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What developer/publisher has fallen the furthest from grace?
- Thread starter daTRUballin
- Start date
Sportbilly
Member
Nah, both the Vic 20 and Apple II were more popular in the US, probably the TRS 80 too*. They were fairly rare in the UK, at least until Christmas '84 when they struck a deal with Curry's (?) to sell them in the high street. I got my 800XL then, great machine and deserved better.
Yeah, I got an ST in '87. Decent machine, but it was left in the dust for games by the Amiga. Another cock up by Atari to allow Commodore to step in and buy it.
EDIT: * strike the 'probably'- from Wikipedia- Until 1982, the TRS-80 was the best-selling PC line, outselling the Apple II series by a factor of 5 according to one analysis. Also, again according to Wikipedia, the Vic 20 sold over 800K units in 1982.
daTRUballin
Member
Well, this doesn't mean that Rare couldn't have continued providing adult oriented games for Nintendo just like they did the previous generation. In fact, they were working on Perfect Dark Zero for the GameCube before the buyout, so saying something like Timesplitters was "somewhere else" doesn't really make much sense.....
Mr.Deadshot
Member
Developer: Sega - Yakuza series seems like all that is left from their greatness.
Publisher: Microsoft - somewhere in midgen of X360 they just stopped caring and only made Halo, Forza, Gears ... I really liked Quantum Break, but we won't get a sequel.
Publisher: Microsoft - somewhere in midgen of X360 they just stopped caring and only made Halo, Forza, Gears ... I really liked Quantum Break, but we won't get a sequel.
Piling on but I think it's Rare.
Viva Pinata stands as one of their all-time best games, for me, but since 2008 their output has been among, if not the worst of any first party studio, in terms of productivity and quality.
This supposed revival under Phil Spencer just hasn't materialised and I kind of feel silly for thinking it might.
Viva Pinata stands as one of their all-time best games, for me, but since 2008 their output has been among, if not the worst of any first party studio, in terms of productivity and quality.
This supposed revival under Phil Spencer just hasn't materialised and I kind of feel silly for thinking it might.
Yeah, this for sure.
The Horror the horror
Banned
Rare's output sputtered to a near screeching halt in gen 6 and quite a few of the quotes from that article insinuated they were slow to adapt to the dramatic rise in development costs, including the one quote that referenced the obscenely small size of their team compared to most other AAA developers under Microsoft. How many full-fledged games have they made from the ground-up on XBox systems since the acquisition 15 years ago? Viva Pinata, Banjo, and a free-to-play game, two Kinect titles, and a compilation of their old hits.
daTRUballin
Member
Honestly, you sound like you're blaming Rare for stuff that obviously isn't their fault. The reason why their output screeched to a halt during gen 6 was because of the acquisition. They were forced to move their GameCube projects over to the Xbox, and then some of them were moved over again to the Xbox 360. Viva Piñata was one of them btw. It started out as a Pocket PC game, then moved over to the GC, then to the Xbox, then finally to the 360.
I'm sure if Nintendo would've kept them, they would've released way more games for the GC than they ended up releasing in gen 6 overall. Their output improved during the 360 generation anyway, as they actually had a chance to find their footing under Microsoft's umbrella.
Sadly they've been slow as hell this gen so far. And seeing as how most AAA developers are slow to release anything these days, I don't see that changing unfortunately. But maybe it has to do with them being solely focused on Kinect for several years before Sea of Thieves was announced. Seems like they're in another transitional phase now with the direction they're going in right now.
Clarkus Darkus
Member
Konami for sure, Followed closely by Bioware.
Konami used to have the quality standard of approval, Along with Bioware you knew you were playing something of quality.
Both have declined big time.
Konami used to have the quality standard of approval, Along with Bioware you knew you were playing something of quality.
Both have declined big time.
Ritzboof
Member
if its a tossup between konami and rare, id probably say rare. konami is a soulless vessel of what it once was, but theyve still at least retained some notable talent. rare seems like the studio thats pretty much universally known for not being a fraction as good as they were around 2 decades ago, and i get the impression theyve been on life support for a long time
bioware is a good one, too, though. yknow, andromeda and all. its like they tripped and fell off a cliff
bioware is a good one, too, though. yknow, andromeda and all. its like they tripped and fell off a cliff
Blizzard. They went from simply creating awesome games to suing Kespa to get SC:BW out of the picture and SC2 into the picture (which failed), releasing subpar games and following bad business practices which exploit people, just to maximize profits. WoW really changed that company for the worse.
They cancelled Silent Hills, chased away their biggest talent, and the next entry in their most prestigious series is a fucking base-building-zombie-survival spinoff a generation late to the fad.
Whats worse is that they've put out some seriously amazing games over the years! How do you squander the vast majority of your biggest series?!
KLoWn
Member
Konami easily.
Lmao. Even if you don't like their games it's beyond idiotic to even mention them in here.
AppleSeason
Member
Telnet Japan? They were always B-listers and even that can be debatable, but having to sell Valis, with the last game being hentai... Its like those actors that fall so low that they end doing porn to survive.
Interficium
Banned
Terrible take.
potatohead
Member
Rare
Square
Bioware
Konami
Square
Bioware
Konami
Knuckle Sandwich
Member
Gotta go with Bioware. KOTOR, Balder's Gate, ME 1 & 2, DA: O and Jade Empire are some of my favorite games of all time so they are the big one for me. :-(
Bakkus
Member
Ah yeah, those 3-5 hour long indie games...
You think Journey and The Walking Dead could have won GOTY in any previous generation?
BlueDogAnchorite
Member
Bioware
Konami
Capcom
Tri Ace
Rare
Konami
Capcom
Tri Ace
Rare
Gravy Boat
Member
It's Ubisoft for me. Sands of Time, the original Splinter Cell trilogy, Rayman etc are all classic. Going from that to the generic as shit 'everything needs to be open world' crap they do now. They've made some of my favourite games of all time but I can't stand the majority of their output in the last 10 years.
Considering the amount of praise Oregon Trail got back in it's day, yeah.
pla-pla-place holder
Member
(God damn it)Capcom
Konami is easily my choice. I used to have them as high as Namco, Capcom and Square back in the day when it came to Japanese game developers. Now they don't even come close to Capcom which is probably at their worst right now (or close to it).
Capcom has definitely disappointed quite a bit but they aren't the worst. Certainly they are trying to change their ways but they have a definite loss of talent there post-PS3/360 era. RE7 was good though, Marvel Infinite doesn't seem half bad and DMC5 might get them back in good graces.
Capcom has definitely disappointed quite a bit but they aren't the worst. Certainly they are trying to change their ways but they have a definite loss of talent there post-PS3/360 era. RE7 was good though, Marvel Infinite doesn't seem half bad and DMC5 might get them back in good graces.
The Horror the horror
Banned
I'm curious as to why some of you chose Square-Enix.
Granted, they're not pumping out god-tier games regularly any more (then again, who is?) but they've secured a lucrative deal with Disney, Final Fantasy XV is out the way, Kingdom Hearts III is on the way, and they've broken profit records 3 years in a row now.
Granted, they're not pumping out god-tier games regularly any more (then again, who is?) but they've secured a lucrative deal with Disney, Final Fantasy XV is out the way, Kingdom Hearts III is on the way, and they've broken profit records 3 years in a row now.
MontyBrown
Banned
Valve.
SolarMystic
Member
Polyphony Digital.
Went from having some of the best sim racing on the market to the shit show it is today. All because of mismanagement (because surely its not due to a lack of talent).
Went from having some of the best sim racing on the market to the shit show it is today. All because of mismanagement (because surely its not due to a lack of talent).
Bending_Unit_22
Member
Retro. They went from the sublime Metroid Prime games to fucking Donkey Kong to... do they even make games anymore?
jk My real answers are Rare, Konami, Lucas Arts, and I would add Capcom but they are improving of late.
Konami is an understandable answer but honestly I don't really miss them. I liked MGS, Contra and their arcade brawlers but wasn't really into Castlevania or the other miscellaneous things they did. As long as Kojima is still working, I can live without Konami
So Squaresoft is my answer... From the glory days where pretty much every release was something to get hyped about, where even if a game looked a little different you could still feel confident that it was worth your time, where they would branch out here and there and dip their toe in different genres (not always hitting it out of the park but nevertheless making an admirable attempt). Fast forward to today where FFXIII and FFXV were both sad, who the heck knows what's up with KH3 (didn't they miss their promised winter update recently?), and I can't even think of a third franchise to comment on. Nomura is fine, use his designs, great, but what happened to the confidence that used to be so evident? What happened to being the ones to define a genre? Or being the ones to bend existing genres into something new and fresh?
(To be clear, I think the Enix side is doing just fine with DQ -- the 3DS remakes were great, DQXI looks wonderful, DQB is in my backlog but the demo clicked with me and I look forward to getting into it eventually)
But I guess they had record profits recently so I take it all back
So Squaresoft is my answer... From the glory days where pretty much every release was something to get hyped about, where even if a game looked a little different you could still feel confident that it was worth your time, where they would branch out here and there and dip their toe in different genres (not always hitting it out of the park but nevertheless making an admirable attempt). Fast forward to today where FFXIII and FFXV were both sad, who the heck knows what's up with KH3 (didn't they miss their promised winter update recently?), and I can't even think of a third franchise to comment on. Nomura is fine, use his designs, great, but what happened to the confidence that used to be so evident? What happened to being the ones to define a genre? Or being the ones to bend existing genres into something new and fresh?
(To be clear, I think the Enix side is doing just fine with DQ -- the 3DS remakes were great, DQXI looks wonderful, DQB is in my backlog but the demo clicked with me and I look forward to getting into it eventually)
But I guess they had record profits recently so I take it all back
Sir Alemeth
Member
Capcom and Konami - the thread.
TheDinoman
Member
Sonic Team wasn't just a Sonic factory back in the day though, they also did plenty of neat original IPs like Ristar, NiGHTS, Burning Rangers, Samba de Amigo, and ChuChu Rocket!.
Rhazer Fusion
Member
Too many to name. Unfortunately, a lot of Japanese games who love to pander to the West now.
Konami
Sega
Square
Rare
Atari
Capcom?????
Nintendo???
Bioware??
Does Microsoft count?
Konami
Sega
Square
Rare
Atari
Capcom?????
Nintendo???
Bioware??
Does Microsoft count?
Konami as a publisher and Bungie as a developer. The reasons for Konami is pretty self explanatory. Bungie though went from a developer who constantly innovated and packed a ton of content for your money to a company who mislead their fans with Destiny and barely provided a full game for $60. On top of that they continued to screw over gamers with their "expansions". I've loved and followed them since the oni days and now for the first time, I'm playing a wait and see on their future games to see if they try to pull the same shit again with Destiny 2.
facetheslayer92
Member
Yup they made Banjo fucking Kazooie, a game that was praised for its texture work, cutting edge graphics, and intricate level design. Now? No one gives a shit about Rare.
The TRS-80 led the market from 77-79, then the Atari 8-bit line after that. The 400/800 outsold the Vic-20 by a wide margin, we're talking at least 2:1 here.
Bakkus
Member
Oh yeah, there was so much competition in the pre NES days. Seriously though, gaming was at the silent movie stage for it's medium back then.
Louis Cyphre
Banned
Rare is an easy target but to me they are a shell of its former self, it's not even Rare anymore. Peter Molyneux would also be another easy choice, same with David Jaffe, both of whom don't deserve the attention they still get. Konami has to be the big one for me as a publisher.
The Horror the horror
Banned
Atari is the obvious answer, but a lot of the responses are wrought from first-hand observation, and not everyone here was gaming at the time of Atari's legendary fall. I'm almost 40 and I remember the decline itself quite vividly, though I was too young to game during most of their heyday.
Tavernacle12
Member
The way the question is framed insinuates a 'current' company, and Atari as it once was no longer exists whereas Bioware and Rare are still around to disappoint us.
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