So, What Video Game Companies ARE Getting It Right

[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

 

[Clowndoe]

+1 To Paradox.

Sadly, until a few months ago, I would have added THQ. I can't think of any time I've had a beef with anything they've done, and they had good games on their roster.

Creative Assembly, Unknownworlds (Natural Selection 1 and 2), Tripwire Interactive (Red Orchestra and Killing Floor), CD Projekt.

GOG is a gaming company.

I'd add some indie devs (thinking Hotline Miami, can't think of developper) but too many 1-man projects.

All I got for now.

 

[hermes]

Double Fine.

Even when some of their games are underwhelming (like Brutal Legend and The Cave), they have more heart than 80% of the industry put together.

 

[Souplex]

Nintendo and Bethesda are the ones who come to mind.
I may not care fore the WiiU, but their portable stuff is gold.

 

[scorptatious]

Nintendo

Well considering if it weren't for them, Bayonetta 2 would never have become a reality, I am inclined to agree.

I'll also throw in Valve, Platinum, Sony (at least until the rumors talking about locking used games out of there next console are proven true) and other companies that I can't think of right now.

 

[FFP2]

Platinum, Atlus, Rockstar, Double Fine and by far the company that "gets" it...

CD Projekt Red. I don't even like their games but they are one of my favourite devs purely because they actually give a shit about their consumers and are incredibly passionate.

GOG.com may also factor into this

 

[xPixelatedx]

Nintendo, for the most part. They may not be as great as they were in their glory days, but objectively speaking, they are trying their hardest right now, even if they don't have the same talent to back them as before. Here is why:

1. This whole thing where they come out and basically tell us what their plan is and what what they are doing to try and improve is amazing communication with the consumer. Seeing so many companies actually bad mouth their own audience and also suffer because of it, Nintendo clearly got smart and took the opposite route; knowing in order to survive the next they need to wave the flag of peace, (not war) with the people they want money from.

2. Nintendo also apologizes for doing something wrong or failing to meet expectations. Western companies don't do that, they blame whoever they were working with and get blamed back in an endless circle, as we just saw demonstrated.

3. They push their AAA development through multiple genres; not just FPS and 3rd person adventures. Unlike crapcom and other japanese companies surrendering to pressure from western audiences. Nintendo does their own thing and just hopes you like them for it. They could care less about becoming something different for the new dude-bro gaming crowd. They will tweak themselves every gen to attempt to fit in well enough, but they still stay true to what they are. Consider that a strength or a failing if you want, I personally respect them for it and think every game company should follow their lead.

4. Obviously this is aimed at Aliens, but with Nintendo games you know EXACTLY what you are getting. That doesn't mean you will neccisairly love it, but you at least know. If a video isn't demonstrating of actual game play coming to the final version, they tell us. They told us that with the whole E3 gamecube/windwaker fiasco even though people still got mad. They even said that footage wasn't from any game, it was just a tech demo, people didn't have a right to get mad. They never purposely try to be deceptive and they don't make their actual games look twice as good at E3 just to boost pre-orders.

 

[thesilentman]

CD Projekt Red and From Software come to mind. Fricking love the games those two put out...

 

[josemlopes]

Evn after the "ERGh fshc ALIENS SUCK!!!" thingy going on with Gearbox I still cant say that I dont trust them, they are good at what they do (Brothers in Arms, Borderlands) its just that when they have to do something that wasnt theirs to begin with and isnt their BIG game of the moment they do fall apart.

So basicly if they announced a new IP right after launching all the Borderlands 2 DLCs I would still be all over it.

Then you get the usual ones, Valve, Double Fine, Rockstar Games, etc...

 

[Terminate421]

Bethesda right off the top of my head

Bungie are also damned smart (SHOW US INFINITY!!!)

Valve are good at their jobs

 

[Patrick Buck]

Anything Valve does. Ever.

Double fine, they're pretty awesome too.

 

[Mojo]

Besides the ones already mentioned? (Valve, CD Project, Bethesda, Nintendo, Double Fine etc...)
Id also add Irrational Games. They made fucking System and Bio Shock plus some games I never played but seem to have gotten good reviews. Oh, and also Epic Games. Why? Because Unreal Engine and I cant think of a bad game they made tbh.

 

[Tribalism]

Grinding Gear Games, the devs of Path of Exile (which recently went into open beta) have pretty much "got it right". They've got good public relations, responsive to the fans, quick with any server downtime, standing by a F2P pricing model with micro-transactions which offer no real advantage (you can argue increased stash size is an advantage, but generally, it's just a convenience, it hardly gives you an edge) etc.

While I don't want to bring up any examples of other ARPGs, they managed to get their "always online" model to work quite well, their open beta launch was rocky but respectable with everything considered (indie devs, massive influx of players), if they've borrowed any mechanics, they've been refined and well implemented. It's a breath of fresh air in a genre which has seen an influx of games of that type recently (Torchlight II, Diablo III with a spiritual successor to Titan's Quest in the pipeline thanks to kickstarter too, possibly others).

Path of Exile may be their only game, but I'm keeping tags on this company if they ever move beyond PoE. They've got a responsive dev team that so far look to stick to their principles.

 

[Palmerama]

I would say Obsidian. I've always supported them. New Vegas is far better then Fallout 3. I loved all the references to the original Fallout games, adn the dialogue was so much better. Stick of Truth is looking fantastic and I cannot wait for Project Eternity.

I would have said THQ. I've bought most of their games recently and loved all of them, and was really hoping for them to make it through. They were one of the better developers. Yes they had online passes but they did it properly. You could actually still play the multiplayer but you could only get your character to level 5. If you wanted to go further you had to buy the pass if you got the game 2nd hand (which I did for both Homefront & Space Marine). Also they were one of the few publishers that did games that weren't AAA & that's a good thing. There ar eplenty of games that are solid B-A games but don't get the attention/marketing they deserve. Now it's only going to get worse.

Nintendo. Recently they've been doing everything right. Nintendo direct is brilliant. No other ceo of a company addresses the fans/consumers like Iwata does. They also apologise for their mistakes and still have the gamers interests at heart. Not having a dvd/blu-ray player in the Wii U cos it reduces manufacturing costs and as Iwata says everyone already has at least one in one form or another (i've got three). The so called "hardcore gamers" give Nintendo a bad time as they're not as "mature" as Sony or Microsoft but if (god forbid) another crash was to happen, Sony & Microsoft can exit the market and go back to what they were doing beforehand. It'll just be Nintendo then. They do it for the games. Whils tit does have other features at least I know that games come first and they won't try & turn the console into a pointless mass media device.

 

[fwiffo]

I have not seen Klei mentioned yet. I really liked mark of the ninja. Their new game "Don't Starve!" gives you 2 copies for the price of one, and on top of that its 20% off. You also get into the beta. That's pretty impressive to me.

 

[Mojo]

I would say Obsidian. I've always supported them. New Vegas is far better then Fallout 3. I loved all the references to the original Fallout games, adn the dialogue was so much better. Stick of Truth is looking fantastic and I cannot wait for Project Eternity..

I second this (well, except that part about New Vegas, but opinions and stuff.) Ditto on Project Eternity though, from the backer updates this thing seems to be shaping up really well.

Surprising lack of Valve here

Except the 9 people who mentioned them on page one.