Your Top 3 developer studios -- based on RobertR1's original idea

[Cyan]

iD, some of my favourite games in history are Doom and RTCW (Xbox 1).
Ensemble Studios, AOE 1 and AOE2 are some of the most influential games for me.
Bizarre Creations for PGR2.

Honorable mentions; Blizzard (Diablo series), Valve -not my opinion actually but I mention them based on people's opinions-, Epic (I'm rediscovering GoW, it's a good game -I had it before but I sold it-) and Bungie.

Bungie would be in my top 3, as I loved Halo 1 and Halo 2 (my favourite of the series), but Halo 3 is just a decent game, worth having perhaps -although, in my case, it is eating dust on the shelf-. Weird choices of sentences in the game's plot, confusing story line (the story was perfectly executed and explained in Halo 2, for instance), bad weapon physics, some lack of charm and not enough variety in the bestiary are my main complaints.

I hyped people -sigh- here and I got caught up in the hype. It's perhaps the last time I do this...

 

[AlphaWolf]

I don't know about 2 and 3 really, but Blizzard is #1. I've spent more time on their games than pretty much all other developers games combined.

 

[scooby_dooby]

Bioware - Loved both KOTOR and Jade Empire, Mass Effect is gonna rock my socks off...
Irrational Games - Bioshock. Nuff said. One of the coolest gaming experiences I've ever had.
Ubisoft Montreal - Splinter Cell 3, PoP, Assassin's Creed

 

[macabre]

My subjective list:

Irrational - for making SS2
Konami - for making the best Horror series
Capcom - for making the 2nd best Horror series

Yes, I love creepy games.

I know there are a lot of other studios that deserve to be mentioned for their level of technical excellence (Crytek,Naughty Dog f.e.) and other criteria as well.

 

[RobertR1]

Hey, thanks for bringing it up

1. Valve: While many will think to HL1 and HL2 right away, that's not the case for me. It's all about Counter Strike! Played it from the 1.1 or 1.2 days to Source. Spent sooo much time on CS that no game comes even close. It was also my first serious intro to FPS.

2. Epic: Gears of War is what got me hooked onto my 360. Since that I've spent countless hours and bought many games for it. It was a gateway drug if you will! Not just Gears but their tools/engine are responsible for great games like RB6: Vegas, Bioshock and many others to come. Epic is now what id used to be.

3. Polyphony Digital: Never has there been a racing game that got me hooked like GT3 did. Me and my buddy used to play till our thumbs were sore and like idiots, we'd push past it. I did more laps around Cote De Azure (Moncao) in a 094/s(enna) F1 car than likely most of my other racing games combined.

Honorable mention: Bungie. Very happy I got into Halo.

 

[NRP]

1. Bungie. I disagree with Cyan. Halo 2 is by far the worst game of the trilogy (crap weapons, crap story, etc). Halo is my favorite game of the series, followed closely by Halo 3. Back in 2001, Halo pretty much dragged my ass back into gaming. It was the first game since the original Unreal that made me say "Wow!". Props to Bungie for that one.

2. DICE. I really love the Battlefield games on the PC. Next to the Halo games, I've spent more hours playing in the Battlefield sandbox than I should have. Despite the wierd glitches, DICE absolutely nails the fun factor time and time again.

3. iD. Not too big a fan of their games (although I did play some Q3 Arena back in the day), but Carmack releases the source code to his games, which is like nectar from the gods for hobbiest programmers. Lots of respect for the man.

Yeah, I like shooters.

 

[vazel]

I give every game from these three guys a careful watch.

1. Atlus for their amazing RPGs.
2. Capcom has put out some really awesome games ranging from the Street Fighter games to Megaman(I really liked Megaman Legends please continue the series Capcom!). Lost Planet made me stop regretting getting an X360(although I did get a little bitter when the game came out for Windows thus loosing the X360 exclusivity but it's not like my PC can run the game as good as my X360 can).
3. Squaresoft because I love high budget RPG games.

 

[.Melchiah.]

1. Konami - Silent Hill 1-3, Shadow of Memories.

2. Capcom - Resident Evil 1-4 and Code Veronica X, Dino Crisis, Onimusha.

3. Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS) - Forbidden Siren, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Wipeout.


Honorable mentions:
Square Enix - Final Fantasy VII and beyond
Crystal Dynamics - Legacy of Kain / Soul Reaver, Tomb Raider Legend & Anniversary
Epic - Unreal Tournament, Unreal
iD - Doom, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 4
Blizzard - Warcraft III
Tecmo - Project Zero
EA Big - SSX

 

[betan]

Summary of my missing post:
3) id : Mostly because of open source and technology support. Used to be first during W3d-Doom 2 era.
2) LucasArts: They developed most of my favorite games, and published another one (KOTOR).
1) Insomniac: I just have a lot of respect for what they do and how they do it. R&C 2 and Resistance SP are great but Resistance MP managed to be my favorite online MP of all time.

 

[Mr. Domino]

1) naughty Dog: I loved the Crash Bandicoot games during the PS1 era. Then I was a big fan of the Jak and Daxter series, especially the first one. And now Uncharted seems to be a very good game too to me.

2) Insomniac: Pretty similair to Naughty Dog actually. I really liked the Spyro games on PS1, the R&C games on PS2 were great, Resistance on PS3 is my favourite console FPS ever. The gunplay is just really fun in the campaign and I still play the online mode. And R&C Future TOD seems to be a great game too.

3) Valve: Half-Life 1 was just awsome, I really liked the atmosphere and the lack of cutscenes. Same for Half-Life 2.

 

[blakjedi]

1. The old Sega from Genesis/system16/Saturn//system32/Dreamcast days.

2. Capcom - they support just about every console ever made and have a catalog that rivals that of the old Sega.

3. Treasure- Gunstar Heroes is my favorite game of all time.

 

[cthellis42]

Valve - Not only because they deliver amazing, varied games, but because you sometimes get amazing value WITH the quality--especially with the rich mod community--and their push with Steam really started the ball rolling for excellent direct-to-consumer digital distribution, and now community features done well and FREE... In the PC world, they've just always been ahead of the game. (Except in regards to release schedules. ;-) )

Also, without Half-Life, there would be no hlcomic.com, and that would be a complete shame.

Also also, Portal. PORTAAAAL!

Konami - Bemani... MGS... Silent Hill... 'nuff said. A long history, and amazing games. My #1 importer of all time. (Well, it's not like you had a choice if you were into music games back in the day.)

Capcom breaks in because of their amazing legacy, continued excellent games, and... well... Okami. Anyone who delivers me games like Okami gets as many props as I can give them.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Do Konami and Capcom count as developers, when they're made up of smaller studios? Otherwise you could say 'Sony' or 'Nintendo' for the millions of games they've made without appreciating individual studios (which I see .Melchiah. has done!)

 

[cthellis42]

*shrugs* I was just following previous examples. I don't know what rules were set up. I figure if you can list big entities like id and Valve anyway, you'd be able to list other big entities.

I'd be perfectly willing to embrace Clover Studios and Kojima Productions (Buy MGS, and get Zone of Enders for free! ) specifically within my larger mentions.

 

[Davros]

not in any particular order

id

irrational such fantastic story tellers system shock 2, bioshock, tribes 3

pobably not be on anyones list but raven they pump out great games all the time

janes combat simulations - longbow1+2 f15 ect

bethsheda the elder scrolls, terminator

I dont know why someone is crediting valve with counter strike it wasnt their game they no doubt handed the guy a few bucks and are now milking it for milions
and i cant beleive someone is rating bungie not for 2 halo games anyway (maybe if they had included the marathon series i could understand)

 

[vazel]

*shrugs* I was just following previous examples..

Me too. Who really takes this seriously with much thought anyway. There are other developers that I didn't list that with more thought now I probably value more than the ones I listed and some of them don't even exist anymore(like Clover Studios from within Capcom or the in-house development studios that Sega used to have).

 

[JardeL]

SI Games - For "Championship Manager / Football Manager" series ...

 

[AlphaWolf]

*shrugs* I was just following previous examples. I don't know what rules were set up. I figure if you can list big entities like id and Valve anyway, you'd be able to list other big entities.

I'd be perfectly willing to embrace Clover Studios and Kojima Productions (Buy MGS, and get Zone of Enders for free! ) specifically within my larger mentions.

ID and Valve are not really that big. Valve employs ~140 people iirc, I'd bet id has a lot less.

 

[AlNom]

id Software is sitting at around 30-35 employees. They're quite small

There really are quite a few talented studios... it's hard to choose.

• Blizzard: Of all that is unholy, I can't deny their WoW game. Their community support for their games is nothing short of amazing too.
• Epic Games, id Software -> Engines + their games.
• Ubisoft Montreal: Their multiplatform directive ends up pretty well often enough.

 

[cloudscapes]

woop! the one I work for has been mentioned twice already!

1. Valve
maybe it's slightly because orange box just came out, and I am currently obsessing over all three new games like mad, but I've loved everything this company has brought out! the quality and style of the storytelling is a really important factor for me, as well.

2. Epic
Unreal/UT/UT2003/UT2004/UT2007 Demo
love em all!

3. Tough one. Tie between id and Blizzard. Blizzard for the art and style, and id for the games. I also first started level art for Q3A, so it holds a special place in my heart