Best Video Game Company (BESIDES Valve)

[shrekfan246]

Bungie

Please tell me someone loves Bungie? (I like them a little more than valve anyway.)

Don't worry, you're not alone.

I'll put my top five, I guess:
1) CD Projekt Red - Yeah, they might have only released two games which have their fair share of bugs and just plain frustrating issues, but they're still high-quality games and the way CD Projekt runs things practically outmatches Valve.

2) Hideo Kojima - I say Kojima specifically because Kojima Productions technically wasn't founded until 2005 and Konami as a whole kinda sucks, but I just love Metal Gear Solid far too much.

3) Atlus - They seem to be a bit disconnected from their Western fan-base, but they develop and publish some incredibly high-quality games with a very consistent record.

4) Bungie - Marathon was great, Oni was great, Halo was great, I can't wait to see what they do next, even if it is paired up with Activision.

5) Rocksteady - By god, somebody actually managed to make not one, but two good Batman games. It was a freakin' miracle.

And why yes, that list is including Valve.

Honorable mention goes to Stardock as well.

 

[jacob97900]

Riot Games, from the way they interact with their community, which is sometimes really bad, prove that they really care about their game and the way its maintained. You can literally send a support card for anything and you will get a reply within hours from an actual person, and that person has a sense of humour.

Also five million prize pool for season 2. Don't know how many other companies would sacrifice such a large amount of their own money for E-sports

 

[GTwander]

Atlus, Vanillaware and Level 5.

Shame I can't think of a western company off-hand, but then again, the west is more about the business side than the artistic end of it... and the games show it.

 

[gaiusimperator]

GSC, may they rest in peace.'

And may all the studios that formed from her live happily.

Thanks be to Vostock Studios, and Union Studios, and of course, 4A and their glorious Metro.

 

[eternal-chaplain]

I want to Sucker Punch, simply because so many of my favourite games are made by them, even if they kind of botched the Infamous sequel and handed Sly 4 over to someone else.

 

[targren]

Neither a fan of Valve's games, nor of their borderline abusive Steam TOS, TYVM.

I do like these devs:

CD Projekt Red (Witcher)
Runic (Torchlight)
Possibly Gearbox (Borderlands), depending on if/how respond to my correspondence.

(These are listed not for their games, but for their attitudes and behavior toward their customers)

 

[Call Me Jose]

I like me some, Rockstar, Ubisoft and Bethesda, in no particular order. I can't play favorites on my favorites.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I am going to say Nintendo, and I really don't want to...

I want to say Sony, but they gave up a long time ago. If they were still making games of the same caliber as they were in the PS1 and PS2 era, it would definitely be Sony and their console specific developers. Sadly, aside from LBP, MGS4 and 3D dot game heroes, I can't even think of a reason to own a PS3...
Nintendo today is nowhere near as good as Nintendo of yesterday, but they are the only one of the big three who understand the original purpose and spirit of gaming, having fun. To get that outside of Nintendo you basically have to go indi, which is depressing.

 

[Sight Unseen]

I think Harmonix is my favourite dev after Valve. They made one of my favourite franchises ever in Rock Band, and a all about making people appreciate music more, which is awesome. I can credit them for the discovery of most of my favourite bands and for dramatically expanding my interest in music. And they also listen to their fanbase and try to give them what they want.

Not to mention the fact that they are BY FAR the most prolific company at releasing DLC, with nearly 4,000 songs available on the platform and over 3 years of weekly DLC without any gaps.

Honourable mentions go to Bethesda, Ubisoft Montreal, Mojang, and Nintendo of 10 years ago.

 

[Mr.Philip]

I'm kind of surprised no one has said Rare... After all they made Banjo, Conker, Battle Toads, and made Donkey Kong popular again.
Yeah, mine are:
-Rare(Before they left to work for Microsoft and things went downhill for them)
-Rockstar

EDIT: Oh, and they made Golden Eye, which I'm pretty sure was the first FPS on a console* and was the first game to use multiple hitboxs.

EDIT: *Sorry that was really stupid, I had completely forgotten about so many games...

 

[Alakaizer]

Insomniac and Sucker Punch, I guess. Also don't much care for Valve, they just kind of are there to me. Don't hate don't like.

Damn. Ninja'd my entire post.

Erm... lemme think about this for a minute...

Retro Studios. Loved the Prime trilogy, the only game on their list I don't care about is Mario Kart 7.

 

[Joey Bolzenius]

Bethesda

 

[Aprilgold]

I'm going to ignore the "Aside from Valve" thing here because they are, by far my favorite and there's your answer.

However if you want a actual answer to the actual question in full, it goes to Paradox Interactive.

 

[Leg End]

Spoiler: Leave Luck To Heaven

Spoiler: 70% of the main designer's body is made of movies

Please for the love of fuck let worlds collide and make the greatest game of all fucking time.

 

[tsb247]

I'm a huge fan of Bohemia Interactive and Stardock. They make great games, and they usually provide support long after the initial release. I'm been hooked on thier games for years!

 

[tsb247]

And of course, Interplay.

Interplay brought us Planescape: Torment, all the 2D Fallouts, Baldur's gate...

What they do, they do it fucking RIGHT.

Except their Star Trek games. They messed a few of those up - VERY badly. Star Trek New Worlds comes to mind. It was quite broken, and they never fixed it. Too bad too, because a ground-based Star Trek RTS was a great idea!

 

[Reginald]

Any love for Ion Storm?

 

[I Max95]

i'd say Bethesda games, they seem to be the only game company that sucessfully simplified a game for a sequal without sacrificing depth, constantly improving and never giving up on the things that make them great. and i don't know what people are talking about with the glitches, they aren't even that glitchy for me (except New Vegas but that was mostly Obsidian)

and about simplification, it's the reason i chose Bethesda over my previous choice, Bioware, as Bioware went a different route, they sacrificed depth in the name of simplification, giving up on their vast non linear story by making a third game that barely reactes to the choices made in the first 2, and by making the gameplay rely more and more on combat and action rather than strategy and planning, like how Bioware games used to be...still great games, still worth buying, but no longer my favoite

also, please, make no assumptions that we love Valve as much as you do, Portal 1 and 2 were great and so was Half Life 2, but to be honest, Left 4 Dead wasn't that great, the sequal was just a glorified expansion pack, i don't like Team Fortress at all, and they just won't fucking realease a single snipit of info on HALF LIFE 3!(before you say it NO i simply will not settle for another episode of Half Life 2, i want an entire game) so they have failed as many times as they've succeeded, and personally i think both Bethesda and Bioware surpassed them long ago