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[Boss Man]

Voting has slowed to a halt, so here are the results!

• Nintendo* [45]
  

  

  Responsible for the modern state of platformers and, at least to a certain degree, the state of videogaming as a whole

  Not a lot needs to be said here, their track record and longevity speaks for itself. Miyamoto is a genius and the industry continues to be enriched and inspired by the games Nintendo produces, even if they are not the dominant force right now that they have been at times.

  masters of level design, control and charm.

  The most influential game developer of all time.

• Valve [23]
  

  

  The video game equivalent of The Factory. There's absolutely no mistaking that what they are churning out is Product. When Gabe Newell talks, he doesn't talk about "art," or "talent" (in fact, he dislikes the word), but "consumers" and "value." Valve is a factory, but one with enough genius and free will that it consistently pushes boundaries. They also make some great games. Portal 2 is probably the best comedy the medium's seen, Team Fortress 2 one of the best MP shooters ever made and Dota 2, for my money, is video games' greatest spectator sport. I like everything they do, I like the way they work, I like not only the way they treat indies, but the ways in which they collaborate with them. They're a gem.

  These guys really enjoy making games, and show unparalleled support and interest in the community.

  They take their sweet ass time, but damn do they deliver. Great writing, clever and interesting world builders.

• Square Enix* [21]
  

  

  Countless games that I genuinely consider to be classics, the Chrono series, Final Fantasy, Mana, Kingdom Hearts, etc, etc. Square has created too many games that would go in a greatest of all time list, so its impossible for me to exclude them.

  Able to fully get you inside a world and feel devoted to whatever is happening there. Music, art, design, technology. Tranished a bit by recent developments, but overall incredibly strong

  For as simple as some stories were Square made them feel alive with depth and characters that you wanted to see their end.

• Rockstar [17]
  

  

  They've consistently released excellent games, with unimaginably lofty aspirations. A 50% completion rate on an eight hour game is considered excellent for the industry. How many people can possibly be seeing the vast majority of Rockstar's games? They might sell huge numbers, but they make them for the very core gaming audience. I'm very thankful of that.

  Some of the best characterization video games has to offer.

• Capcom [14]
  

  

  Ability to infuse a great fighting system into every game in every genre. Tremendous design ability.

  Back in the golden days, if you saw Capcom in the box, you knew the game was LEGIT.

• Naughty Dog [14]
  

  

  I love story and these guys handle it the best within the entire industry. The Last of Us is a prime example of that.

  The new kings. Ability to take the entitre game genre forward into new areas, develop the human aspect and represent the rise of american devs.

• Platinum Games* [11]
  

  

  From the disappointment of the band breaking up to the resurgence of Platinum, it's been an interesting ride but thankfully one littered with great games that play as cool as they look in an era of increasingly cinematic experiences.

  Pure masters of fun and gameplay

• Blizzard [10]
  

  

  I've been dissapointed in Blizz as of late but almost all the games they've released have been mega hit 10/10 affairs that keep the playerbases hooked for years. I'm not sure any other studio has such a consistent record of putting out gigantic evergreen titles.

  I love their production values and they have the best artists in the industry. I also appreciate how their games never take themselves too seriously. There are goofy easter eggs and pop culture references in all three of their major IPs' games.

• Sega [9]
  

  Sega managed to cover almost every freaking genre at top-quality standards.

• Treasure [8]
  

  Incredibly innovative and fun. Proof that you don't need a large team or a large budget to make creative, influential, and timeless games..

• Konami [8]
  

  Personally, I love tonal extremes. My favorite art mixes horror or intellectual self-seriousness with silliness and farce. Konami embodies that. In the arcade, at home, and during travel, they give me games that make me furrow my brow or chuckle contentedly better than the rest. Since their early 1980s arcade games, they've concentrated on being unique rather than copying and providing the best version of what the mainstream demands. Most importantly, they make games without the self-importance of their competitors.

• Id Software [7]
  

  The daddy of FPS who pushed the limits of technology further and further. Who knows how our games would look like now without them? Not to mention that Quake 3/Live is still the best 1on1 multiplayer shooter ever created.

• SNK [7]
  

  What can i say? They changed my life like no other artist/performer/writer,etc
  All my views on character design, art style, game flow are based on SNK's work.

• LucasArts [6]
  

  Their 1980's efforts are STILL ahead of its time. Games without death, game writing before game writing, ageless art direction, performed miracles with hardware

• Bungie [6]
  

  revolutionized console shooters with the release of Halo: CE as well as changed the landscape of online multyplayer with Halo 2, which is all we see today.

• Bioware [6]
  

  KOTOR and the mass effect franchises are universities in how to create universes and engaging characters=

• Rare [5]
  

  When they worked with Nintendo, anything they made was basically like playable gold.

• From Software [5]
  

  Their AC games were always a hit or/and miss for me but with Demon's Souls they got this entire industry by surprise with a game that shouldn't exist in this day and age.

• Team ICO [5]
  

  Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are unlike anything else in the market. Release the Last Guardian already!

  

• Kojima Productions [5]
  

  Metal Gear Solid is a game series that is just so unique and I love it for its convoluted story and its diverse gameplay.

• Black Isle Studios [4]
• Retro Studios [4]
• Bethesda [4]
• Ubisoft [3]
• Lovedelic [3]
• Irrational Games [3]

Honorable Mentions:
Sierra On-Line, Remedy, Psygnosis, Westwood Studios, Atlus, MicroProse, Bitmap Bros, CAVE, Namco, Q Entertainment, New World Computing, Sonic Team, Origin, Bullfrog, Double Fine, CD Projeckt Red, Volition, DICE, Obsidian Entertainment, Sony Santa Monica


*Notes:

1. Nintendo: Listed more specifically as Nintendo EAD and Intelligent Systems a few times.
2. Square Enix: Listed explicitly as Squaresoft and not Square Enix on multiple occasions. I combined them to avoid assuming what others meant as well.
3. Platinum Games: Clover Studio is included.

------------------------------------------------------------
PLEASE FOLLOW THE RULES:

You can list more than five, but you have to list at least five and you have to provide a reason. Expand more than simply listing games!
(It's very time consuming to filter the ones that don't meet the criteria.)

------------------------------------------------------------
If this has been done before (or recently) then lock it away in an early 90's Linux programmer's mom's basement.

Inspired by this thread, in which a Gamasutra article listing their Top 30 Developers of All Time is being discussed. I like Gamasutra and the article is good, but I think it'd be great to see GAF's top developers of all time.

If people care about this and a lot of votes come in, I will try to tally it all up.


You can list more than five, but you have to list at least five and you have to provide a reason. I'm doing it this way to try and avoid people gaming this the way it happens in a lot of similar threads - where a great game may not get a vote because it's contending with that person's personal favorite.

 

[KeRaSh]

Square Enix - because Final Fantasy
Nintendo - because Zelda / Mario (A Link to the Past / SMB3 and SMW)
Oddworld Inhabitants / JAW - because Oddworld
Volition Inc. - Because Red Faction (especially Guerilla)
Ubisoft - because Rayman (PS1 and Origins)

 

[Zukuu]

Cavia
Squaresoft
(old) Capcom
Pirania Bytes
Bioware

 

[Gadirok]

Rockstar games overall ( Red Dead Redemption manages to make console multiplayer not look like a complete joke, then we have the successful GTA series and various other cult hits like Bully and Manhunt)

From Software ( I haven't bothered to finish Demon's Souls or Dark Souls yet, but 3D Game Dot Heroes and Armored Core makes them noteworthy)

Level-5 ( Dark Cloud and Jeanne D'arc, Ni No Kuni, never been a big fan of Layton or their DS games but they have been pretty solid too)

Studio Liverpool (WipEout games and their beginnings with Lemmings prove that they were solid, they probably wouldnt have ended up defunct if they tried more various things that became greater hits than the Wipeout series but unfortunately as amazing as WipEout was it never appealed to the masses)

The last spot goes to the team behind the Gundam VS series. Solid 3D arcade fighters and the only fighter I still love.


Honorable mentions to Media Molecule and the various teams behind LBP (such as Sumo Digital, supermassive, Taiser & Double 11, and the rest), Sucker Punch, Naughty Dog, Nintendo EAD, Ubisoft Montreal and Banpresto.

 

[oneida]

AM2
Platinum
Taito
Compile
Clover

 

[Marcel]

1. Mythos Games
X-Com. What more needs to be said?

2. Cavia
Check my avatar for bias.

3. Clover
A great experiment that spawned another great company (Platinum)

4. Nintendo R&D1
Speaks for itself.

5. Special Mention: Yuji Horii
He's called The Master for a reason.

 

[zoukka]

I'm mainly a console gamer so please excuse the lack of great PC developers.

1. Nintendo. The most influential game developer of all time.
2. Capcom. Back in the golden days, if you saw Capcom in the box, you knew the game was LEGIT.
3. Squaresoft. They made the grandest of adventures back in the day.
4. Konami. MGS, Silent Hill, Castlevania and so many classic series back in the NES/SNES days.
5. Clover/Platinum games. Keeping the tradition and crazy shit alive.

 

[Jacksonlee]

Vanillaware
Naughtydog


^^^ i buy their games regardless of anything.

 

[Omni]

Bungie
Rockstar Games
Bioware
Dice

I probably don't even have a 5th. On phone, but will edit in reasons later.

 

[JustAnotherOtaku]

Platinum - still relatively new, but their games have all been amazing and a sheer joy to play.
Capcom - Admittedly more old Capcom (although I still enjoy much of what they release these days) but so many of my favourite series are by them.
Sega - Same as the above, I was a Mega Drive kid (winning team) which helps too.
Nintendo - Still know how to craft near perfect games.

 

[Arthea]

Sid Meier in particular and MicroProse
Yoshitaka Murayama and old Konami
Hironobu Sakaguchi and old Square
New World Computing
Troika

I'm stuck in past it seems!

Thatgamecompany from newer ones

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Squaresoft

Studio Liverpool

Firaxis

Double Fine

From Software

 

[macewank]

1) Nintendo
2) Naughty Dog
3) Squaresoft (pre-merger)
4) Blizzard
5) Kojima Productions

 

[LeBoef]

Origin - never had those wc and privateer moments ever again
Bullfrog - every game was different, creative and on a high quality level
Id software - the company that lead fps to the rawest and greatest skill game there ever was
Rockstar - made open world accessable and enjoyable
Number 5... ?
Nintendo

There are so many other companies like westwood, valve and epic that belomg onto that list
/edit
Oh man... Dice... They got their own temple

Edit2
Jesus christ... Lucas arts O_O

 

[Radec]

Kojima Productions
Naughty Dog
Rockstar Games
Ubisoft
Dice

 

[chronomac]

These are my top five, with my personal favorites included:

Nintendo EAD (Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 7, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Bros. 3, and dozens more)
Maxis (SimCity 2000, SimGolf, Spore, The Sims)
Valve (Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2)
Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Warcraft III, Starcraft, Starcraft II, Diablo II)
Capcom (Street Fighter II, Street Fighter IV, Mega Man 3, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Power Stone and dozens more)

 

[StuBurns]

Team ICO
Right out the gate, kind of breaking the rules. SCEJ is the developer, but Team ICO is the part I want to praise. I think Ico is the best game ever made, and barely anyone has even come close to it in the last fourteen years. SotC, while not as strong as Ico, is still wondrous. They've become something of a joke as a result of failing to ship TLG for an entire generation, but I still have very high hopes it will indeed release, and be excellent.

Valve Corporation
While Portal might be my personal favorite, there is no developer I know of which has consistently confounded my expectations. They're relentlessly focused on quality and pro-consumer decisions. Much like Team ICO however, they've had an axe constantly swinging above them this generation, and like Team ICO, I fully believe Half-Life 3 will come, and be incredible.

Capcom
I wish I could separate this like the SCEJ/ICO thing, because as a whole, Capcom make a lot of awful games. However, they're responsible for RE4, DMC, Okami, Viewtiful Joe, etc. Last generation, they dominated my thirst for action games. Mikami and Kamiya are still responsible for some of the best games this generation too, but I don't think they're quite to the standard of Capcom's best of PS2.

Rockstar Games
Red Dead Redemption is my favorite of their output, but it's hard to really find any chinks in the armor for me. I loved GTA4, and it's episodes, I think Bully is amazing. Max Payne 3 was great. They've consistently released excellent games, with unimaginably lofty aspirations. A 50% completion rate on an eight hour game is considered excellent for the industry. How many people can possibly be seeing the vast majority of Rockstar's games? They might sell huge numbers, but they make them for the very core gaming audience. I'm very thankful of that.

Naughty Dog
I wasn't a big Crash fan, I think Spyro was a much stronger series, but Jak was significantly better than Sly, or Ratchet, or really anything anyone was doing in the genre outside of Nintendo, and I might even prefer Jak 1 to Mario Sunshine. Uncharted 1 was a great game, it lacked the refinement of Gears, but produced this lush, saturated world, with characters that were really memorable. UC2 fixed all of UC1's short comings, and for me was an amazing game, but even with that, it feels like a sketch in comparison to The Last of Us. Everything Uncharted is praised for TLoU took, and blew out to far higher standards.

 

[Magnus]

I'm unsure which development teams at each of these companies generated these games (or work on new entries in those franchises today) so I'll just list the larger companies involved.

Blizzard (Warcraft/WoW)
Squaresoft (FFs VI - XII, CT, RIP) - if I have to get rid of this option since whichever entity that bestowed these games on us is gone, then I'd sub in Naughty Dog here (for UC2/3, LoU)
Valve (HL 1-2, Portal 1-2)
Nintendo (Mario, Zelda, specifically whichever teams put SMG 1/2 and Wind Waker together)
Capcom (RE 1-4, DMC, mostly the same team on those games, right?)

Special Mention: KojiPro (MGS)

I also want to say Platinum out of respect for the incredible work they've apparently been doing on all their games, but I've yet to really sink my teeth into any of them, so I can't qualify the accolade personally just yet. I think they worked on Viewtiful Joe as part of Clover, so I can say I love that! I've yet to really tackle Vanquish, Bayonetta and MGRising.


If we just want to go with larger companies, regardless of which dev team did what, then it's a much easier list for me:
• Nintendo
• Capcom
• Konami
• Squaresoft/Square Enix
• Blizzard

 

[Midnight Moon]

Nintendo (Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, Kirby, Smash Bros., etc. DUH!)
Capcom (Ace Attorney, PowerStone, Megaman, Marvel vs. Capcom)
SEGA (Sonic!)
Platinum Games (Bayonetta, etc.)
Level-5 (Layton, etc.)

haven't even opened Ni No Kuni Wizard Edition, but I want all their 3DS games...they need to start localizing games like LBX, Time Travelers, etc.

EA can get fucked.

 

[Chojin]

Nintendo/Ape: Earthbound
Ozark Software: M.U.L.E.
Taito: Bubble Bobble (and pretty much any arcade games in the 80s and early 90s)
NIS: Disgaea
Origin: Ultima and Wing Commander and pretty much everything they did in the 80s to keep my C64 busy as hell.
Mythos: X-Com
Microprose: Magic the Gathering that Sid Mier worked on
SSI: Goldbox games
These are the games I put in at least more than a 100 hours into. Easily.

 

[ULTROS!]

Square and Enix - great JRPGs during pre-merger. They still had decent stuff even after the merger.

Atlus - I started appreciating them until after their release of Persona 4.

Konami (pre current gen) - they had a lot of good stuff back then, Suikoden, actually good Silent Hill, actually good Castlevania (yes I liked the PS2 ones more than the PS3 ones based from the demos by a lot).

Falcom - Ys and TitS are awesome and have at PS1 era charm.

Sega - Even if they are a shadow of their former selves, I enjoyed their output this gen such as Bayonetta and Sonic Generations.

 

[michaelius]

Black Isle
Blue Byte
Strategic Simulations Inc
Bulfrog
Blizzard

 

[MercuryLS]

Nintendo
Clover
Rockstar North
Naughty Dog
Kojima Productions

 

[HigherLevel]

1. Bungie
2. Rockstar
3. Epic
4. Bioware
5. Square pre FFXIII

 

[littlebirdtoldme]

square before they went to shit.
nintendo before they went to shit
konami before they went to shit
rockstar
sega before they went to shit.

 

[Canis lupus]

In no order particular order:
1. Naughty Dog
2. Rockstar
3. Squaresoft
4. DICE
5. Team ICO

 

[FACE]

I love list wars!

Looking Glass Studios/Blue Sky Productions - Thief, UUW, Terra Nova, Flight Unlimited and, of course, System Shock.
Strategic Simulations, Inc - Mainly Goldbox games and Panzer General
MicroProse - X-COM(with Mythos Games), Civilization, Darklands, Pirates!....
Origin Systems - Mainly the Ultima series and Wing Commander.
Bullfrog Productions - Syndicate, Populouse, Dungeon Keeper and Theme Hospital.
Black Isle - Fallout series, IWD series, Planescape: Torment.
Sir-Tech - Wizardry and Jagged Alliance.
Firaxis - Alpha Centauri and Civilization(after Civ 2)
Simtex- Master of Magic and the first two Master of Orion games.

 

[BY2K]

Nintendo EAD
Platinum Games
Naughty Dogs
Retro Studios
Valve

 

[anexanhume]

Bioware
Bethesda
Bungie
Nintendo
Valve

 

[Wickerbasket]

1. Valve.
2. Blizzard
3. Nintendo
4. Bullfrog
5. Sega

Probably some people that would rank higher that I'm forgetting about though.

 

[Sojgat]

Volition - because Red faction Guerilla, Saints Row franchise, and Johnny Gat.

Remedy - because Sam Lake.

Dice - because I love Battlefield, it is the franchise I've spent by far the most time playing in my life. Also, Mirror's Edge.

Platinum Games - because Vanquish, Bayonetta, and "do you eat shit?".

Nintendo - because Nintendo.

Edit: More than 5?

Bungie - because the Halo series defined shooters on console. They're the reason I first bought an Xbox.

Naughty Dog - because Nathan Drake.

Bioware - because I love the Mass Effect universe now, independent from the games.

Capcom - because a list of games that has spanned my entire life as a gamer.

 

[imBask]

1-Nintendo - pretty hard to not have them at #1
2-Squaresoft/squeenix - not the biggest fan to be honest but I can respect and understand what they did and how it influenced games I play today
3-Capcom - went to shit lately for me,but so many classics and such a legacy
4-Rockstar - that's my most personal choice
5-Blizzard - for the SC franchise, and for WoW

honorable mentions : Level5, Atlus, Valve,

Spoiler

Naughty Dogs

 

[reKon]

Valve
Rockstar North
Blizzard
Nintendo
Naughty Dog/Square Enix (I dunno which one to pick)

BOOOOM


In the N64 era, Rare would be on this list easily. Damn though, I might want to replace Square Enix with Naughty Dog because of all the great games in past. But, then again I have't played The Last of Us yet..

 

[Auto_aim1]

All time?

1) SquareSoft - They churned out great games and it's really easy to appreciate what they did when you look at the current state of Square Enix.

2) Rockstar Games - Who doesn't know about Grand Theft Auto?

3) Ensemble Studios - Played all the AoE games. My favourite is Rise of Rome and I spent a ton of time on AoE 3 multiplayer.

4) Looking Glass Studios - Thief 1 and 2 are some of the best games ever made. It's very difficult to recreate that atmosphere and the level of immersion again in modern games.

5) Valve - Surface Tension.

Reason: All these developers had a great impact when I was growing up. They are all very close to my heart.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Bungie - Got me into competitive MP gaming, and hardcore gaming.
Naughty Dog - Created two of my all-time favorite games (Last of Us, Uncharted 2)
DICE - Battlefield is awesome, and they made another of my all-time favorite games, Mirror's Edge.
Rockstar - GTA and Red Dead, enough said.
Game Freak - While I haven't played a lot of the newer games, Pokemon was the first games I got hardcore into with Red/Blue/Yellow.

 

[Shikamaru Ninja]

1. Nintendo
2. Naughty Dog
3. Grasshopper Manufacture
4. Blizzard
5. Capcom

 

[The Wheel of Fortune]

1. Nintendo's studios, Intelligent Systems being the best one nowadays.
2. Game Freak, dat Pokémon. I don't know if I should consider them part of Nintendo.
3. Rockstar Games, because of Grand Theft Auto and RDR. Great team.
4. Naughty Dog, specially because of Uncharted and The Last of Us.
5. Platinum Games. No need to explain.

 

[sub_o]

My answer, which I guess would be pretty common:

• Naughty Dog
• Kojima Productions
• Platinum
• Rockstar
• Capcom

 

[King of the Potato People]

Nintendo EAD (Helped revolutionise gaming with the Super Mario and Zelda games)
Irrational Games (Their shock games are all masterpieces)
Valve (The steam service may be the premier service for video games)
Retro Studios (Helped modernise many of Nintendo's classic franchises, failing to disappoint)
Rockstar North (Have created the most 'alive' video game worlds)

I wanted to include Square but they've disappointed so much in the last half decade.

 

[RagingAvatar]

Nintendo.
Bungie - Halo, Destiny
Blizzard - Diablo III, Starcraft II
Square-Enix - ignoring Final Fantasy(ies) since FFXIII - I love Dragon Quest X
Capcom - Street Fighter IV, Marvel vs. Capcom

 

[revolverjgw]

Nintendo EAD
Looking Glass
Naughty Dog
Kojima Productions
Ubisoft Montreal (mostly on the strength of Splinter Cell)

It's kind of confusing with big pubs like Nintendo, Capcom, Sega, and Konami. More of a collection of teams/studios than an individual dev. I don't want to just say "Nintendo" or "Sega" because not every studio they have/had is good. Pub wise for me it would be Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Capcom, Konami in that order

 

[Bishop89]

No order
--------------
Dice
Naughty Dog
Valve
Intelligent Systems
Kojima Productions

 

[gngf123]

Nintendo could be a top 5 all on their own: Tokyo EAD, Kyoto EAD, Monolith, Intelligent Systems, Retro.

Outside of them, I have pretty good respect for Valve, Atlus, Clover/Platinum, Naughty Dog, and Capcom.

 

[Bassmastergeneral]

Falcom
Nintendo
16 bit era Square
Capcom
Konami

 

[Rockandrollclown]

Nintendo
Blizzard
Black Isle
Capcom
Bethesda

 

[Boss Man]

Nintendo: The seal of quality is a real thing. Nintendo is consistently great (my biggest criterion for a developer to get on the list), and even if I haven't been their biggest fan over the last several years even I realize that there is a certain magic about their titles.

Capcom: I don't know exactly what it is, but they have games spanning about thirty years, with drastically different themes, and in entirely unrelated genres and I find all of them fun. I guess from Mega Man to Monster Hunter to Devil May Cry to Dragon's Dogma all of their games seem to give the player a lot more power and control than whatever the status quo is currently dictating. Coupled with effective animation, this leaves you feeling like a bad ass in an action movie most of the time.

Naughty Dog: This may come across to some as nearsightedness, but I think the truth is that Naughty Dog has always been a fantastic developer and this generation they happened to transcend into that level where you know that everything they touch turns to gold. Even if you don't like Crash, Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, or The Last of Us - what you do have to acknowledge is that no one has been more consistent with high quality releases. Considering their platform, I also believe that Naughty Dog may hold the absolute most talented software developers of any studio.

Rockstar: They pretty much defined a generation during the PS2 era and they raised the bar for player freedom and sandbox games. They're another one that is consistently releasing great games.

Id Software: If you like online shooters, Id Software is your Beatles. I like to think that Carmack and crew were imagining Battlefield clan matches, Halo tournaments, and Call of Duty trickshot videos in the early 90's a decade before Google was even a thing.

 

[DirtRiver]

• Valve - Of course
• Arkane Studios - Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is one of my favorite games ever and DIshonored is godlike
• Volition - Red Faction Guerrila and Saints Row. Give me more destruction games!
• Rockstar Studios - GTA, Max Payne and Red Dead Redemption are all amazing games.
• Westwood Studios - Never forget ; _ ;

 

[RobbieH]

Black Isle
Looking Glass Studios
Rockstar
Valve
Nintendo

 

[shinobi602]

• Bioware
• Naughty Dog
• Bungie
• Rockstar
• Nintendo

 

[Moff]

Nintendo
id
Blizzard
Origin
Looking Glass