[Our buddies at Game Developer mag, led by Brandon Sheffield, need some help from developers filling out their reputation and 'direct working relationship' survey about the top game publishers for the Top 20 Publishers survey this year. Fill it in, wontcha?]

Game Developer magazine has opened the 2009 edition of its Top 20 Publishers survey, which helps to rank the best video game publishers in the industry.

Developers are asked to complete the brief survey, offering both first-hand and third party perceptions of retail publishers, which will determine this year's ranking, alongside other data such as revenue, number of releases, and average review score.

This is the seventh annual Top 20 Publishers countdown, which Nintendo has won two years in a row. With the publishing industry constantly in flux, with lots of recent closures and mergers, this latest list is certain to be an interesting one (though this data does pertain to the calendar year 2008, so publishers like Midway still remain).

The full survey is in two parts. The first part is a reputational section, where all participants can anonymously rank and, optionally, comment on all major publishers.

The second part focuses on those game industry professionals who have managed or participated in relationships with specific publishers, either as employees or as third-party developers. Both are part of the same survey form.

All of the survey feedback is completely anonymous, and results will be revealed in depth in the October 2009 issue of Game Developer magazine (and later on Gamasutra), which will also contain a sidebar on digital distribution-oriented publishers. Full, canonical data will also be available in a forthcoming report from Game Developer Research.