How many good contract developers are there left?

[BrotherRool]

I'm having a mind blank on this one, I can only think of Obsidian as an RPG developer. And Gearbox, but I think it's really questionable if they're a good contracter at this point, they make awesome games that they want to make, but it likes like they've got no qualms about not honouring contracts if they aren't excited for those games.

And then Bungie, Respawn (is Respawn still around?), Epic Gamse? (they might make enough from licensing to not need publishers) and Insomniac (Ratchett and Clank)


It seems a bit limited. If a publisher want to make a platformer or a hack 'n slash I'm not sure who they'd got to (Platinum?)


The line of thought was http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.404971-Disney-shuts-down-Lucasarts?page=1 [LucasArts] shutting down and Disney saying they were going to focus on licensing out. Because if they license out, who can they go to?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Edit: Nevermind, didn't read title properly ^-^'

Platinum games are awesome, they pretty much turn anything they touch into campy gold

 

[Fappy]

I'm really hoping Disney retcons SWTOR (unlikely) and gives Obsidian Kotor III. Assuming they can actually work within a realistic timetable this time... expect glorious things. Obsidian's already expressed interest, but Disney hasn't issued an official response as far as I know.

 

[BrotherRool]

I would argue that we have Bioware, we also have Ubisoft (or was it U. Montreal that made the Assassin Creed series?).

Other companies would include Relic, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Volition, and probably a few others that I missed.

Sorry I messed that up a bit, by contract developer I meant a developer who works for contracts by publishers (so basically indie dev minus CD Projekt minus Valve and possibly minus Epic Games). Bioware are also barely a studio at this point, I think the Bioware label includes multiple teams based in multiple locations in the US (didn't the Warhammer 40k team (Cryptik?) get renamed Bioware as well?) and presumably Bioware will only ever do work for EA.

It's possible that EA would be willing to cut a deal with someone like Disney to make a star wars game, but thats a lot of negotiation on who gets the money and who pays the money.

Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch are probably going to be exclusively inhoouse on Sony franchises because Sony needs them to sell the PS4