and the BEST 3 DEVELOPERS at the moment are...

Valve- amazing games, they are always doing something new and innovating in more areas than just gameplay. They came onto the scene with the revolution called Half life and fallowed up with one of the greatest games ever made, Half life 2. then they did it again with portal, not to mention they made the best coop game ever and two of the greatest multiplayer FPS games ever, TF2 and CCS

Blizzard-They made THE e-sport with starcraft and fallowed it up with the second e-sport, starcraft 2. They are the creators of the biggest cult/alternate reality in history that shows no signs of slowing down with 11.5 million subscribers strong. not to mention warcraft and diablo.

Rockstar-sure, GTA4 is overated.... but red dead isnt and LA noire is looking to be the citizen kane of gaming jr. they also started this whole open world trend that has just recently settled down with the revolutionary GTAIII. ive got more.

yes? no? i hope this doesnt sound to dumb or preachy.

thoughts?

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

Mozelleple112

Spot on

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

Mozelleple112

yeah, that guy is pretty awesome. effing mental tho

I disagree with blizzard only because they dont release very many games. I like their games, and they are good but they dont release very many imo.

Valve- amazing games, they are always doing something new and innovating in more areas than just gameplay. They came onto the scene with a the revolution called Half life and fallowed up with one of the greatest games ever made, Half life 2. then they did it again with portal, not to mention they made the best coop game ever and two of the greatest multiplayer FPS games ever, TF2 and CCS

Blizzard-They made THE e-sport with starcraft and fallowed it up with the second e-sport, starcraft 2. They are the creators of the biggest cult/alternate reality in history that shows no signs of slowing down with 11.5 million subscribers strong. not to mention warcraft and diablo.

Rockstar-sure, GTA4 is overated.... but red dead isnt and LA noire is looking to be the citizen of kane of gaming jr. they also started this whole open world trend that has just recently settled down with the revolutionary GTAIII. ive got more.

yes? no? i hope this doesnt sound to dumb or preachy.

thoughts?

jettpack

I disagree with blizzard only because they dont release very many games. I like their games, and they are good but they dont release very many imo.

quaappybla

[QUOTE="jettpack"]

Valve- amazing games, they are always doing something new and innovating in more areas than just gameplay. They came onto the scene with a the revolution called Half life and fallowed up with one of the greatest games ever made, Half life 2. then they did it again with portal, not to mention they made the best coop game ever and two of the greatest multiplayer FPS games ever, TF2 and CCS

Blizzard-They made THE e-sport with starcraft and fallowed it up with the second e-sport, starcraft 2. They are the creators of the biggest cult/alternate reality in history that shows no signs of slowing down with 11.5 million subscribers strong. not to mention warcraft and diablo.

Rockstar-sure, GTA4 is overated.... but red dead isnt and LA noire is looking to be the citizen of kane of gaming jr. they also started this whole open world trend that has just recently settled down with the revolutionary GTAIII. ive got more.

yes? no? i hope this doesnt sound to dumb or preachy.

thoughts?

Merex760

i totally had the same thought. i almost made it a list of 4 but remembered da2. dont get me wrong, I adore bioware, and admit i have yet to play DA2 (my free time is at an all time low)

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

Mozelleple112

[QUOTE="quaappybla"]

I disagree with blizzard only because they dont release very many games. I like their games, and they are good but they dont release very many imo.

Merex760

yeah, im not a wow player, but my roommate is and i was impressed as sh*t with cataclysm

[QUOTE="Mozelleple112"]

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

ConanTheStoner

When people say nintendo as a dev, does that include all nintendo studios? would SCEA also be considered a dev in its own then?

[QUOTE="Merex760"][QUOTE="quaappybla"]

I disagree with blizzard only because they dont release very many games. I like their games, and they are good but they dont release very many imo.

jettpack

yeah, im not a wow player, but my roommate is and i was impressed as sh*t with cataclysm

[QUOTE="Mozelleple112"]

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

ConanTheStoner

nintendo is fantastic,they feel to big to me to even count as a dev. nintendo tokyo did the galaxy games and (zelda i think?) and those games are fantastic, but my favorite games from them (the metroid prime series) come from my local texas Retro Studios. But yeah, nintendo is still at the top of there game, cant wait to hear more about project cafe

[QUOTE="ConanTheStoner"][QUOTE="Mozelleple112"]

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

quaappybla

When people say nintendo as a dev, does that include all nintendo studios? would SCEA also be considered a dev in its own then?

Well,Blizzard and Valve are the obvious choices,it´s kinda hard to choose a third tbh.

[QUOTE="jettpack"]

[QUOTE="Merex760"] They release expansions that are better than full titles.Merex760

yeah, im not a wow player, but my roommate is and i was impressed as sh*t with cataclysm

yeah, frozen throne and brood war are great.

Rock* is showing other devs how it's done this gen...period.

Rock* is showing other devs how it's done this gen...period.

RawDeal_basic

Blizzard-They made THE e-sport with starcraft and fallowed it up with the second e-sport, starcraft 2. They are the creators of the biggest cult/alternate reality in history that shows no signs of slowing down with 11.5 million subscribers strong. not to mention warcraft and diablo.

yes? no? i hope this doesnt sound to dumb or preachy.

thoughts?

jettpack

Oh so when we just got news that they lost 600 000 subscribers it is no sign of slowing down?

They lost an amount players many other MMO´s not even have in total

I would say Nintendo.

When they develop something you are practically guaranteed to have something that at the very least meets your expectations and usually surpasses them with creativity. Even their Wii Sports/Fit/Whatever line-up has exceeded my expectations with each game I have tried. But stuff like Twilight Princess and the Super Mario Galaxy games have blown me away. Repeat playthroughs of these lengthy adventures are not uncommon with me.

Platinum is also up there. So far I have played all three of their console offerings: MadWorld, Bayonetta and Vanquish in that order and each game has been better the further along I've went. The crazy amount of polish, bat$*** insane scenarios, spectacular level design and awesome sense of replayability has made Platinum one of my genuine favorites of this generation. Anarchy Reigns can't come soon enough.

Bungie is also high up there for me at the moment. They haven't really been tested outside of the Halo games, but they have provided three of the best shooters I have played this gen with great polish, care and quantity of quality content in each entry (ODST as an expansion didn't have the same breadth of new content, but still excellent and unique in its own way). I'm really excited to see what they have up their sleeves for this new IP.

And yes, despite how much I love my PC and how this year I imagine I've spent 75% of my time playing PC games, I'm saying that the three best developers are all console developers.

Tripwire

DICE

and I can't come up with a third one. Maybe HiRez Studios. I lost respect for Valve.....

[QUOTE="jettpack"]

Blizzard-They made THE e-sport with starcraft and fallowed it up with the second e-sport, starcraft 2. They are the creators of the biggest cult/alternate reality in history that shows no signs of slowing down with 11.5 million subscribers strong. not to mention warcraft and diablo.

yes? no? i hope this doesnt sound to dumb or preachy.

thoughts?

aroxx_ab

Oh so when we just got news that they lost 600 000 subscribers it is no sign of slowing down?

They lost an amount players many other MMO´s not even have in total

oh yeah, i think i remember hearing about this. they need to start pushing out there expansions faster

Tripwire

DICE

and I can't come up with a third one. Maybe HiRez Studios. I lost respect for Valve.....

Jebus213

why did you loose respect for valve

?

In no particular order...

Valve - I don't like TF2 but besides that all their games are beast. Especially Portal 2.

Bungie - Halo is really goodamn good.

Ubisoft Montreal - They're hyper-efficient and their games only increase in quality despite a yearly agenda.

No Nintendo because publishers don't count.

Nintendo

Naughty Dog

Rockstar

I would say Nintendo.

When they develop something you are practically guaranteed to have something that at the very least meets your expectations and usually surpasses them with creativity. Even their Wii Sports/Fit/Whatever line-up has exceeded my expectations with each game I have tried. But stuff like Twilight Princess and the Super Mario Galaxy games have blown me away. Repeat playthroughs of these lengthy adventures are not uncommon with me.

Platinum is also up there. So far I have played all three of their console offerings: MadWorld, Bayonetta and Vanquish in that order and each game has been better the further along I've went. The crazy amount of polish, bat$*** insane scenarios, spectacular level design and awesome sense of replayability has made Platinum one of my genuine favorites of this generation. Anarchy Reigns can't come soon enough.

Bungie is also high up there for me at the moment. They haven't really been tested outside of the Halo games, but they have provided three of the best shooters I have played this gen with great polish, care and quantity of quality content in each entry (ODST as an expansion didn't have the same breadth of new content, but still excellent and unique in its own way). I'm really excited to see what they have up their sleeves for this new IP.

And yes, despite how much I love my PC and how this year I imagine I've spent 75% of my time playing PC games, I'm saying that the three best developers are all console developers.

NeonNinja

nintendo is great but to big for me to count them as a singular "DEV"

platinum is fantastic but for me they cant hold there own against that list

Bungie, i would have agreed with you last gen. they were at the top of the world then, but they have never been as good since. they are good, but i just havent loved any of there games since halo 1. interestingly enough, i like ODST better than halo 3 or reach, mostly because its different

Nintendo

Naughty Dog

Rockstar

chocolate1325

great list, naughty dog is fantastic, i just want to see more breadth

Nintendo EAD: These guys make mario and zelda, nuff said
Blizzard: These guys live and breathe the word perfection, unless it is WoW (terrible game nowdays)

I cant think of a third, it used to be Valve, but between the state of Team Fortress 2, being somewhat disappointed in L4D2 and the fact that they were stating they would charge some people 100 dollars just to use voice chat (I really hope this was an exaggeration) has really destroyed my opinion on them.

[QUOTE="RawDeal_basic"]

Rock* is showing other devs how it's done this gen...period.

Merex760

No they should not. Every development team needs to find their own culture and unique styIe. Square-Enix and many of these Japanese devs trying to "westernize" games or whatever random crap they're saying is backfiring everywhere. The most successful Japanese devs right now are Nintendo and Platinum because they haven't strayed away from how they want to create games. The end result has been fantastic games and get this, people enjoy playing fantastic games. Square-Enix have had a few hits but they've certainly been lagging behind some of the best.

Let Rockstar do their own thing, let Square-Enix do their own thing, etc. No copycat devs, we need everyone doing something unique and getting it done in their own way. Learn from your own mistakes, not the success of others. It's different for every team.

Valve is tops right now... consistancy and quantity... Portal 2 is GOTY thus far easily and this is coming from someone who believe the hype.

Bioware still maintains in my book. I wasnt a huge fan of DA so DA2 not appeasing the core audience doesnt knock them down IMO. ME3 will be epic

Im going with UbiSoft for my last choice because as much as we want to knock AC for coming out every year, those games have been some of the best this generation offers and each one is better than the last. I also loved conviction.

KOjima Productions & Metal Gear Solid 4 + others don't ring a bell????

Mozelleple112

+1

[QUOTE="Merex760"][QUOTE="RawDeal_basic"]

Rock* is showing other devs how it's done this gen...period.

NeonNinja

No they should not. Every development team needs to find their own culture and unique styIe. Square-Enix and many of these Japanese devs trying to "westernize" games or whatever random crap they're saying is backfiring everywhere. The most successful Japanese devs right now are Nintendo and Platinum because they haven't strayed away from how they want to create games. The end result has been fantastic games and get this, people enjoy playing fantastic games. Square-Enix have had a few hits but they've certainly been lagging behind some of the best.

Let Rockstar do their own thing, let Square-Enix do their own thing, etc. No copycat devs, we need everyone doing something unique and getting it done in their own way. Learn from your own mistakes, not the success of others. It's different for every team.

I would say Nintendo.

When they develop something you are practically guaranteed to have something that at the very least meets your expectations and usually surpasses them with creativity. Even their Wii Sports/Fit/Whatever line-up has exceeded my expectations with each game I have tried. But stuff like Twilight Princess and the Super Mario Galaxy games have blown me away. Repeat playthroughs of these lengthy adventures are not uncommon with me.

Platinum is also up there. So far I have played all three of their console offerings: MadWorld, Bayonetta and Vanquish in that order and each game has been better the further along I've went. The crazy amount of polish, bat$*** insane scenarios, spectacular level design and awesome sense of replayability has made Platinum one of my genuine favorites of this generation. Anarchy Reigns can't come soon enough.

Bungie is also high up there for me at the moment. They haven't really been tested outside of the Halo games, but they have provided three of the best shooters I have played this gen with great polish, care and quantity of quality content in each entry (ODST as an expansion didn't have the same breadth of new content, but still excellent and unique in its own way). I'm really excited to see what they have up their sleeves for this new IP.

And yes, despite how much I love my PC and how this year I imagine I've spent 75% of my time playing PC games, I'm saying that the three best developers are all console developers.

NeonNinja

Great post. I've got to agree with Nintendo and Platinum. The quality and polish of the games released by those devs are outstanding.

Although, for the third -- I like Bungie. But for the top three, I'd probably replace it for Valve or Blizzard.

[QUOTE="NeonNinja"]

I would say Nintendo.

When they develop something you are practically guaranteed to have something that at the very least meets your expectations and usually surpasses them with creativity. Even their Wii Sports/Fit/Whatever line-up has exceeded my expectations with each game I have tried. But stuff like Twilight Princess and the Super Mario Galaxy games have blown me away. Repeat playthroughs of these lengthy adventures are not uncommon with me.

Platinum is also up there. So far I have played all three of their console offerings: MadWorld, Bayonetta and Vanquish in that order and each game has been better the further along I've went. The crazy amount of polish, bat$*** insane scenarios, spectacular level design and awesome sense of replayability has made Platinum one of my genuine favorites of this generation. Anarchy Reigns can't come soon enough.

Bungie is also high up there for me at the moment. They haven't really been tested outside of the Halo games, but they have provided three of the best shooters I have played this gen with great polish, care and quantity of quality content in each entry (ODST as an expansion didn't have the same breadth of new content, but still excellent and unique in its own way). I'm really excited to see what they have up their sleeves for this new IP.

And yes, despite how much I love my PC and how this year I imagine I've spent 75% of my time playing PC games, I'm saying that the three best developers are all console developers.

jettpack

nintendo is great but to big for me to count them as a singular "DEV"

platinum is fantastic but for me they cant hold there own against that list

Bungie, i would have agreed with you last gen. they were at the top of the world then, but they have never been as good since. they are good, but i just havent loved any of there games since halo 1. interestingly enough, i like ODST better than halo 3 or reach, mostly because its different

I get what you're saying about Nintendo, since they are really big. I guess then I'd have to say Nintendo EAD Tokyo Development Group based solely on the two Galaxy games, the upcoming 3DS Super Mario game and the new Wii gamethey're working on. The Tokyo Development Group have really made a name of themselves this gen, but Nintendo games are generally excellent so I much prefer to just say Nintendo as a whole. But if I had to choose it would be Tokyo.

Platinum I rank as one of the finest this gen. Of their three games I've given them 9, 9.5 and 10. They've floored me with each new game. I would go so far as to say that Platinum is my favorite developer this entire generation so far.

As far as Bungie, I would rank them as a top dev both this gen and last gen. None of the Halo games have disappointed me. I've given them 10, 10, 10, 9, 10 respectively. Bungie have really succeeded in making a shooter series that I genuinely care for. Others come and go, Halo has remained constant for me. The quality is always there and it always reels me in for months.

[QUOTE="NeonNinja"]

I would say Nintendo.

When they develop something you are practically guaranteed to have something that at the very least meets your expectations and usually surpasses them with creativity. Even their Wii Sports/Fit/Whatever line-up has exceeded my expectations with each game I have tried. But stuff like Twilight Princess and the Super Mario Galaxy games have blown me away. Repeat playthroughs of these lengthy adventures are not uncommon with me.

Platinum is also up there. So far I have played all three of their console offerings: MadWorld, Bayonetta and Vanquish in that order and each game has been better the further along I've went. The crazy amount of polish, bat$*** insane scenarios, spectacular level design and awesome sense of replayability has made Platinum one of my genuine favorites of this generation. Anarchy Reigns can't come soon enough.

Bungie is also high up there for me at the moment. They haven't really been tested outside of the Halo games, but they have provided three of the best shooters I have played this gen with great polish, care and quantity of quality content in each entry (ODST as an expansion didn't have the same breadth of new content, but still excellent and unique in its own way). I'm really excited to see what they have up their sleeves for this new IP.

And yes, despite how much I love my PC and how this year I imagine I've spent 75% of my time playing PC games, I'm saying that the three best developers are all console developers.

akai_reaver

Great post. I've got to agree with Nintendo and Platinum. The quality and polish of the games released by those devs are outstanding.

Although, for the third -- I like Bungie. But for the top three, I'd probably replace it for Valve or Blizzard.

I like both Valve and Blizzard as well, but Left 4 Dead and Portal just haven't done it for me, nor did I really get into Counter Strike back in the day. It kind of bothers me that to this day the one Valve game I want is a new Half-Life because their other series just don't do it for me personally. As far as Blizzard, I haven't played a Blizzard game since Diablo II. I'm not a fan of RTS or MMO, so I've avoided the Warcraft games. I'll probably try StarCraft II at some point, but again, I'm not a big fan of the RTS genre. So I'm really waiting for, get this, Diablo III. :P

Anyway, both Valve and Blizzard have made awesome games that I love, but it's been specific games in their catalogues that I love and not the entire library available. As far as Bungie, I'll admit that I love them simply because of Halo, but the excellence of that series for five games in the past ten years has me really excited for what they have next too, and the constantly new and sometimesinnovative features in each game have really helped the series as well from campaign scoring, Forge, Theater, daily/weekly challenges, etc.

I don't know if I'll be following Halo if Bungie doesn't develop it, but I'm practically guaranteed to be following Bungie on whatever they have next.

Valve- they are always doing something new and innovating in more areas than just gameplay.....one of the greatest games ever made, Half life 2. then they did it again with portal, not to mention they made the best coop game ever.

jettpack

Hahaha XD. You're making some very bold statements. I agree with you moreso on Rockstar and Blizzard, but I couldn't disagree with you more when it comes to Valve. Half Life 1 and 2 aren't that great really. Half Life 2 doesn't do much to seperate itself from other generic FPSs. For it's time Half Life 2 had excelent graphics, but that's about it. The amount of praise Half Life 1 and 2 get from gamers is unreasonable, it must be because of nostalgia. I've played those games and don't get me wrong, they're definitely enjoyable, but they're far from making the list of the best games of all time.

My list of the top 3 developers at the moment are:

CyberConnect2, the ones who made Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. That game was outstanding and extremely polished. It's my GOTY for 2010.

Namco Tales Studios, sure it takes them forever to localize a Tales game, but I can put that fact aside as long as the games are fun. And recently, they finally announced a U.S. release date for Tales of Graces on the PS3, which I can't wait for. The Tales series is the best, the original combat system is so much fun and each game takes at least 50 hours to beat. You really get your money's worth when you buy a Tales game.

Blizzard. I lost a lot of respect for Blizzard after Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. Those two expansion packs were downright boring. Both of them made the game so much easier because over the course of the few years between the release of BC and the release of Cataclysm, Blizzard patched the game a lot to make things simplier and they held the players hand throughout the experience. Leveling wasn't fun, it was only time consuming, it was full of generic "kill X number of these guys" and "talk to so-and-so" quests. But Blizzard redeemed themselves after the release of their lastest World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. They really improved World of Warcraft with Cataclysm, Azeroth is forever changed. The new layout of Azeroth is great, it's so much fun to explore the new world. And the starting zones for the new playable races Worgen and Goblins are a fun, cinematic experience in which you get to follow an actual story as it unfolds. The quests around the world of Azeroth are new and original, and while completing each quest, you get a nice feeling of progression because the completion of certain quests will trigger events.

I'm gonna stop myself there, I could go on for a while about how Blizzard really redeemed themselves with Cataclysm. In short, they did an outstanding job remodeling World of Warcraft.

1 Valve - Their dedication to steam and pump solid titles are godly

2 CD Projekt Red - Well known for the highly praised RPG Witcher and manage to create an amazing engine to power their latest project also FREE DLC

3 DICE - Even under the parent of EA they are going back to their roots on PC with Battlefield 3

I would have put BioWare up there but DA2 was such a let down. I hope SW TOR and Mass Effect 3 find success commercial and critically.

Love GTAIV so I don't think its overrated lol. I like it a lot more than San Andreas. Still not sure on Blizzard. SC2 was pretty good, great game play, but man that story really let it down. biggest_loser

Well, that's just you opinion, my favs are Blizzard and NIS

I agree with valve, sure i'm not a fan of half life or team forteress but i love portal and portal 2 is the best game i played so far this year

from a personal taste i can't agree with blizzard since i'm not interested in any of their games

I can't agree with rockstar at all, gta 4 and RDR are two of the most boring and repetitive game i ever played, still interested in LA noire though

naughty dog is my favourite studio

folllowed by rockstar studios and DICE

because whatever they make they make it the best

I agree with that list. Sure you could switch out a few names but why bother? It's kind of hard to argue their portfolios and all 3 of them are killing it this gen.

There are few currently working developers that can successfully release a title on the same day as any of those three and be considered competition.