Your Favorite Video Game Developer?
 

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I once thought this was gonna be rough but after looking at my all time favorites and seeing a common trend I realize I fucking love Konami.

Do you guys have favorite developers?

Konami was simple for me because of my past and future loves: Contra! Silent Hill, the Castlevania series, Metal Gear! The Simpsons arcade game! TMNT MOTHERFUCKERS DO YOU REMEMBER IT? Gradius! I don't even play DDR but that's Konami too. The X-Men arcade, Silent Scope, Legend of the Mystical Ninja, and I think that's it.

Then there's stuff I haven't played but I know is huge like Suikoden and to a lesser extent Vandal Hearts.

And for lolies there's Frogger, Bucky O'Hare and Sunset Riders too. =O

If you want to post a runnerup too go ahead. Mine without a doubt is Capcom but I'm not gonna make a list for that yet. Also, I thought the Time Crisis series was Konami but I'm thinking it's actually Namco.

Nippon Ichi, especially for producing strategy rpgs with an abundance of overkill mechanisms. Something I had not seen too much of prior to, about, La Pucelle, and most notably with Disgaea onwards.

As well, obviously Square Enix for churning out so many rpgs that grabbed my money, even when they weren't just FFs. I guess older titles fall into the umbrella now such as Brave Fencer Musashi and obviously Valkyrie Profile. Just wonderful!

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Because all their games kick major amounts of ass. Mischief Makers, Silhouette Mirage, Gradius V, Ikaruga, Omega Factor, etc. are all quality titles with lots of replay value. Treasure seem to have some stuff in the pipeline this year too.

Runners up would be CAVE (bullet hell shooters), Nippon Ichi (sRPGs) and Namco (Ace Combat, Katamari, Soul Calibur).

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Camelot Software Planning:

Shining Force series
Mario Golf series
Mario Tennis series
Golden Sun series

Nintendo:

Duh.

Konami: Omi-Cron Kenobi put it perfectly; so many innovative, memorable series, my favourites being Silent Hill, Suikoden and the Metal Gear series.

Nippon Ichi: Great games with excellent gameplay, unique graphics and wonderful music. I like their sRPGs and RPGs. Currently I'm playing Rhapsody (via emulation, didn't get it over here) and despite the easiness of it, I really appreciate the whole musical style it has. Neat, cute graphics, too (not outstanding).

and of course...Square-Enix: With game series like Chrono, Star Ocean, Front Mission, Seiken Densetsu and you know, that other one...

...uh...

oh yeah, Final Fantasy - they're every RPG lovers most respected companies. Above average in all aspects of their video games. o what's that did sum1 say uematsu?

Konami: DDR. Nuff' said.
Capcom: For Resident Evil and Street Fighter.
Nintendo: Do I need to say anything?
Square Enix: Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Series.

Well, I'll state the obvious one such as Nintendo and SquareSoft (more so than Square Enix). however, I'll also mention Valve, Bethesda, and DICE. I love how valve doesn't rush a product onto the market for quick cash, rather they take time to develop solid experiences (even if they are few and far between). Bethesda puts alot of dedication into making their open-ended worlds, and DICE is just pure win for the Battlefield franchise. They've pretty much created a sub-genre in 1st person shooters.

Team Ico for making Ico and Shadow of the Collossus, two of my favorite PS2 games.

Also Natsume for the Harvest Moon series <3. I dont know why but I immeadiately fell in love with this farming sim. Oh yeah, they also made Pocky and Rocky for snes and the Legend of the Riverking (which kinda sucked)

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Eggerland series (including Adventures of Lolo), Earthbound and Mother 3, Super Smash Bros. and SSBM, and let's not forget the greatest game series of all time:



I'll give a shoutout to Treasure as well (Lix left out Dynamite Headdy and Gunstar Heroes, though, come on). Rare is also good peoples: Banjo-Kazooie and -Tooie, the Donkey Kong Country/Land series, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, and motherfucking Blast Corps.

Video Games are DELICIOUS
 

I have quite a few here, I just can't ultimately decide!

My Number one has to be a tie between Square (Enix) and Capcom. Squeenix for all of the amazing RPGs that i've had the privalege of playing like Mario RPG, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Final Fantasies VIII-X2 (i'm working on it) and the Kingdom Hearts games. Square Enix would be number one if they would just make a third Chrono game already.

After my discovery of Suvival Horror, Capcom has solidified a place in my top 3 developers. Resident Evil is the only series to match the amount of play time as square titles. The Clock Tower games are unforgettable, and my new found love for Phoenix Wright only sweetens the deal. Capcom ftw.

Third place goes to Nintendo, for creating the classic gems like Mario, Zelda, Metroid etc.

Honourable mentions go to Retro (Metroid Prime), Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem, Advance Wards DS), Rareware (Donkey Kong), Konami (Castlevania) and Cing (Trace Memory).

Level 5 have brought me a few gems in the form of Dark Cloud, Dark Chronicle and Dragon Quest VIII. All of these games have the same high quality throughout, and are thoroughly enjoyable games in their own right.

Square Enix have also been producing high quality games for a while now. I have enjoyed each and every game that I played from this company. The Kingdom Heart and Final Fantasy installations are particular favourites of mine. Still trying to get my hands on some of the Mana and Chrono games that have been made as all I heard of these is good.

I think I'd have to go with Nintendo as my first choice since I've been following most of their games since I was very young. Capcom and Square-Enix are also favorites because of the Resident Evil and Final Fantasy series.

Dynamite Headdy is one of the games I just didn't like back in the Megadrive era.

But yeah GUNSTAR HEROES. That game definitely needs a mention whenever Treasure pops into the conversation.

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If it wasn't for their Gradius (and parodius) series I probably would've skipped the entire shmup scene. So I thank them for that. Other than that, OO couldn't have said it any better. I also like how they put easter eggs in just about all their games.

Is my favourite developer the one responsible for a specific game or series or is it the one that consistently releases games that I enjoy. I quite liked Metroid Prime and Diablo so is Nintendo or Blizzard my favourite despite all of their other games being rubbish? Is it Konami or Square Enix since many of the games I purchase tend to have their label pasted on the box?

If I had to choose only one it would likely be Verant, the crew responsible for Everquest. Everquest set the bar for MMOs which cannot be topped. The sound was awful. The arial font used for the UI was plain. The graphics were decent but poky even for its time. It was a proper old school game. It was however really very exciting with a high level of danger and unforgiveness. The game had a huge learning curve. There wasn't a spot of hand holding, no text boxes for the first 800 hours telling you what to do. Everquest punished you and I loved it. It was exciting, it was frightening and it is probably the most intense gaming experience I've encountered.

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Don't think anyone has mentioned these guys, so here goes. Maxis has gone through ups and downs with their games, but heck, they created a game that went on to top the top-selling PC game to date, which is awesome because Myst sucks hard. SimCity and the Sims series holds a special place in my heart, except I don't have one.

Of course, let's not forget LucasArts. 99% of their adventure games rocked, and that's what I mostly played back when I got a 486 and up. Whooo! Of course, they also made my fave PC game of all time, Tie Fighter Collector's CD-ROM.

Then there comes Sierra, another adventure game company that captured my time back when I first got a PC (yeah, older than the 486). I played pretty much only Sierra games, 'cause they were awesome. Now they suck, but anyway...

After that comes Nintendo. I grew up with them, and pretty much all my consoles are from them. They turned me into a console junkie, for better or worse. Thanks, Nintendo!

Last comes Square. I like lots of their games. Now they're not so great anymore since Enix took over, but hey, FFXII was awesome. I guess there's always an exception.

I would've give more detailed descriptions, but I have to eat dinner now.

I seem to have had stages of favourite developers as the years have passed.

Way back in the day on the Genesis, it was Renovation Studios for stuff like El Viento, Granada, Valis, et al. They had a way with old-school side-scrollers. It was really, really simple stuff, but with gameplay solid as a rock.

After that, I started getting into Sega's stuff and, as it would seem, their closely-related third parties like Climax. Shining Force and Landstalker kicked ASS. Also Phantasy Star, of which I will say no more here for fear of going into a PS1-4 fanwank followed by a "fuck 3d PS" frothing-at-the-mouth Harlan-Ellison-style rant about the direction the series has taken in...fuck, I'm already at it.

Once I got into the realm of 32-bit/3D/CD-ROM-based/whatever games, I confess to being a Square fan for a few years. I was first drawn to them by that great melting pot of widely-varying fandom, FF7. After FF8, though, my interest rapidly shifted to their lesser-known, lesser-marketed-down-my-throat titles like Musashi, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Chrono Cross, and (chief among them all) Vagrant Story, $DEITY bless its overly-complicated blood-pressure-raising soul.

Most recently, and it would seem most fervently, it's been Atlus, who have only recently come out of their obscure, niche-market J-game shell and produced some really, really fucking awesome RPGs. I first discovered them on RPGFan, viewing concept art and renders for Persona 2. Interestingly enough, it was the first time my entire interest in my favourite/preferred purveyor of electronic entertainment was piqued solely on a visual basis. Mind you, this wasn't even graphics-whoredom a la FF7 commercials showing off shiny FMV. This was just "who is this artist and may I keep him in a glass jar in my basement please." So anyway, I played the hell out of Persona 2 after I finally got my hands on it. I had to endure a period of Atluslessness (best word EVAR) until Nocturne came about. At that point, I had almost forgotten about the company until I remembered that "Shin Megami Tensei" had something-or-other to do with Persona. Picked it up. Since then, I've been awaiting with baited breath anything and everything Megaten, and most of everything else, they produce. I have yet to be disappointed.

Also, I do not own a copy of Thousand Arms. You may proceed with your mob lynching now. I'm trying really really hard, though. Stupid stores not having a copy.

Definitely Capcom, Nintendo, and SquareEnix.

Capcom made great games like Mega-man, Darkstalkers, Resident Evil, and, of course, the Breath of Fire series <3 Clover Studios kinda-sorta were from Capcom, so that's another plus for this company.

Nintendo for its hits like Kirby 'n Zelda, and Square for fun games like...well, I think most gamers can name at least one SquareEnix game.

Also, does anyone know what "Capcom" stands for? I always thought it was the first syallable of "Capsule Computer" (thus "SulePuter" being the music company), but someone from Wiki states that it's from "Capitalism Communism" which honestly do not make much sense to me =/

HAL, Trasure, Namco, CAVE, and the rest have all been said.

New ones worth mentioning?

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Because Skies of Arcadia is so damn hot. ANd the old (IE, not shitty) Phantasy Star games. That in and of itself is rockin'.

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Game Arts is pretty swank, if only because Grandia and Lunar rock so damn hard.

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Because how come no one's said this yet? Come on boys. Gears and UT. Fucking classic.

Does Working Designs or Atlus count? They did/do more reworkings and translations than actual game development, so I'm not sure.

Lionhead Studios, kids. Peter Molyneux and his crack team of god designers crafted one of the best simulation games ever created: Black and White.

Lucas Arts is getting another nod from me for two simple yet reverberating words: Grim Fandango.

Working Designs, if only for the Lunar series but hell yes they count.

A few favorites no one has mentioned, since everyone is mentioning multiple studios and not just one:

New World Computing: Responsible for the Might & Magic games, along with others. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_World_Computing M&M 1 was released in 1986. Twenty years later they are still making games in the franchise, i.e. Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and Heroes V. The M&M universe is one of the most fully realized game worlds in existence, hands down. There are only 12 Final Fantasy games, plus Tactics, plus I guess you might count those fighting games & Chocobo Dungeon (lol!). There were 9 M&M "main" games, a spin-off, 5 HoM&M plus expansion packs, 3 action titles, the multiplayer online team FPS game "Legends of M&M," and now Messiah. If you don't count "remakes," there were as many Might & Magic games released last year as there were Final Fantasy games released. (Edited because I forgot... Dirge of Cerebus!)

M&M > FF

Some Youtube footage of The Mandate of Heaven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95wJgIJsOBs

Shiny: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiny_Entertainment Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, Sacrifice, etc. This developer always tried to truly innovate with their games. Too bad they aren't around to develop for the Wii!

However, if I truly had only 1 to choose, it would have to be CAPCOM above all others. They have simply done the best job of being relevant and in the forefront on every console in every age, not to mention in the arcades during their heyday as well.
Full list of Capcom games at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Capcom_games

The latter.
:(

Square-Enix hits the top of the list for me, though Squaresoft may be more accurate. I've loved their games since the SNES days, and although some of their titles in recent years haven't been quite up to par they still hit with games like Valkyrie Profile 2. To this day the only RPGs I've replayed multiple times have all been Square stuff.

Capcom is an old favorite too. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of kicking Dr. Wily's ass, and they still put out some good Megaman games every couple of years. I never liked the Resident Evil series very much until I finally gave in and tried RE4 after hearing about the changes, and that game was pure love. If they continue with that direction then I'm hooked.

Oh, and I can't go without mentioning Level 5. I've yet to dislike one of their games. Even the original Dark Cloud was fun despite its repetitive gameplay, and Dark Cloud 2 is still one of my favorite PS2 games.

Can't forget Nintendo either, but they should be a given.

It's gotta be Nintendo EAD. They've made the most memorable games to me.

Although I gotta say I've been increasingly impressed with what Capcom has done these past couple years. RE4, Viewtiful Joe. Excellent stuff.