Poll: Activision vs EA, or Someone Else?

[CpnChaos]

See, there seems to be a lot of animosity toward publishers, and I was curious to see what The Escapist felt about their business practices, from a simple public viewpoint. For example,

- Activision prefers a continuous cash flow from a couple of safe bet franchises, guaranteed to make money in a safe and quiet fashion.

- EA makes more controversy in the industry with it's Online Pass and supposed business practices, but they also take more risks on more franchises, bringing more to the table in this medium than any other company.

- Capcom seems to be in the practice of nickel and diming, charging less initially but paying more for things like demos, DLC and other add-ons.

- Valve follows it's own trail, using business practices gauged by it's own employees. A HIGH risk to say the least, but we all have seen the rewards.

- And, for Ubisoft, they only have some games in their stable, but they also are very unique in their own right. Throw in the DRM controversy, it's like EA and Activision combined.

Any others? Vote and comment, I'm looking forward to seeing the results!

EDIT: Forgot an Other option, sorry!

 

[Bags159]

Nothing VALVe does anymore is high risk because it's all logical. There's no risk in treating the customer well.

 

[TheShogun]

Well you can't deny the fact that Activision have been really succesful, my brain would go with Activision. But I'm a Valve fanboy, so I go with them.

 

[Lost In The Void]

CD Projekt Good Games, good PR, good Customer support, no DRM, free DLC with only expansion packs costing money, morally grey RPGs...only fault...not enough games

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

When I want to buy a game, I'll support CD Projekt. If I was going to invest money, I'd put it all on Activision.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Once more I have a reason to post this:

 

[Souplex]

Nintendo is the only remaining major developer/publisher without jerk-y business practices, who remains all-retail.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Nintendo is the only remaining major developer/publisher without jerk-y business practices, who remains all-retail.

Nintendo did delay the last Zelda game several times for the Gamecube then decided to launch it on the Wii first while making Gamecube owners wait even longer to play the game when the game was long finished. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the same exact thing with the new Zelda game.

---

My favorite publisher might be Sega right now just because they publish Platinum's awesome games along with Valkyria Chronicles. I have huge issues with anyone that does day 1 DLC or DLC that is on the disc but locked. I don't have a problem with EA's Project $10 as I buy new games anyways and you can get games on day 1 at Kmart for $15-$20 off so it's even cheaper than buying used plus I'm supporting the devs.

 

[Bags159]

Nintendo is the only remaining major developer/publisher without jerk-y business practices, who remains all-retail.

Pray tell what VALVe does that is considered a "jerk-y" business practice?

 

[Judgement101]

Valve! Release episodic games at the rate of real games. Come out with full sequels before episodics, but make every game great.

 

[Kevonovitch]

Nothing VALVe does anymore is high risk because it's all logical. There's no risk in treating the customer well.

this.

valve has 3 things nobody else has:

1-reasonable, if not almost giving them away, game prices/sale prices. oh-hoh, and sales there are

2-they RESPECT the customer, they treat them, as an individual shopping in a mall "hey look at my product here! or perhaps this might interest you?" rather than "you buy from us? INTEROGATE THEM! put a tracking device up there ass, they're stealing from us."

3-out of all the companies, has valve every really steered you wrong? sure you can complain u don't like the platform, ect ect, your own choices, you are you, i am me, difference of opinion, i can respect that. they never brought in retarded game restricting or breaking things, nor scrutanise everyone for even the slightest thing they can abuse them for, and if there's a problem, they have the friendliest, and shortest run-around i've been in.

 

[TrevHead]

Valve is a no brainer, the only problem I have with them is that Steam needs to be worldwide and not this regioing BS we have atm.

Plus they need to start putting the thumbscrews on devs / publishers who sell broken PC games and dont bother releasing a single patch to fix it. EG Deadspace 1 and Darkstalkers. 3rd party DRM sucks when mixed with Steam DRM (the worst been TAGES and Steam)

Valve have alot of clout in the PC market, its about time they used it.

Plus I hate the fact that Valve have an aversion to Japanese indie games. I know Japan isnt big on PC digital download so exports are rare. But it doenst help that Valve cockblock devs and publishers trying to break the market.

And there is a market for Japanese indie games if the sales of Recettear are to go by (It shot to the top of the sales charts). The fact that there isnt a single good shmup on steam is depressing considering the shear volume of neon Geometry War clones and euroshmups.

Other Publishers I support are:

Rising Star Games: they are the European version of Altus and NIS, who localise those rare Japanese niche games that are so often overlooked, especially in Europe. Deathsmiles, Deadly Preminition, No more Heroes 1 & 2, Muramasa the demon blade, Little Kings story

SEGA: They seem to be returning to their form of bygone days. Sonic, Vanquish, Bayonetta also they own Creative Assembly makers on Total War. Looking Forward to Binary Domain

Capcom & SquareEnix: love their old IPs plus now Square owns EIDOS who made some of my fave games Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kain

I dont buy any of their games atm but I have a softspot for Codemasters as they made so many of the best games from my childhood inc Dizzy and Colin Mcrae Rally

 

[Biodeamon]

EA with valve as a close contender and capcom at third prize.
EA brought us deadspace, cysis, bulletstorm
Valve brought us half life, TF2, left 4 dead
Capcom brought us resident evil, lost planet

what did the others bring? nothing

 

[Souplex]

Nintendo is the only remaining major developer/publisher without jerk-y business practices, who remains all-retail.

Pray tell what VALVe does that is considered a "jerk-y" business practice?

Digital distribution.
Taking credit for games they didn't develop. (They threw money at the first portal, but had nothing to do with it's development)
Using poor grammar.
Shall I go on?

 

[Bags159]

Nintendo is the only remaining major developer/publisher without jerk-y business practices, who remains all-retail.

Pray tell what VALVe does that is considered a "jerk-y" business practice?

Digital distribution.
Taking credit for games they didn't develop. (They threw money at the first portal, but had nothing to do with it's development)
Using poor grammar.
Shall I go on?

There's nothing wrong with digital distribution.
Well, when you purchase the company that created it you are now the creator of it.
Not sure how using poor grammar is a jerk-y business practice.

So yeah, please go on. You're really grasping at straws here.

 

[Traun]

Digital distribution.

Is several times better than CDs.
Your CD can be damaged.
No need to waste time swaping disks
My games are on my hard drive.

Taking credit for games they didn't develop. (They threw money at the first portal, but had nothing to do with it's development)

What the hell are you talking about. Portal was developed in-house by Valve. Valve saw gifted people, hired them and they did it.

Shall I go on?

Yes.

 

[Mr. Omega]

A tie between Valve and Nintendo. While Nintendo might always be a few steps behind everyone else, they still do a great job giving the customers what they want. And there have been plenty of posts as to why Valve is great.

Both would rather release a full, polished game rather than release a buggy half of a game and nickle-and-dime the customers with DLC and patch any bugs there.

Both have their flaws (The TF2 crate system is a travesty that thankfully, while it is an attempt to nickle-and-dime, unlike other devs, it's mostly able to be ignored. And as I said, Nintendo is behind the times. And it shows.), but the quality of their products are top-of-the-line, and give their customers a great experience every time.

Voted for other. Nintendo needs some love, and this site is pretty much the Church of Freeman, not like one less vote for Valve is going to change anything.

 

[Mr. Omega]

Digital distribution.

Is several times better than CDs.
Your CD can be damaged.
No need to waste time swaping disks
My games are on my hard drive.

While I can't speak for the rest of it, I can see why some people don't like DD. They might have a bad internet connection, or just lack a constant internet connection to actually download the games or have them run smoothly. There's also the DRM issues if their internet is not that reliable.

Also, some people also just prefer having a hard copy of their game.