they are your favorite, or if they got sucked into the graveyards of EA Games or especially Activision.
I'll start with Bizarre Creations. One of the most underrated developers of their time. The studio responsible for the PGR series, Geometry wars, The Club, Blur and a couple more. Each iteration of their game had one mindset: Innovation. Activision closed them after their badly marketed game Blur was a flop. The game was innovative and awesome.
https://vimeo.com/20084659
And who are your favorite underdog studios now? Do they have old developers in them from your old favorite games? I for one have no idea where the talent of Bizarre Creations went after their shutdown.
Tony Hawk series from Tony Hawk Pro Skater up to and including Project 8.
Their last game was Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013, after that game they got dissolved in 2014 and the employees moved to Infinity Ward.
I was also going to say Raven Software but they're not defunct, they might as well be they're stuck making the Multiplayer modes for Call of Duty, they don't even get to work on a full game by themselves anymore not since Singularity in 2010.
Yeah, such a shame about Bizarre Creations. Blur came out also right around same time both Mario Galaxy 2 and Red Dead Redemption captivated the gaming community. It was bound to get ignored. Also early 2010 was packed with tons of big games too, didn't help their situation.
Another great racer that went ignored, came out about the same time, Split/Second: Velocity, by Black Rock, even more impressive than Blur was and it too failed to meet Disney's expectations, so Disney canned them. I also think these two arcadey racers releasing same time caused both some marketing confusion.
Tony Hawk series from Tony Hawk Pro Skater up to and including Project 8.
Their last game was Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013, after that game they got dissolved in 2014 and the employees moved to Infinity Ward.
I was also going to say Raven Software but they're not defunct, they might as well be they're stuck making the Multiplayer modes for Call of Duty, they don't even get to work on a full game by themselves anymore not since Singularity in 2010.
Yeah, Neversoft is a good one. Like you, I absolutely loved the THPS games up to & including Project 8. It's such a shame Activision ruined them :(
@lamprey263 said:
Yeah, such a shame about Bizarre Creations. Blur came out also right around same time both Mario Galaxy 2 and Red Dead Redemption captivated the gaming community. It was bound to get ignored. Also early 2010 was packed with tons of big games too, didn't help their situation.
Another great racer that went ignored, came out about the same time, Split/Second: Velocity, by Black Rock, even more impressive than Blur was and it too failed to meet Disney's expectations, so Disney canned them. I also think these two arcadey racers releasing same time caused both some marketing confusion.
Another good one... spent so many hours playing the PGR games on the OG Xbox. Such a talented studio. Another studio ruined by Activision.
The game studio that I miss the most is Midway because they made really great arcade-style games that were all about over-the-top fun which I think is something that is greatly lacking in the modern gaming landscape.
The sports genre especially needs a developer like Midway since nowadays they are all trying to make these realistic sims and there is barely anything for those of us that want to instead play a game that throws realism out the window in favor of over-the-top fun like a NFL Blitz or a NBA Jam.
they are your favorite, or if they got sucked into the graveyards of EA Games or especially Activision.
I'll start with Bizarre Creations. One of the most underrated developers of their time. The studio responsible for the PGR series, Geometry wars, The Club, Blur and a couple more. Each iteration of their game had one mindset: Innovation. Activision closed them after their badly marketed game Blur was a flop. The game was innovative and awesome.
https://vimeo.com/20084659
And who are your favorite underdog studios now? Do they have old developers in them from your old favorite games? I for one have no idea where the talent of Bizarre Creations went after their shutdown.
I fucking loved Bizzare Creations, those guys were awesome, is it any wonder why the Forza Horizon series is awesome because some of Bizzare's talent went on to work for Playground Games.
A big **** you to Craptivison for what you did with Bizzare. The last game I bought from Craptivision was Blur, such a kick arse game, Craptivision will never see another cent from me ever.
Because they just kept improving with every single game they made
Age of Empires 1 is hands down my favourite RTS ever made because of its setting. You build an empire from a bunch of cavemen and what little resources you can find. It's the perfect setup for a real time strategy game.
Age of Empires 2 improves a lot on the original, making the gameplay more balanced, expanding content, beautiful graphics. There is a reason this game is still played today and has a massive fanbase.
Age of Mythology introduced 3D to the series, had a tighter focus by only having 3 civilisations, the mythology and god abilities in the game are amazing. It's also one of my favourite RTS ever made.
Age of Empires 3 had every civilization being way different, the physics really helped the battles come more alive, it added a lot of unique and fun twists to the gameplay. The least popular one of the franchise, but still the improvements are very clear to spot and I love the game.
Oh, and then the ones in charge (MS) decided people don't play on PC anymore and consoles are the future, so Ensemble made Halo Wars and MS shut them down.
They never made a bad title, they never made a game that didn't sell millions of copies. Their games are still played and loved by a massive amount of people to this very day. I'll never understand why they got shut down, and I'll never stop hating MS for making that decision.
I just bought Blur this year and enjoyed it quite a bit. There's videos of Blur 2 on youtube and it looked pretty cool. Very sad that we won't be getting to play it.
I think officially Criterion is still alive, but they may as well be dead.
Snow Blind studios - loved the Dark alliance games back in the day and really like LotR War in the North (rough around the edges) but still very enjoyable. Perfect evolution of diablo type games. Prefer it to Mordor/War tbh.
Man, even bringing it up causes me to feel mad depressed. Merging with Enix was a nightmare for retaining talent and Sakaguchi's departure should have clued us all in to the fact that S-E was becoming a bureaucratic disaster. In many ways S-E is still f*cking clueless when it comes to managing development schedules and timetables. Had it not been for the Eidos acquisition, S-E's reputation would have completely sunk, but Eidos largely kept them relevant while their other properties plunged. But not to sing its praise too much, Squaresoft's ambitious and - in some respects - reckless publishing ventures led it to a place where it was vulnerable to subjecting its IP and developer relationships to a larger corporate pecking order that negatively impacted its sprawling catalog.
Squaresoft was responsible for my favorite game ever (FFIX) but the spell between titles IV through X produced some of the greatest fantasy narratives in the medium coupled with flexible and intricate RPG systems that set the standard for the turn-based genre. But in addition, Squaresoft made some wildly off-the-wall efforts to make games that were well outside their perceived forte: Parasite Eve, Bushido Blade, Tobal No.1, Xenogears, Einhander, Super Mario RPG, Brave Fencer Musashi, Ehrgeiz, Chocobo's Dungeon and Chocobo's Racing, among others, were all published and overseen by Squaresoft management.
Irrational Games
Helmed by Ken Levine and comprised of the DNA that led to System Shock 2, Irrational Games was mired by a tortured development in an age where substantial investments in singleplayer titles was becoming less and less viable. The necessary investment to warrant an acceptable ROI was no longer supported by management and the difficulty Irrational experienced in wrapping up Bioshock Infinite utterly drained its creative core. After Infinite wrapped development, 2K and Ken Levine sat down and had their "Come to Jesus" moment where neither felt that they could keep the studio operating without serious restructuring to both its operation and its development aims.
Bioshock took the world by storm when it debuted in 2007 and became an industry gem right as the HD consoles were hitting their stride. While Bioshock Infinite arrived in a state that was vastly different than its original vision, I personally found it to be the superior and more creative of the two titles with a far better overarching narrative than its progenitor (granted, it's worth pointing out that there is no game with a more pronounced polarization of opinions that I've ever encountered than Infinite). Maybe one day we'll find out more about whatever happened to that Bioshock Vita game....
989 Studios
Originally a development branch under SCEA, the group was later reorganized and reintegrated into SCEA in the early 2000s. Many of the titles published under 989 were sports-focused, but a handful of cherished Sony properties from the original PS passed to their oversight (Twisted Metal, Jet Moto) and the group was responsible for the introduction of Syphon Filter, a game IP that wound up underserved in the reshuffle. It was eventually reinvigorated by another first-party Sony stable - Sony Bend (Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow) - but 989's dissolution was a sudden and jarring alteration of what was quickly becoming a potent development group.
Contrail
Involved in a number of the in-house SCE RPGs, Contrail was eventually dissolved and absorbed by the larger SCE group in the late 90s. In particular, Contrail was responsible for the development of Legend of Legaia, a turn-based RPG with fighting-game inspirations. Once Contrail was taken off active development, the IP and many of the ideas Contrail was at the forefront of exploring just fell out of fashion and weren't picked up on until much later and without the original talent or vision to guide them. The Legaia IP was graced with a sequel - Legaia 2: Duel Saga - but it was a far call from what preceded it under Contrail's supervision.
STALKER games become of the my all time fav. then Stalker 2 announced and i was so excited. then studio closed and even if studio reopened again. i dont see Stalker 2 in future. theres lot of talent left so different studio mainly 4A games and working on Metro.
My favorite one was Bullfrog Productions. They had such great ideas. And execution. If you look at their track record they created some genres, subgenres. Some of my favorite games. Then they got swallowed by EA.
You guys realize that even if these companies were still around, most if not all of the individuals that worked there likely would no longer work there today. Many of those talented individuals have gone on to make other great games you enjoy. For example, some of the talent from Looking Glass Studios went on to work on titles like Oblivions/Skyrim and Dishonored. Likewise many studio's that are still around have made some crappy games since their last great one. Dismantling a studio as a brand has nothing to do with firing all the employees, often they move them to other projects. Such as a case for Respawn...they were looking to sell anyway to Nexon, as an EA partner, one of the co founders quit leaving the company in potential risk of eventually closing anyway, which is why EA shut down Visceral, to up the offer to own the IP. Point is, capitalism works, if it were not for large publishers like EA, many of these studio's would likely die out anyway or dissolve copyrights through other companies.
You're all just living in nostalgia land based on some old games you enjoyed. Problem is, the older you get, the less adaptive to change you are. Some of those old game's ideologies just aren't relevant with todays gamers. Think about, do you really think Sierra's great point and click games are going to sell like they once did? Stalker as an example isn't the type of game where you can continually evolve without some drastic changes from the original. If they did a remake then people would still complain, it's best left as it was considering the talent left to 4A anyway. GSC dissolved as so many others mentioned here would have done if they weren't bought out. Now we have Vostok Games from GSC employees and as you can see, they would have nothing but the same crappy game....So now that GSC has been reopened without any of the former staff...we have what exactly? Cossacks 3..oh the joys.
@AzatiS: Yeah, I'm hyped for the PC release of Okami. I really want to replay that shit. Agreed about Visceral. DS was awesome. Even though I was a little dissapointed in 2 and very dissapointed in 3, I still wanted to see more from them.
Origin Systems - Big Ultima Online fan during Origin's time.. Age of Shadows expansion ruined UO for a lot of people including me.. EA shut down Origin around a year later.
Not a studio but Team Silent disbanding was bad.. We all know what happened to Silent Hill series after that.
@AzatiS: Yeah, I'm hyped for the PC release of Okami. I really want to replay that shit. Agreed about Visceral. DS was awesome. Even though I was a little dissapointed in 2 and very dissapointed in 3, I still wanted to see more from them.
Okami, a game deserved so much more ( praise and sales ). I agree with Dead Space 3, was big dissapointment.
Log in to comment