Does no one remember... Psygnosis?
I mean, the company might be dead for what it's worth, but it did give us some of the best titles in the '90s... Lemmings, WipeOut, The Sentinel, Rollcage, Destruction Derby, G-Police, Assault Rigs... Hell, I still remember being blown away by the art style, environment and soundtracks of WipeOut 2097, or the creepiness of The Sentinel Returns. Plus, even now, it has the greatest logo ever (designed by Roger Dean, nonetheless: http://www.psygnosis.org/artifacts/psyglogo2.jpg )
Well, I guess the best has to be Valve for me right now. I know a lot of people are pissed about their release dates, but for me, it's the opposite: it juxtaposes beautifully with the rush a lot of developers are forced into by their publishers. Plus, they're an indie developer, and don't make stupid mistakes that publishers force on developers (I'm looking at your push to productivity, Bobby Fucking Cottick).
The worst, hands down, is Zynga. I know, I know, I shouldn't even acknowledged them as a game development company, but the world of economics goes against me. What ticked me off was the fact that Gamasutra made Zynga no.1 in 2009's top 5 game companies. And the worst part: they made sense.
Here's what they wrote:
"Of course, the shining star of performance this year has been Zynga -- the company which rode the social gaming trend to the top of the revenue heap, creating the most popular games on Facebook and reaping the microtransaction-based rewards.
Sure, plenty of people don't like to hear it. There's the obvious and disheartening question of the fact that the company's games are largely unoriginal from both a design and theme perspective. So goes the trope: Harvest Moon begat Happy Farm begat Farm Town became FarmVille -- a copy of a copy of a copy. And there's no doubt that the company's strength in marketing is what has drawn players to its particular executions of popular social gaming themes.
But execution is not to be underestimated, says Zynga VP Hugh de Loayza: "Our games are pretty distinctively different from the traditional Asian farm games. A shooter is a shooter, so a harvest mechanic is a harvest mechanic. But the story you wrap around it is different. The other thing to pay attention to is that you've got a service that you're running." It's obvious the company is doing something right with its generic-seeming games. And there's more to the service than strongarm user acquisition tactics -- though they're indubitably a key part of the strategy.
And there's no doubt that this rapid growth has caused some growing pains -- unethical offers got FishVille banned from Facebook, though the game did come back.
But the company has managed to attract great talent from the traditional games space, and secure secure significant funding, no small feat in today's economic climate.
Yes, people love to hate Zynga and the social games market (check the comments on that last link.) And that hate is comprehensible. But Zynga proves that, in the short time since the phenomenon has emerged, a business can be built on it. While we can never say "yes, this one will be a long-term success," Zynga is the power player in the market and the absolute company to watch out for, and is also one of the most meaningful and disruptive success stories of 2009."
(Full article: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26243/Gamasutras_Best_Of_2009_Top_5_Game_Companies.php)
Thus, we're now being forced to acknowledge this... looming monstrosity, flanked by a million horde of undead social network abusers...
*COCKS SHOTGUN*
