So, What Video Game Companies ARE Getting It Right

[Terramax]

It seems every other week or month a video game publisher or developer seems to take the wrong foot with consumers and get blasted across the internet. Whether it be the Mass Effect 3 fiasco, Ubisoft with Rayman Legends suddenly going multi-platform, Gear Box and the Alien CM false-advertising claims, etc. And then there's the hardware developers, who're in a league of their own.

My reaction to all of this is 'well, who's doing it right these days'? So my simple (or maybe it's rather complex) question is; What company is treating the consumer right and continuously delivering the good? What company can we use as a shining example of how to make and sell games right?

 

[TehCookie]

Atlus and Platinum are the first two that come to mind. I've never been disappointed by them, and I especially love how open Platinum is with the fans.

 

[spartandude]

CD Projekt Red saying that DRM is not the answer. also releasing a free upgrade for people who brought The Witcher 2 before the Enhanced edition was released

 

[Realitycrash]

Creative Assembly hasn't disappointed me to any great extent. Then again, they only release like one game every two years.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

I love Platinum games. Their past games are of platinum quality (have yet to play Mad world so I can't comment on that) and their upcoming releases look amazing!
Ninja Theory games have excellent voice acting, lovable characters, gorgeous background and are generally fun. Haven't played DmC either.

 

[Eddie the head]

Sony with PlayStation Plus as well as Planitside 2. Both are kind of awesome.

 

[WoW Killer]

lol, what's this? Can we not like a developer unless they've never had a taint on their record? You won't find many to like.

Ok, Supergiant Games has never released a bad game. They've also only ever released one game. Woot, best company ever.

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

CD Projekt seems to only impress me. They might just be masters of good PR, but every word sounds like music. To the point where I almost want to give them money for the sake of giving them money.


Here's why:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118989-CD-Projekt-Lets-Treat-Gamers-as-Grown-ups
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/117361-DRM-Is-Still-Dumb-Says-CD-Projekt
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114429-The-Witcher-2-Pirated-Roughly-4-5-Million-Times-Says-Dev
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/110050-CD-Projekt-Does-Witcher-2-DLC-Right-Makes-It-All-Free
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/118538-CD-Projekt-RED-Generosity-Works

"When we put it out for free, we saw a boost in the sales with the Enhanced Edition because it just created good will, and it refreshes the product," joint-CEO, Marcin Iwinski, told Gamasutra.

"You can always do it from two angles, and sadly I see the industry trending toward over-exploiting the gamer," he continued, "and I think this will come back to the publishers that are doing that, and eventually, people will stop buying their stuff. That's just not the way things work."

 

[Strazdas]

CD Project, Bethesda softworks, Whoever is the team behind Civilization games (Maxis as a whole is not going this path anymore sadly), Paradox Interactive, Forgot the name but the guys behind total war series and quite a few others.

lol, what's this? Can we not like a developer unless they've never had a taint on their record? You won't find many to like.

Ok, Supergiant Games has never released a bad game. They've also only ever released one game. Woot, best company ever.

Doing it right in this case means that when the dust settles, they are the good guys in this case i think. they done more good than they fucked up and if they did they apologized. noone is infallable, but when one seems to make their whole existence as means to be evil its not really going to be liked.

 

[Lilani]

Valve has customer service down, and CD Projekt Red seems to be a kindred spirit in that. Bethesda knows how to give you your money's worth, without nickel and diming you into a "full experience."

 

[Terramax]

lol, what's this? Can we not like a developer unless they've never had a taint on their record? You won't find many to like.

Well, I certainly didn't say that. What I was stating is that, with so many devs apparently upsetting their fans/ target audience, what is an example of a company that keeps them happy all the time, and why.

That being said, people have listed their example, few have stated why.

 

[felbot]

cd projekt red, gog is an amazing thing and they should be commended more for it.

 

[Auron]

Whoever is the team behind Civilization games (Maxis as a whole is not going this path anymore sadly)

That's Sid Meier's Firaxis.


Anyway, I'd say Valve has never disappointed the public but there's some people who want complete control over steam licenses to sell and some who rail against their EULA, especially the part against class action lawsuits, like it's the devil. Still I think the larger public remains satisfied.

Bethesda knows how to give you your money's worth, without nickel and diming you into a "full experience."

I love Bethesda but Dishonoured was extremely overpriced. I got it at a massive discount on gmg a month or two later but if I had paid 60$ I'd be pissed.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I would go with Platinum games with the exception of Madworld which I thought was pretty crap gameplay wise (awesome in everything else though) I have enjoyed every game I have bought of theirs which is most of them.

Cant wait for revengeance.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

I would have said Gear Box, but then just watched that video about the Aliens game. They are at least getting it right with Borderlands 2 and how fast the DLC is coming out. Bethesda doesn't seem too bad, and better now since they got the PS3 DLC worked out.

On the other side, Valve. Ignoring the fact that they haven't really made a good game (in my eyes) since Left 4 Dead, this whole Dota 2 thing is getting annoying, too. The game sucks, and I've probably got 6+ copies of it randomly that I can't get rid of or even throw away. They also seem to have switched to a multiplayer focused company (Portal 2 had a coop focus while the single player "puzzles" required almost zero thought to solve, the CS:GO and Dota 2 were only multiplayer). Pretty sure there was an announcement last year about how they were doing away with single player only, but that is not getting it right in my opinion.

 

[Strazdas]

Whoever is the team behind Civilization games (Maxis as a whole is not going this path anymore sadly)

That's Sid Meier's Firaxis.


Anyway, I'd say Valve has never disappointed the public but there's some people who want complete control over steam licenses to sell and some who rail against their EULA, especially the part against class action lawsuits, like it's the devil. Still I think the larger public remains satisfied.

Thanks for the clarification.
While valve isnt inheritently bad, it didnt make my list because i dont really enjoy their games. the only one i truly enjoyed was TF2, but i didnt play that long either. Its not my type of game, and its fine that people like it. However there is a reason i dont use steam and that reason is i saw what steam was like back in 2003. and i mean what it was truly like, not what a casual user saw. SO i dont really do anything related to valve, thus not making my list

That being said, people have listed their example, few have stated why.

ah, sorry bout that. lets do it then.

CD Project
Good games (frankly i only played Witcher ones), their stance against DRMs, the fact that they are trying to make the old games alive and popular with GOG.

Bethesda softworks
Simply great games. Sure they are full of bugs, but the other parts more than make up for that. Something i cant say about, say, Staker Clear sky, where i could not finish because of crashes and save file corruption.

Sid Meyers Firaxis
The strategy games that i palyed the most. I love civilization series and still love them. nothing beats a weekend of audiobook + long civilization game.

Paradox Interactive
Their great games and their attempt at realistic history in them. Their awesome community (i think they have the best gaming forum ever) and their willingenss to work together with fans, like the fanfueled game they released lately.

Total war series folk
Great games, simple as that. each one better than the last (though i wish they would have progressed in tme rather than remade Shogun, but its a great game nevertheless)

 

[PhantomGanon]

Sony is getting one thing right, and that is the cross play games for the PS3 and the Vita, I would love to see more games like that, it really encourages gamers to buy products.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

Maybe not the best company in the world, but Capcom shall remain one of my favorites whilst I continue to enjoy their games.

 

[8bitmaster]

I would say Crytek, mainly because they give a damn. Hell, after the whole THQ thing where Vigil never got bought, they just hired all the employees on the spot. Plus they still want to make a new Timesplitters game, and make it free to play. Then theres games like Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 (I hope), that are pretty damn good recently. I haven't seen much fault with these guys. Now if only they could ditch EA as their publisher.

 

[bananafishtoday]

Paradox Interactive. Everything they release is DRM-free, their forums are by far the most intelligent and pleasant I've seen of any publisher or dev house, constant engagement with fans, continual support of older titles up to and including free patches that add new features, LAN support for titles with multiplayer, amazing mod support in their in-house titles (practically everything is exposed as text files and bitmaps, ready to be changed however one pleases), and very hands-off with their third-party titles. Granted, they've had their fiascos (buggy releases mostly, though their QA has since improved and they always do their best to fix things when they go wrong.) But they're still pretty much the best around.

I know I sound like a cult member, but that's kinda the beauty of it: Pdox's whole business model revolves around making their fans as rabidly loyal as possible. They accept that piracy will happen no matter what, so their strategy is to make as many people as possible like them so much that they won't pirate.

To wit, I got into them when they put EU3 Chronicles (the base game + all 5 expansions) on sale for $3. (A year after that, maybe 2-3 years after the 5th expansion came out, they released a patch that added new features.) That $3 sale, plus the vibrant forums, plus all the goodwill they have for their fans, made me a customer for life: I've since bought six or seven other titles by them and plan to preorder EU4. I'm the type of person who never preorders (and rarely even buys anything until reading tons of reviews and until the first sale or price drop), but I'd have no problem dropping money on EU4 sight unseen. Ofc, they've posted like 20 dev diaries and at least a dozen videos, but I'd still pick it up even if I hadn't seen them.

But yeah, there was one forum thread that I think sums up their approach. Someone posted asking when some game would come out, since it'd been in dev for a while but didn't have a release date. This was a game that Paradox was publishing but not developing. One Pdox's executive producers replied to the thread saying, "It'll come out when the developers say it's ready." Cue mass adulation.

ilu pdox <3