What is your top 5 most respected developers in gaming?

I know this isn't answering the question, and I apologize, but why are you lumping indie devs in one group?

1 ) Larian

2 ) CD projekt Red

3 ) Naughty Dog

1 ) Naughty Dog

2 ) CD projekt Red

3 ) ICO

Absolutely not, they were one of the greatest developers in the industry, however they have lost their compass and now focus entirely on market transactions and allowing the community to create content for them while reaping most of the financial benefits, all the while not producing anything. They're bleeding the community dry and producing nothing, not to mention blatantly ignoring the literal millions upon millions of people wanting Half-Life 3 because they make more money from other avenues...

On top of this they have let Steam completely fall apart, it used to just be quality approved games which got funneled ddirectly through Valve for approval before hitting the platform, now it's just a shit hole of indie games with everything good getting lost in this mess...

Valve is not the Valve you think you love, they're greedy, arrogant and completely dismissive of their community or what they want... **** Valve...

Naughty Dog are the only dev I respect and admire. I mean, who else has ever gone through the trouble of optimizing a game to a binary level to squeeze every drop of the console hardware? And not to mention they were the firsts to use bump mapping on the PS2 when every dev said it was impossible and then they were the firsts to learn how to utilize the PS3's SPE's when every other dev, including Valve, were saying that it was useless and that Sony had to abandon the console already.

Bethesda Game Studios

Naughty Dog

CD Projekt Red

From Software

Valve

(Old-School) Valve

(Old School) Nintendo

Hiroshi Iuchi - basically (Old School) Treasure

Hideo Kojima - basically (Old School) Konami

Sony are pretty frigging nailing it at the moment. Love their left-field offerings in the form of Gravity Rush (Team Gravity), Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico), and The Last of Us (Naughty Dog). To be honest, I honestly do think that Sony have what it takes to become the new Nintendo - both in terms of software development talent as well as hardware that has captured the imagination of the public.

R* North.

1. Nintendo

2. Blizzard

3. Valve

4. Capcom

5. Rockstar

Any other answer besides Rockstar is wrong. They are the king both in sales as in critical acclaim. They give jus to their name

Atlus, Naughty Dog, Square Enix, Capcom and Nintendo in that order.

Some indie developers can be right, little shitheels.

1. Blizzard (Released masterpiece after masterpiece. Huge production values. Most consistent developer in the industry period)
2. Relic (One of the best Strategy developers in the world. Killer sound effects and fast paced campaign)
3. Creative Assembly (One of the most talented studios. Great writers and game balance brings history to life)
4. CD Project Red (Very few games come close when it comes to storytelling and writing)
5. Remedy/Larian Studios (First one makes amazing Action games with killer atmosphere. The Second one makes amazing RPGs with beautiful open worlds to explore without hand holding)

Anyway, I quite like these fellas. I feel like Japanese developers are less bullshitty about their product.

Look at that. No shits given.

In no particular order...

MachineGames: I'll admit that the PC port for Wolfenstein: The New Order wasn't the best, but their interpretation of the Wolfenstein franchise pushes the FPS genre towards the right direction.

Croteam: Their way of doing things is much more linear than Doom, though suffice to say, the juggling of a crapton of guns while shooting a bajillion enemies is more fun and refreshing compared to today's shooters. Plus, they're one of the few, if not only developer who seems to care about HD graphics for an HD remake.

Bandai Namco Studios: Yes, they killed Ace Combat and SoulCalibur so that they can fully commit to Tekken and Tales, but Unlike Nippon Ichi Software, they didn't expect PC gamers to like a game unrelated to and/or objectively inferior to the one they actually want. We need to move away from the "buy x so y can be on PC" crap and Bamco's giving us a chance to do so.

Tripwire interactive: Killing Floor. 'Nuff said. Some might not like the idea of DLC weapons, but I suppose it helps pay for free map packs and a new game mode.

Triumph Studios: After their work on the Overlord franchise, it was rather surprising that the studio returned to their roots with Age of Wonders 3, and it doesn't help that they were able to sell the game without having to rely on TF2 promos. In addition to reviving an old favourite of mine, they've also corrected a few issues I had with the first game (most notably the reliance on an RNG).

Obsidian - They just make the best damn RPGs.

Platinum - They just make the best damn action games.

Valve - Pro consumer practices and some of the best software going.

Nintendo - Focusing on gameplay and core gamers while Microsoft and Sony are catering to casuals. Nintendo ironically has the most casual stuff, but they still produce loads of stuff for their hardcore fans. Sony is especially bad for forcing previously great studios to make casual games.

Capcom - What can I say? Street Fighter, Megaman, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil and loads more. Capcom games haven't been doing very well critically these last few years but I think they're still fantastic. I'm really hoping we get DMC5 and not DmC2.

The main ones are:

• Valve
• Bioware
• Rockstar
• CD Projekt Red

Honourable mentions to Bungie (for Halo), and Rocksteady.

A game developer not making games impresses you? That's like saying owning a car that doesn't drive is a good thing... Steam was not a "game delivery system" and it wasn't built for that, it was a content update and automatic patching system for Valve's games, something the WON infrastructure didn't have the capabilities to do. They're pillaging and taking advantage of the consumer base, everything they do now is just about generating cash flow with the absolute minimum effort involved. Greenlight? Early Access? Self publishing? All of these are now a reality because Valve get's 30% of any purchase made on the platform, so they just said **** it and allow just about anything because it generates them more money.

Steam Machines? Valve isn't even building their own because they don't want the financial risk, they just want all the money and royalties that come from these third party manufacturers creating and selling Steam Machine hardware... They put all the risk on them and get all the reward regardless of which way it goes...

Dota 2? CS:GO? Team Fortress 2? The Market? They've turned their games and platform into a marketplace with infinite resources that never deplete and are extremely easy to create. Items, weapon skins, cards and badges, hats, market fees paid to Valve, all of that shit, the money has absolutely corrupted Valve's focus on importance and what is wanted and needed. They're a game developer that doesn't seem to have any interest in creating games because they don't financially need to anymore... That's bullshit...

Valve was the victim of the Skyrim mod controversy? Are you fucking kidding me... That was a collaboration which was absolutely no doubt their idea, because guess what, they would make more money off of it and not have to do a fucking thing...

They've fallen, fallen very, very, very far.... They are nothing but money grubbing lazy assholes now...

P.S. Valve has only EVER created one unique game franchise, and that is Half-Life, everything else they have 'created' were other peoples work and ideas that they financially acquired and built upon...

Valve (Made HL series)

CD Project Red (Made The Witcher series)

Rocksteady (Made Batman Arkham series)

ND (Made Crash series)

BioWare (Made Mass Effect series)

(in no respective order)

All this Naughty Dog, Valve and CD Projekt dick riding.

Naughty Dog

Capcom

Bungie

Team Ninja

Grasshopper

@yourdeadgrandpa said:

@nyadc: Hah i completely disagree with you.

You've formed no argument to disagree... None... What can even be disagreed with? That's all right there in front of you black and white...

Dinagling- Simply for bringing the LISA games into this world. It's a terrific series (or game, depending on how you look at it) that has some of the strongest writing I've seen in a video game.

Nintendo- While they are jumping on the electronic DLC bandwagon, their games still feel complete and the systems they make still feel primarily like game consoles as opposed to a media machine.

Atlus- While a lot of the stuff I've played by them has only been published and produced by them, their in house developed titles are also great. I will always respect them simply because they put their fans before anything else- if they think there's potential for fans outside Japan to enjoy a game they make, they do whatever they can to bring it to different countries, and in an age where big name companies are blatantly exploiting consumers to make extra cash off of unfinished games, that's all one can hope for.

Square Enix- Not so much for their business practices or their really big games, but they have consistently released relatively obscure titles that have entertained me over the past few years, and that's about all I can hope for from the company who made three FFXIII games.

Platinum- Kamiya is an action, beat em up directing God, and their games are filled with the kind of frenetic, fast paced, joyous energy that few other games have. It makes them feel like a breed all their own and while I have only technically played one or two Platinum games, I am familiar with the creative team behind the non Platinum games as well (like Viewtiful Joe- a classic) and they always have singular visions for games that put the gameplay first without sacrificing production values- in short, they make some of the best action games in the business.

1 nintendo

2.koei tecmo

3.bandai namco

4.camelot

5.good feel

• OLDSCHOOL BLIZZARD

And i say oldschool because blizzard after WoW is not the blizzard i once was fan of . Still though one of the best developers around not because of Free 2 play games though. Just because they evolutionized or revolutionized whole genres in the past. Who can forget the very first diablo and diablo 2 , Warcraft franchise , WoW , the very first Starcraft that even as we speak thousands of thousands of players playing daily ? All those oldschool , one of a kind games have nothing to do with the new blizzard of F2P caliber games like HOTS / Hearthstone and Overwatchers , no these are not games of oldschool blizzard caliber let alone failures like Diablo 3.

• VALVE

Not much to say here ... We all know why Valve is one of the best out there . So ill keep it short ... They have the magic stick ! Nuff said

• NAUGHTY DOGS

One of the few if not the only development team that really pushes their gaming into other level. You want apparel direction ? Check . You want memorable action and/or characters ? Check . You want top notch cinematic experiences ? Check . You want top notch graphics ? Check .. You want one of the best voice actings in the business ? Check ... I mean i can talk forever what ND team does right in their games. Last generation they just proved themselfs big time and because of that they became one of the most respected and well known companies in the world. Im eager to see whats next for this company , they always manage to amaze me somehow. Big kudos and respect for a company that dares to try new things from scratch , aka NEW IPs , of this caliber and in the end delivering in such fashion. Its something very very few companies can do.

• NINTENDO

Nothing much to say here . One of the most talented and most respected developers walked on earth with some of the highest rated games ever. That alone , let alone everything else which will take a while to write down , makes Nintendo one of the best and greatest developers. What i want to see though is ... more NEW IPs from them. Even if im not a big fan of their games , though i really like Zelda franchise and main mario games , i cant bypass the fact that they really revolutionized gaming in N64 era with games like SM64 / Zelda OOT and not be in my top 5.

• ROCKSTAR NORTH

Not much to say either ... TOP NOTCH gaming experiences thru the years , one of the few companies with so many high rated games one after the other , quality values on other level , the one and only company that made "open world" games so popular , they trying new IPs here and there with great success and so on and on . Very few can reach this level of excellence as of production values as ROCKSTAR in their games. It cant not be in my top 5 . Even if im more into CD PROJEKT i need to keep it real

WORTH MENTION

• CD PROJEKT
• UBISOFT
• BIOWARE
• BETHESDA

@freedomfreak: That Kamiya quote gets me every time haha

Shouldn't the discussion be limited to individual studios, not entire publishers?

CDPR

Vavle

Monolith ( despite they neglected pc a bit lately )

Croteam

Stardock

Honorable mention

Paradox Developer studio

@Gue1: naughty dog, pushing hardware limitations since 1996.

Remember when people said the crash bandicoot advertisements were altered and there's no way the game looked as good as it did? Devs thought that ND had access to some secret part of the PS1 hardware

• Retro Studios
• Nintendo EAD
• From Software
• Indies

It's hard to find legit developers these days.

Sega/AM2

Turn 10/Playground Games

Remedy

Platinum Games

Ubisoft, well only the team who makes the Splinter Cell games, and not Ubi as a whole.

Nintendo EAD

Naughty Dog/Kojima(cant decide on this one)

Media Molecule/Insomniac(cant really decide either :/ )

Bungie

Retro Studios(made the best fps/adventure game of all time.......Metroid Prime)

honorable mention:

Sony Japan Studios

Santa Monica

Gamefreak

edit: wow!!! How did i forget Rocksteady :O

Obsidian

Firaxis

Retro Studios

Nintendo EAD Tokyo

Ubisofr Montpellier (mainly Ancel's team)

Just from reading the sheer amount of people praising Valve, you're clearly new, I mean there is no way you could be any form of long standing member in their community and not only praise them but be happy with the direction they have taken.... It's deplorable...

@freedomfreak:

Awesome.

1. Platinum Games
2. From Software

• Bioware
• SE (they have redeemed themselves)
• Bethesda
• Naughty Gods
• CDPR

Too many to list!

Latest to really earn my appreciation and gaming moolah in the future is Harebrained LLC. Absolutely loved the writing particularly in their Shadowrun trilogy.

Blizzard, Valve, Epic Games, Nintendo

Naughty Dog (Incredibly talented team)

Konami (The output of quality games from the 80's and 90's is ridiculous.)

Rockstar (Red Dead Redemption, nuff said.)

Nintendo (Creators of some of the most cherished franchises)

Sega 80's/90's. (So many great Arcade classics as well as excellent console exclusives)

1 ) Naughty Dog

2 ) CD projekt Red

3)Bioware

4)Platinum Games

5)Blizzard

My top five developers:
1. Valve - Dota2, CS:GO, Half Life series, Portal Series and Steam.
2. Blizzard - Warcraft series including old WoW, Starcraft series, Diablo series and Hearthstone.
3. Nintendo - Mario platform series, Legend of Zelda series, Super Smash Bros Melee.
4. Croteam - Serous Sam series, The Talos Principle.
5. Larian Studios - Divinity: Original Sin, it was that good.

Nintendo

Konami

Naughty Dog

Bioware

CD Project Red

Sir Tech - They were perfectionists. They would polish the hell out of their games until they had so much personality and quality that when you played them it was an instant classic... they aren't around any more unfortunately, and its partly because of this need for perfection they just couldn't put out enough games to make enough money to keep going. They made games they liked and didn't just make games for a quick profit. Its too bad this kickstarter trend wasn't around back than, they probably could have survived with a bit of extra support from fans. It basically saved Larian because i doubt they would have had enough to continue making Divinity without kickstarter donations.

CDPR, Rocksteady, Naughty Dog, 17 Bit, and Moon Studios.