Best Game Developer/Studio

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 3, 2007, 10:45 pm

There's a lot of good ones out there.

Add to the list before the poll goes up if you want.

Here's a decent list of them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vi ... developers

Bethesda Softworks (Oblivion, Fallout)
Bioware (Baldurs Gate, NWN2, Jade Empire, Mass Effect)
Blizzard Entertainment (Lost Vikings

)
Bungie Studios (Halo)
Capcom (Street fighter, Devil May Cry)
Crytek (Crisis. Far Cry)
Electronic Arts (Maddon, Ultima, Sims)
Epic Games (Gears of War, Unreal)
Firaxis Games (Civilization, Spore)
Funcom (Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, Dreamfall)

Bah, too many of them. Check the link yourselves.

I suppose the question would be, which studio do you look forward to seeing new games from the most? I'm guessing most will say Blizzard. Mine's NCSoft. (Lineage II, Guild Wars, City of Heroes/Villains, Marvel Universe Online) I like their style and they seem to be moving in the right direction. I'm hoping Marvel Universe Online turns out well for the PC and 360.

Keverian FireCry · Post by **Keverian FireCry** » April 3, 2007, 11:17 pm

Blizzard

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » April 6, 2007, 12:17 pm

I would say Blizzard for a number of reasons. The one that seperates them from the pack is that as developers, they operate completely different than anyone else in the business. They do not kneel before the distributors or financial backers. Hence the release date phrase made famous by Blizzard "It will released when it's done". Also, the intro to thier games only have one name. Blizzard. That's all that matters.

Another intersting note is that people are not assigned to make particular games. The developers approach and create the games that they want to. I think that has a huge impact on the quality of thier games.

Too many developers are slaves to the financial backers, making compromises to thier vision purely to make the money people happy or meet a particular deadline.

It appears to me that Relic is making a real name for themselves right now with Homeworld, the Dawn of War series, Company of Heros, and the newly announced Warhammer 40k MMORPG. Like Blizzard, all of their games are the total package of highly polished art, graphics, sound, and gameplay. I look forward to their take on the MMORPG genre. The fact that it is set in the gothic future of Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k is going to give them a very unique opportunity for some major success in the MMORPG market. I'm pretty sick of Swords and Dragons.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » April 6, 2007, 12:27 pm

Back in the good old days, i would have said LucasArts or Sierra, because i would be looking forward to some good adventure game.
But since Sierra seems to have not only killed off Larry, but made Magna Cum Laude to piss at the remains, and LucasArts have cancelled Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2 to concentrate on mediocre Star Wars games, i would have to say that im most looking forward to new releases from Telltale Games (Sam & Max, Bone), or Double Fine (Psychonauts).

Truant · Post by **Truant** » April 6, 2007, 12:34 pm

Hesten wrote:Back in the good old days, i would have said LucasArts or Sierra, because i would be looking forward to some good adventure game.
But since Sierra seems to have not only killed off Larry, but made Magna Cum Laude to piss at the remains, and LucasArts have cancelled Sam & Max 2 and Full Throttle 2 to concentrate on mediocre Star Wars games, i would have to say that im most looking forward to new releases from Telltale Games (Sam & Max, Bone), or Double Fine (Psychonauts).

My thoughts exactly on the Sierra/LucasArts bit. They killed/buried their good franchises to focus on (what I consider to be) crap.

cadalano · Post by **cadalano** » April 6, 2007, 1:27 pm

blizzard for all around

each genre has its own juggernaut though

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » April 6, 2007, 5:24 pm

Blizzard is easily the leader in the field atm. There are certain companies tho that continue to put out excellent games consistently, and at a greater pace than Blizzard. Relic and Bioware are the top 2 I think of. I sort of ignore the FPS studios. I would say that Valve is probably the most important one in my eyes when it comes to them tho... not only making a quality game in terms of gameplay, graphics and story, but also trailblazing things with Steam and their support of smaller games.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » April 6, 2007, 5:53 pm

I would love to see another company step up and challenge the Final Fantasy series. I don't want to see anything go wrong with that series, I just would like to see more than one high quality series in that genre.

Blizzard doesn't do it for me. Starcraft and Warcraft I can explain away fairly easily in that I'm not a fan of RTS games but I never get the urge to play WoW and I like to try out just about any MMORPG I can.

NCSoft's Guild Wars 2 has me looking a year down the road already though and their Marvel Universe MMORPG will get a sub from me this Holiday season.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » April 6, 2007, 10:52 pm

A game can't be for everyone, but you can't deny the impact Blizzard has made over the years. I think they're worshipped as demi-gods in Korea alone.

Sartori · Post by **Sartori** » April 7, 2007, 1:48 am

Fairweather Pure wrote:They do not kneel before the distributors or financial backers. Hence the release date phrase made famous by Blizzard "It will released when it's done".

Actually that happened with Id Software first back when they were still making millions off shareware titles (Doom, Doom 2, Quake, etc.)

Everything I've touched from NcSoft has ranged from lame (Auto Assault) to cool to start (Guild Wars, Lineage 2, City of Heroes), but stagnated extremely quick for me. Different strokes I suppose.

Sadly I can't think of anything I'm just dying to play, but I guess I'm lookin forward to the Warhammer stuff (both MMORPG's) just to see what's different about them - so far sounds like quite a bit will be for the fantasy game. I think the only thing FPS-wise i'm lookin forward to is Team Fortress 2!

I guess my picks would be Bioware, Firaxis, Relic

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » April 7, 2007, 3:35 am

Irrational Studios has been one developer that consistently produced quality games in whatever genre they go into.

Kwonryu DragonFist · Post by **Kwonryu DragonFist** » April 7, 2007, 4:03 am

Capcom did LOTS for me as a youn'un

As i grew older, Firaxis and Bioware were more prominent.

All in all, it's got to be Blizzard, since they produce good shit in almost every genre, from platformjumpers to RTS-games to MMORPGs.

Capcom were the shiznit in Beatemups back in the day tho but Blizzard is the future.