Your favorite Game company and why??

[Zer_]

Valve: They have an amazing Business model. They strive to make it easier for developers to distribute their games. And they are finding ways to make other aspects of game development easier as well. In a world of long development times and significant bugs in retail games, Valve is just the epitome of what needs to be done to helm get games out faster, and at a more cost effective price. Oh yes they of course produce quality games.

id Software: The Game Engine gurus. There is rarely a time where Carmack wasn't at the forefront of technology. The Quake 3 engine is simply the best FPS engine ever made. If Quake 3 didn't exist, Call of Duty wouldn't have been made with the Quake 3 engine, and I can almost guarantee it wouldn't have been as good. They are also rather open about their new technologies and discoveries. All their engines end up available for free under GNU after 5 years.

Relic: The underdog award goes to Relic. When they were first formed, they were developing a game that has yet to be surpassed in its genre. They developed the first truly 3D Real Time Strategy game. A game where you didn't just consider the X and Y axis, but you had to take into consideration the Z axis. Welcome to Homeworld. The game thrusted Relic from 10-20 employees into the hundreds. Relic now resides up there amongst the big dogs of game development.

Infinity Ward: Okay, so they develop FPS games that are based on WW2, and are "Realistic", but give them credit where credit is due. There has not been a Call of Duty game by Infinity Ward that didn't suck. They always improve and outdo the previous generation. They perfect it and always end up surprising us and revitalizing their series.

That's all I have folks.

 

[Zer_]

Bungie. *snip*

That's a Wicked story, and although I really am not a fan of Halo, I have to give credit to Bungie. They always did have a devotion to their fans that rivaled anyone.

And it's still nice of Microsoft to have done what they have done. No one can really tell what protocols they have on fixing up a X360 unit.

 

[PersianLlama]

Valve. People before me have said my reasons.

 

[HomeAliveIn45]

Valve, becuase of half the posts above.
And Introversion, because they basically make all their games out of a garage.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

Mine for what they created during my halcyon days of gaming, rather than for what they do now.

Sega. They used to constantly push the creative envelope when they had Yu Suzuki and co on board. The amount of money I spent on Sega arcade machines and then their consoles (which had arcade translations on them) is phenomenal. Where to start, Space Harrier, Outrun, Afterburner, Altered Beast, Golden Axe, Shinobi, Daytona, Virtua Fighter(s), Virtua Cop(s), Streets Of Rage(s), Sonic(s), Space Channel 5, Shenmue, Rez, House Of The Dead(s), Spikeout, I could go on. It pains me to see what a rabble they've become now.

 

[indyfan]

Lionhead, Double fine, Behemoth, Blizzard, Kojima, and Infinity Ward

 

[Splitter]

Valve. I only recently discovered them and they make great games, and seem to be real people making games, who care about their customers, and would rather make a good game that may not sell hugely but will satisfy many instead of selling loads by appealing to a huge audience and then disappearing because the game sucked.
SquareEnix, I don't think I've ever played a game by them I didn't love (bar one), although I don't think I've played any of the Enix side yet.
Ensemble Studios, for making all of the Ao.. series and still keeping up the online survers for AoM 5 years after it was released.

Actually now that I think of it theres loads more I could name but I don't want to go on forever...

 

[shatnershaman]

Nintendo. Yes I love Mario and I have my nostalgia goggles on when I look back at the NES but my choice is also on hardware. When something is wrong they fix it even if it is small. Like the recent Wii-mote straps and covers they did for free unlike the others who have to be bugged for years to notice anything.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Bethesda because the worst game they made that I've played was Morrowind and that's still a 10/10 and Namco Bandai (I know they're a publisher) because they've been releasing fantastic games lately, the best being Tales of Vesperia

 

[Blazing Angel]

Ace Combat 6:Fires of Liberation
Why? If you switch to pilots-eye-view, you can experience everything like a pilot would(without the G's) and It IS AWESOME! Also, I like flying it gives me a sense of freedom.

 

[dukethepcdr]

How about Petroglyph? Universe at War is awesome. Plus, they are headquartered here in Las Vegas. It's cool to have a game dev studio in the same town where you live. Now, if only I could get them to accept me as a game tester....

 

[Arcticflame]

Valve fanboi here.

They have made, or co-made some of my favourite games of all time (half-life, half-life 2, team-fortress 2, portal, css etc.) and steam, for all its faults, is a program I have come to depend on, and love using, and allows me to quickly pay in US to avoid the expensiveness of games in australia.

They have the knack for making good games.

 

[742]

blizzard. sure theyre evil, but in a good way. heck until WoW came out i insisted that "if anyone tells you they are a blizzard employee you have a moral obligation to proposition them for sexual intercourse, and follow through, no matter what they look like or your sexual orientation"

 

[Marg]

Ubisoft.

 

[zachatree]

former Lucas Art for their great adventure games

Double Fine, because Tim Schafer is god

Curses you stole my post! But I second those developers and add Interplay for making Fallout.

 

[mintsauce]

Has to be Konami for me, going right back to the '80s. I still love games like Contra, Gradius, Road Fighter and Yie Ar Kung Fu. The Castlevania and Snatcher franchises reduce me a gibbering pile of fanboy dribble, and anything Bemani is pretty cool too, especially IIDX and DDR.

Honourable mentions to Sega and Square Enix (or both Square and Enix, if we go back before the merger).

 

[Lemony]

I must admit that EA has pulled out some really nice games like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge however I still hate them with a passion because of their DRM. Valve, is Valve nuff said. Blizzard still kicks ass with their series of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft. Activision did CoD4 nuff said.