Favorite Gaming Company

[Chris Tian]

CDProjectRED for their consumer friendliness and the absolute fantastic Witcher Games.

Bioware for over a decade worth of awesome RPG's.

Bethesda for their immensly fun open world rpgs.

Obsidian deserves mention for FO:NV, KOTOR2 and NWN2.

More or less in that order.

 

[Araksardet]

As an employer, Klei Entertainment and Gaslamp Games seem like real fine places to work. I've had my eye on Gaslamp for a while, but Klei was recently featured in a Polygon piece, and their company culture sounds pretty healthy.

As a games producer, I'd have to say games by Bethesda, Firaxis, Obsidian and BioWare consistently produce games I enjoy (I just wish EA and Steam could resolve their dispute and finally get EA games back on Steam). Also a shout-out to Blizzard pre-WoW (including WoW, if I'm honest with myself) and the late Ensemble Studios + its Robot Entertainment successor, who have promise. CD Projekt Red make great Witcher games, but I really want to see them succeed at something different before I add them to the pantheon. Though to be fair, a lot of the games I really, really like are by studios that just haven't put out many games yet (Mojang, Subset, Arkane, Gaslamp, etc.).

As a customer relations entity, Mojang and Gaslamp are pretty great.

Also Valve, for providing us with Steam (the Portal games are fun too).

That's just off the top of my head.

 

[Muspelheim]

Paradox... Dear old friend Paradox. When they're not making little great games, they're publishing other studios' little great games.

Bohemia Interactive, of Operation Flashpoint and ArmA-series fame, have had me crawl around in hedges shooting at tiny specks at the horison for about twelve years. I've adored every minute of it.

Now, Bethesda as a publisher, I'm not terribly fond of. It's their game making workshop I like. I think they specifically target me when they're making their games.

I was tempted to bring up Blizzard to the list as well, but... No, something has happened. I think they've rested on their laurels slowly metabolising their World of Warcraft-money far too long.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Clover Studios/Platinum Games

These guys know how to make games for me.

They don't take themselves too seriously, they have ridiculous amount of style, and character oozes from every pore of the titles they make.

Ding ding ding, we have a winner.

Honestly, I've only played most of their stuff relatively recently, but all of it is absolutely fantastic.

 

[Fox12]

Hmm, TellTale has caught my eye with their unusually good writing and episodic gameplay. You already mentioned Double Fine, who, in my opinion, is doing everything right from both a business and artistic standpoint. Here's hoping more quasi-indie studios spring up with the same level of talent. I'm just now getting into the indie scene, and I'm already more excited for the smaller titles than I am for any upcoming AAA titles.

 

[Rheinmetall]

Capcom. They still make games that I love to play. Second place: Konami. They used to be my number 1, but not anymore. But for all those great moments of the past I say a big thanks to them.

 

[sethisjimmy]

I don't have too many consistent favorites, but some include:

Kojima Productions (I just really love Metal Gear and Kojima's work in general)

Valve (Great community involvement, great PR, steam sales, and also solid games)

Grasshopper Manufacture (Home of Goichi Suda and a very creative library of games)

Double Fine Productions (Tim Schafer and his team are always making unique games. I might not love them all, but I respect the different directions they take with each of their games)

There are plenty of one-off developers I like too, in that they've just released their one game so far, but that game has been great, such as Mojang of Minecraft, SuperGiant games of Bastion, Dennaton games of Hotline Miami, etc.

Overall a developer is great to me ultimately if they are creative, stylish, not always doing the same thing, and have good business practices. Also Metal Gear. It helps if you make that game, because I like that game.

 

[Joffas16]

My favourite would have to be Nintendo, they respect their customers and when it comes to making games they still haven't lost their touch. I still love all of their big franchises.

Obsidian make my favourite RPG's, it's just a shame that they can never finish the damn things. If it weren't for all the bugs and cut-content Fallout: New Vegas could have been my favourite game of all time.

And lastly..... Pandemic Studio's. Goddammit, it's been so long but I STILL miss them... I have to go cry now.

 

[omegaweopon]

Squaresoft. Is Sqauresoft still an option? Does it have to be Squeenix? Because I'm not a fan.

2k as a publisher has been doing a pretty solid job even though they kinda are "part of the problem"

Atlus. Atlus always. I've played so many lovely games thanks to Atlus.

NIS their strategy games are so free forming, and ridiculous that they gain a place in my heart.

FROM Software, also gets in my good graces, as I have been playing quite a few of their games for quite a while.

I miss Squaresoft...

 

[Rob Robson]

Func - they just made my really awesome mouse. The commercial is freakin' hilarious too, they've got a sense of humour:


As for makers of games, it's a tie between Funcom and Bethesda.

 

[likalaruku]

Well, long ago it was Black Isle, Gas Powered Games, Cyan Worlds, Sierra, Maxis, & Rare. I was also a SEGA fan when I was very young.

Now it's BioWare, Bethesda, Amaranth Games, Telltale, & Nintendo. It's because Nintendo refuses to change that I like them; They're still into the laid back silly atmosphere, anthropomorphic animals, bright colors, & cartoony graphics I miss from the late 90s.

 

[goku4eternity]

I still like Nintendo, for Game Freak and Pokemon, I also liked Kirby's Dreamland, I think Kirby is a cool video game character. I also liked paper mario. I liked animal crossing. I liked Majora's Mask more than Ocarina of Time. I liked Mega Man 2. I like Donkey Kong the arcade game. I like Dr. Mario. Gameboy tetris. I beat my friends at starfox multiplayer. I liked Luigi's mansion, I don't why Luigi isn't more nintendo games. I don't know why pokemon green for the gameboy was never released in the United States. I was excited about pokemon yellow when I was younger, because it was the first pokemon game in color. Advance Wars I liked that game. I liked link to the past on the snes, I don't know why they changed it and made it different on the gameboy advance, I don't like when video games take the glitches out of video games.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

EIDOS
They made Deus Ex and the Hitman Series. Every time I played those games I went "this is my favorite game of all time".

 

[themyrmidon]

Zenimax and Stardock are the first two to spring to my mind. Quality games with consumer-friendly policies.

EVGA for hardware, they have never treated me wrong.

 

[Angelblaze]

I already know alot of people are going to be scratching their heads at this one but, Square Enix.

You can insult them all you like but in our current time of gaming when female objectification is the current hot topic, SE knows wtf they're doing and they always have. Both males and female are equally sexualized and in the end I can't find a character who is really only there to be sexy, they all have their back plots and personalities attached while also balancing a pretty creative design line and some brief flashes of fan service.

That's why I'm thinking of getting a PS4 (if they don't pull the same stuff as Microsoft), just to buy FFversus...and KH3 if it comes out on it.

 

[TrevHead]

Computer Art Visual Entertainment AKA CAVE Interactive Co Ltd is my fave dev house. Like Treasure they are a boutique developer who is mostly known for their niche arcade Shmups that Ooze oldschool production values.

While they aren't in great shape atm and with rumors of their death popping up every few months I have to hand it to them for continuing to make high quality shmups that are sold at a premium in a world that wouldn't know quality if it slapped them in the face and will only pay $10 because X indie shat out a similar game in his/her spare time.

Platinum and SEGA (along with Relic and Creative Assembly) I think highly of too.

I used to be a Valve fanboy but they could hardly be considered a dev anymore and have lost all their browny point's with Steam BS.

I would like Altus if they weren't total Cnuts with PAL gamers

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I think in the past I'd have said Square-Enix, but the current state of Square-Enix is a bit poor, I think. They seem to have, to me at least, decided to focus on the notion of 'cinematic' gameplay and have tried to over-complicate their stories and characters, which ends up as a muddy result. Also, I really dislike their current policy of announcing announcements. It's a shame as well, since Square-Enix are responsible for some wonderful games.

Back when they were around, I loved Clover Studios. Viewtiful Joe and Okami were incredible games and while I didn't really enjoy God Hand, I appreciated the work that had gone into making such a good fighting system.

Since there has never been a bad Pokemon game, I reckon The Pokemon Company have to be one of my favourite companies. I'm a big fan of Level 5 and Atlus as well, since they both make absolutely quality games, although I'd appreciate more localisations. Despite the buggy nature of their games, I still love Bethesda for making awesome games with a massive sense of scale. Bioware and Obsidian are also still both up there; I have never had a problem with either company's games and they're all of high quality. Also, Naughty Dog and Insomniac have always made games I absolutely adore; I'd love to put Sucker Punch up there with them but I wasn't terribly enamoured with the InFamous games, although of course the Sly Cooper games were fantastic.

 

[aggers]

Paradox, got to be paradox. massive fan of grand strategy games

and stuff like this:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?671169-Monetizing-from-Youtube-videos-containing-Paradox-Interactive-material!