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Which acclaimed developer fell off the hardest?

People who say Bioware fell the hardest are too young to remember that Bioware filled a gap left by Origin. Origin went from inventing the CRPG to releasing Ultima IX: Ascension which was rushed, full of bugs, critically panned, and sold terribly.
 
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Gaiff said:
You know who they are. They were once hailed as the cream of the crop in the business but a slate of terrible decisions along with shit games sank them.

A few candidates: BioWare, Rocksteady, Naughty Dog, Blizzard(?), Konami, and many I'm forgetting.
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Druckman Co has only one divisive game. But what a division it is lololo

That said, BioWare were golden. Now... Lol

The New dragon age will be ridiculous
 
Ubisoft is no. 1 in my book. No Splinter Cell in forever. "Modern Audience" pandering to the nth degree. Microtransactions in single player games. Broken promises since Watch Dogs.

What the fuck is XDefiant? First AAAA game is a spin off of AC Black Flag with NO BOARDING!?
 
Valve. Only meaningful thing they've made in a decade is Alyx and that's limited to VR. Everything else is either maintenance on existing games (Dota2, CSGO2), games that flopped hard (Artifact, Underlords) and a bunch of VR stuff everyone forgot about.
 
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Gaiff said:
You know who they are. They were once hailed as the cream of the crop in the business but a slate of terrible decisions along with shit games sank them.

A few candidates: BioWare, Rocksteady, Naughty Dog, Blizzard(?), Konami, and many I'm forgetting.
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Capcom. They used to take risks and try new things but now they only spam risk-adverse sequels and remakes over and over.

For God's sake, 2 out 3 Resident Evil games nowadays are remakes.
 
Blizzard - there was a time I'd stand in line for hours to buy whatever game they had coming out...
Now I really could not be bothered with anything they make.
 
Rocket Knight Adventure was the first time I acknowledged a third party developer. That name carried through plenty of other varied franchises (undoubtedly mentioned ITT) for generations including some of the greatest to ever do it. There's no other developer that fell off harder than that in my eyes.
 
mdkirby said:
Arkane Austin, as they went from making some of my fav games, to making trash and getting immediately closed down. Their closure makes their fall 'the hardest'. After that its a tie between suicide squad and BioWare, will BioWare redeem themselves with dragon age? Will Rocksteady survive the axe? and if they do will their next game also be a redemption?...so too soon to tell on the final fate for them.
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I think this is unfair to AA, because they didn't even really want to make Redfall. They were just ordered to develop it, and then release it.
 
It'll be easier to list the developers who haven't then the ones that have.
Plus you wont have to deal with the defence force coming to the rescue to tell you how much they "may" have sold
 
Konami just doesn't give a fuck. That's different than trying real hard a failing.

That… blizzard ruled PC gaming for 2-3 decades. They probably fell the furthest because they were so high to start.

Bioware, on the other hand, has probably sunk to the lowest point. It's hard to shake the feeling that this dragon age is their last shot.
 
TintoConCasera said:
Bioware went to shit, from CRPG kings to whatever the fuck the do nowadays.
Blizzard went to shit, Warcraft III Reforged must be one of if not the most blatant "fuck you" to a fanbase I've ever seen.
Konami just fucking sucks, but they seem to be coming back from hell, just very slowly.
Platinum aren't at their peak either, guess they got really fucked up with all the Scalebound fiasco.

But for me, the one that hurts the most isn't really a fall off, but a disappearance...

TreasureCoLogo.png


Where the fuck are they?
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Dead probably. In 2022 they only had 10 employees in their company/dev team. Haven't released a game since 2014(Gaist Crusher on 3DS). Last game I ever played from them was Sin and Punishment 2: Star Successor on the Wii in 2009.
 
MagiusNecros said:
Dead probably. In 2022 they only had 10 employees in their company/dev team. Haven't released a game since 2014(Gaist Crusher on 3DS). Last game I ever played from them was Sin and Punishment 2: Star Successor on the Wii in 2009.
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What a tragedy, their portfolio is full of awesome games.
 
Solidus_T said:
I think this is unfair to AA, because they didn't even really want to make Redfall. They were just ordered to develop it, and then release it.
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The question was who fell the hardest. Not whether it was fair or not, or entirely within their control. The fact they were shuttered as a result by definition makes their fall as hard as it can be.

Edit, worth noting too that arkane had been hollowed out and was a shadow of its former self long before the release of redfall. The games development, and the studios change in focus had led to much of the vital talent leaving.
 
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TintoConCasera said:
What a tragedy, their portfolio is full of awesome games.
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Yeah it is. Would love a new Gunstar Heroes from them.

Lots of companies have kind of just fallen away and it's mostly Indie devs that save Gaming overall.

I'm happy that Inti Creates and Iga keep the spirit of Megaman and Castlevania alive.
 
StueyDuck said:
Of all time... Konami.

Recently... Insomniac
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This is more a sentiment than a reality at the moment. Spider-Man 2 is their highest reviewed game(what a joke) and sold a ton of copies.

We'll see how things go with Wolverine (after how burned I felt by SM2 there is no way I'm buying it day one) but for now I bet they feel like they are at the top of the world.
 
Shakka43 said:
This is more a sentiment than a reality at the moment. Spider-Man 2 is their highest reviewed game(what a joke) and sold a ton of copies.

We'll see how things go with Wolverine (after how burned I felt by SM2 there is no way I'm buying it day one) but for now I bet they feel like they are at the top of the world.
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Spiderman 2 at most is divisive. When we say fall off, we mean a Fallout 76 or Mass Effect Andromeda moment. Not a mostly solid game hated because of "muh woke!!!" and lack of Venom.

Making 1 divisive game after 2 critically acclaimed ones isn't a fall off.
 
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That's a hard question and I'd have to think about my real answer(it'll be Konami) for a while but...
Zipper Interactive gets an honorable mention for going from the MechWarrior 3 and SOCOM guys to the "Unit 13 is just a SOCOM 4 reskin which is just third person MAG" guys.
 
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I have to say Rocksteady, all of their Arkham games are superb, even Arkham Knight with its heavy emphasis on driving. Arkham titles also haven't aged, I replayed them not long ago and still had tons of fun and the graphics are still very good (including the art style).
It took them a single game to destroy all of their legacy. I pretty much hate everything about Suicide Squad and I wouldn't play it even for free. Not to mention there's this feeling that all of their talent left and much like BioWare I don't see them bouncing back.
 
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If you strip away all this silly whining on "my favourite developer/franchise has let me down". Looking at cold, hard facts and within decent time distance. Then it has to be Konami.
 
GymWolf said:
Squaresoft was one of my favourite devs when i was little and now i can't give enough fucks about most of their project and i actively hate some of them.

But sure konami is a good canditate aswell.

I would add obsidian to that list if their next game is as mid as their last one, they are not kotor2 material anymore.
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Pentiment was incredible, but otherwise I agree with everything here. Square is absolutely bottom tier these days, one of the absolute worst publishers in the industry, which is just wild considering their pedigree.
 
mdkirby said:
The question was who fell the hardest. Not whether it was fair or not, or entirely within their control. The fact they were shuttered as a result by definition makes their fall as hard as it can be.

Edit, worth noting too that arkane had been hollowed out and was a shadow of its former self long before the release of redfall. The games development, and the studios change in focus had led to much of the vital talent leaving.
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That is a fair point IMO. Also about them being hollowed out via MS asset stripping; tough world, but it still counts as AA proper when they release a game under their name. It's like another dev people mention in this thread: Rare.
Add Blizzard to the hall of fame for hardest fall off.
 
Jigsaah said:
Ubisoft is no. 1 in my book. No Splinter Cell in forever. "Modern Audience" pandering to the nth degree. Microtransactions in single player games. Broken promises since Watch Dogs.

What the fuck is XDefiant? First AAAA game is a spin off of AC Black Flag with NO BOARDING!?
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Oh yeah. Ubisoft are also a good choice.

and Bungie!
 
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