I'm going with Blizzard because I'm a gigantic nerd.
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I'm going with Blizzard because I'm a gigantic nerd.
Ehhhh, it's kind of tough to say, but I'm leaning towards Square. While I absolutely adore Tri-Ace and BioWare, I don't spend anywhere near the same amount of time with their games as I do with Square's PS1 and prior library.
Atlus, Monolith Soft and ThatGameCompany for actually active. I also enjoy Mistwalker even if their track record isn't the greatest. Sadly most of my favorite studios have been dismantled, absorbed into other studios, or lost an important member that leaves them a shell of their former selves.
I'm probably also gonna have to say Atlus and Monolith Soft, but SE is still pretty good in my eyes!
I'd have to go with Nintendo's internal studios. Mario is always on point, Kirby Super Star is a great game, and then you have Smash and a bunch of other stuff. There's never been a bad period for Nintendo.
Valve and Atlus.
Nintendo for me, too. & I don't even play a lot of the stuff, but what i do is excellent.Quote:
Originally Posted by Depression Moon
If we're basing it off number of games I consider among my favorites, then I'd have to say Squaresoft.
If we're basing it off of the dev itself, how they work, their ethic toward video game development and content etc, probably CD Projekt RED.
My favourite game developer would probably be Sega. I don't think there are many other developers who managed to move as gracefully between genres as Sega did throughout the 90's. Not even their mediocre output from the last 15 years can tarnish the golden years of Sega.
Square, Atlus, and Idea Factory/Compile Heart.
For track record of games I love it'd be either BioWare, Obsidian, or inXile
There's a few developers I think of fondly:
BioWare: Is probably top of the list. The games I've played from them have all been excellent, and even my least favoured games from them still rank highly in my memory, even if there were flaws that should have been corrected. I love in particular to gender and sexual diversity in their games, especially towards the LGBT community. Special mention must be made to Krem from DA: I, the first Trans character I can remember in a video game. Long may it continue.
Square Enix: They may have fallen slightly in more recent years, but they still churn out good (if not groundbreaking) entries in the Final Fantasy series, and are attempting to right the wrongs of the last few years. Doubts still linger, but hopefully the next year or two will clear them more definitively.
Atlus: I know them for the Persona series, and what a series. I love games that seek to de-construct tropes, and Persona 4 and 3 do just that. The character interactions are fantastic, tied together with a decent combat system. But really, you play Persona for the people, not the fighting.
Yu Suzuki's Shenmue games for the Dreamcast rank among my favourite games of all time, though I only ever played the second on the Xbox and the first through an emulator. If we're talking about individual developers he's one of my favourites. The third game is finally in development (I helped Kickstart it).Quote:
Originally Posted by Dreddz
In terms of current companies I support Double Fine. They recently crowdfunded a sequel to Psychonauts so I'm pretty excited about that.
In terms of dissolved companies I loved Lucasarts in its heyday. I also count Squaresoft as a dissolved company - can't say I'm interested in Enix much at all anymore.
For those who listed Bioware, I'm interested to see what they do with the next Mass Effect. I read on Gamasutra recently that they lost one of their key writers, so I hope that the new game can still match the original trilogy. I really wish they could make a proper third KOTOR though, or let Obsidian try their hand at a third (never played the MMO.)
I also have to echo others with Atlus - I'm really looking forward to Persona 5. Square polled people in Japan to see if it would conflict with their release of FF 15 - personally I don't give a crap about 15 at this point. xD
I used to be a pretty big Bethesda fan, and while I still play their games, I feel like their quests are becoming too generic from Skyrim onwards.
I find a lot of the most interesting stuff tends to be in indie games. I would recommend Undertale to everyone who hasn't played it yet.
Historically, Nintendo by far. More recently, Nintendo still makes great platforming and Zelda games but I've also liked what Bioware and Naughty Dog put out.
Paradox, Obsidian, and Blizzard.