylko jedna znana osobistość reprezentująca płeć piękną - Samantha Ryan.
Oto jedynie zarys raportu (twórcy zostali przedstawieni w kolejności alfabetycznej):
Michel Ancel (UbiSoft, m.in. "Rayman", "Beyond Good & Evil", "King Kong"), Eiji Aonuma (Nintendo; "The Legend of Zelda"), Karthik Bala (Vicarious Visions; konwersja "Doom 3" na Xbox), Robert Baumsteiger (Rainbow Studios; "ATV"), Cliff Bleszinski (Epic Games; "Jazz Jackrabbit", "Unreal"), Ed Boon (Midway; "Mortal Kombat"), Jon Burton (Traveller's Tales; "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Lego Star Wars"), Christopher Busse (Treyarch; "Spider-Man"), John Carmack (id Software; "Doom", "Quake"), Louis Castle (EA Los Angeles; "Battle for Middle-Earth II"), Steven Chiang (EA Tiburon; "Madden"), Martyn Chudley (Bizarre Creations; "Project Gotham Racing 3"), Denis Dyack (Silicon Knights; "Blood Omen", "Eternal Darkness"), Nick Earl (EA Redwood Shore; "Tiger Woods PGA Tour", "Godfather"), Jack Emmert (Cryptic Studios; "City of Villains"), Toby Gard (Crystal Dynamics; "Legacy of Kain", "Tomb Raider"), Richard Garriott (NCSoft Austin; "Ultima", "Lineage"), Russ Gubler (Genuine Games; "50 Cent: Bulletproof"), Lars Gustavsson (DICE; "Battlefield"), Gordon Hall (Rockstar Leeds; "Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition", "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories"), Lyle Hall (Heavy Iron Studios; "Spongebob Squarepants", "The Incredibles"), Richard Hare (The Collective; "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith", Peter Hirschmann (LucasArts; "Republic Commando", "Battlefront"); Clint Hocking (Ubisoft Montreal; "Splinter Cell"), Yuji Hori (Square Enix; "Dragon Quest"), Dan Houser (Rockstar Games; "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas"), Todd Howard (Bethesda; "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind"), Keiji Inafune (Capcom; "Megaman", "Onimusha"), Koji Igarashi (Konami; "Castlevania"), Tomonobu Itagaki (Team NINJA; "Dead or Alive", "Ninja Gaiden"), Shigesato Itoi (Mother; "Mother"), David Jaffe (SCE Santa Monica; "Twisted Metal", "God of War"), Joel Jewett (Neversoft Entertainment; "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater"), Soren Johnson (Firaxis; "Civilization IV"), David Jones (Real Time Worlds; "Grand Theft Auto"), Jason Jones (Bungie; "Halo"), Akitoshi Kawazu (Square Enix; "SaGa"), Hideo Kojima (Kojima Productions; "Metal Gear Solid"), Hideki Konno (Nintendo; "Luigi's Mansion", "Nintendogs"), Raph Koster (Sony Online Entertainment; "Everquest", "Star Wars Galaxies"), Mike Kulas (Volition Software; "Red Faction"), Ken Levine (Irrational Games; "Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich", "System Shock 2"), Greg LoPiccolo (Harmonix; "Guitar Hero"), Yannis Mallat (Ubisoft Montreal; "Prince of Persia"), Yasumi Matsuno (Square Enix ; "Final Fantasy"), American McGee (Mauretania Import/Export Company; "Alice", "Scrapland"), Sid Meier (Firaxis; "Civilization", "Pirates!", "Railroad Tycoon"), Chris Metzen (Blizzard Entertainment; "Warcraft"), Shinji Mikami (Clover Studios; "Resident Evil", "Viewtiful Joe"), Shigeru Miyamoto (Nintendo; "Donkey Kong", "Super Mario Bros.", "The Legend of Zelda", "Pikmin"), Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Q Entertainment; "Sega Rally", "Space Channel 5", "Rez", "Lumines"), Michael Morhaime (Blizzard Entertainment; "Warcraft", "Starcraft", "Diablo"), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios; "Populous", "Fable", "The Movies"), Dr. Ray Muzyka oraz Dr. Greg Zeschuk (BioWare; "Baldur's Gate", "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic"), Yuji Naka (Sonic Team; "Sonic the Hedgehog", "Phantasy Star"), Gabe Newell (Valve; "Half-Life"), Shinta Nojiri (Kojima Productions; "Boktai", "Metal Gear Ac!d"), Tetsuya Nomura (Square Enix; "Final Fantasy", "Kingdom Hearts"), Bruce Oberg (Sucker Punch; "Sly Cooper"), Yoshiki Okamoto (Game Republic; "Street Fighter", "Genji"), Mike O'Brien (ArenaNet; "Guild Wars"), Alexey Pajitnov ("Tetris"), David Perry (Shiny Entertainment; "Earthworm Jim", "MDK", "Sacrifice", "Matrix"), Randy Pitchford (Gearbox Software; "Brothers in Arms"), Ted Price (Insomniac Games; "Spyro", "Ratchet and Clank"), Brian Raffel (Raven Software; "Heretic", "Hexen", "Soldier of Fortune", "X-Men Legends"), Paul Reiche III (Toys For Bob, "Star Control", "Madagascar"), Steve Reid (Red Storm Entertainment; "Rainbow Six"), Josh Resnick (Pandemic; "Mercenaries", "Destroy All Humans!", "Star Wars Battlefront"), Jason Rubin (MORGANrose; "Crash Bandicoot", "Jak and Daxter"), Samantha Ryan (Monolith; "No One Lives Forever", "F.E.A.R.", "Condemned: Criminal Origins"), Hironobu Sakaguchi (AQ Interactive/Mist Walker; "Final Fantasy"), Chris Sawyer ("Roller Coaster Tycoon"), Tim Schafer (Double Fine Productions; "Day of the Tentacle", "Grim Fandango", "Psychonauts"), John Schappart (EA Canada; "SSX", "FIFA", "James Bond 007"), Alex Seropian (Wideload Games; "Halo", "Stubbs the Zombie"), Bruce Shelley (Ensemble Studios; "Age of Empires"), Kou Shibusawa (Koei; "Dynasty Warriors"), Mike Simpson (Creative Assembly; "Total War"), Brian Soderberg (Zipper Interactive; "SOCOM"), Chris i Tim Stamper (Rare; "Donkey Kong Country", "Goldeneye 007", "Perfect Dark Zero"), Warren Spector (Junction Point Studios; "Thief", "System Shock", "Deus Ex"), Yu Suzuki (Sega AM Plus; "Virtua Fighter", "Shenmue"), Keita Takahashi (Namco; "Katamari Damacy"), Tetsuya Takahashi (Monolith Software; "Xenosaga"), Satoshi Tajiri (Game Freak/Pokemon Company; "Pokemon", "Drill Dozer"), Chris Taylor (Gas Powered Games; "Total Annihilation", "Dungeon Siege"), Takashi Tezuka (Nintendo; "Mario Kart", "Animal Crossing"), William Trost (Sony Online Entertainment; "Everquest", "Untold Legends"), Kudo Tsunoda (EA Chicago; "Army Men", "Fight Night"), Fumito Ueda (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan; "ICO"), Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian Entertainment; "Fallout", "Planescape: Torment", "Icewind Dale", "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic"), Warren Wall (EA Team Fusion; "FIFA"), Alex Ward (Criterion; "Burnout", "Black"), Evan Wells (Naughty Dog; "Gex", "Crash Bandicoot", "Jak and Daxter"), Will Wright (Maxis; "SimCity", "The Sims"), Kazunori Yamauchi (Polyphony Digital; "Gran Turismo"), Cevat Yerli (Crytek; "Far Cry"), Neil Young (EA Los Angeles; "The Sims", "Medal of Honor", "Lord of the Rings"), Vince Zampella (Infinity Ward; "Call of Duty").