Top Developers This Gen

This generation's been packed with heavy hitting games from top-tier developers. We've been on plenty of trips with Nathan Drake, courtesy of Naughty Dog. And we've saved both Ferelden and the galaxy because of the games Bioware have created. There's no doubt that this gen, developers have pushed themselves and the consoles to the max. But which developers have consistently delivered on hard-hitting, big name titles that kept us hooked until the very end?

[Brosy]

Rockstar of course.

[InactiveUser]

Out of those five I'd drop Bioware and bump Valve up.

[omi25p]

id take out valve. Not because they dont make great games (they do)

But because the whole business with Half Life is just BS

[guitarded77]

One serious omission is That Game Company.

[ExCest]

@omi25p

wow. Valve isn't a Top 5 dev because HL3 isn't coming out? Personally, I'd rather them spend more time on it to make it better. Not to push it out early and become unpolished and "crap".

[da_2pacalypse]

Not sure what Bioware is doing here. Their game quality has dropped ever since they were bought out by EA.

[omi25p]

No Not because Half Life isnt out. But because they havent said anything about it.

[Drake117]

For me i would just take out valve since i'm not a huge portal fan(but i know alot of ppl are) and i love the living hell out of half life 2 but that was mostly made last gen. I would add Bungie in its place.

[Baka-akaB]

Wonder why however , even if obviously to each their own ?

Most of the list added something truly outstanding , innovative this gen and/or technological marvels .

While halo might be great and successful , its novelty was last gen on the first xbox , and it did nothing impressive tech wise . Keep in mind i'm only talking about this one particular gen .

Meanwhile Portal is definitively innovative , and pushed another boundary is storytelling as well .

[Ducky]

Don't have to be a fan of portal to be a fan of Valve.

They also made L4D and TF2... and HalfLife2's episodes were this gen too.

[Baka-akaB]

Indeed , but even by only counting portal , i dont see bungie being on top , ever .
He's entitled his opinion again , i just dont agree

[Drake117]

For me L4D and TF2 aren't that big of a deal. I own both portals and they are prob the most unique games by a big dev this gen by far and away, but for some reason i can't really beat them more than once, its just kind of a one and done thing for me. I guess it all just depends on how you define a top developer. There's no doubt that the crew at Bungie has tremendous talent and they have constantly delivered big name titles that score well with the reviewers. Now if some how Valve shows up at E3 and says HL2 ep 3 is coming out early next year then i can easily say they should be in that top 5(for me).
Honestly a list of the top 5 devs this gen is a pretty tight squeeze since you could make a strong case for a lot of studios(such as Sony Santa Monica or Irrational Games) to also be on that list. I'm honestly not bothered at all by Valve being on that list and for most people they prob are top 5.

[MaxXAttaxX]

Halo 1 and 2 were last gen as well. Just like Half Life 2.

So why would you put Bungie in Valve's place, when their best work was from last gen?

[Drake117]

Halo 3 and reach are still good games...

[MaxXAttaxX]

They are good.
But Halo 3 really wasn't much of a next-gen game compared to Halo 2.
I said their best work was Halo 1 and 2. Not that 3 or Reach weren't any good.

[Shepherd 214]

Bungie is one of the top devs this gen. They added very refined features to Halo 3, such as map editing and a theater mode way before FPSs like black ops started doing it. Bungie.net also had extremely specific stat tracking and integration features for players of Halo 3 and Reach, such as heatmaps and easy render to video. These are things they didn't even have to do.

Add to that that Bungie remained extremely close to their fanbase by putting weekly news updates called the Bungie Weekly Update, weekly playlist updates to keep the gametypes fresh, a steady stream of game patches and map packs, and weekly contests and replies to fan outcries on a consistent basis. Again, things they didn't have to do and something most devs don't bother to do and if they do, not as frequently as Bungie has done it.

Bungie has spoiled me and countless other fans because I have never played another game where i felt as comfortable as I did with Bungie. Even if Bungie made a decision I didn't agree with, I knew that Bungie was at least being fair and attentive. There is no reason why Bungie shouldn't be in the top five.

[humbleopinion]

Halo 3 was not only a good game, but pretty much revolutionized what games are about this generation: single player, mutliplayer full fledged campaign co-op, score metagame, full game replays and clip editing in theater mode, co-op level editing while fighting between two teams in forge mode, sharing game types, maps, movies, screenshots inside the online community, integrating the game with full fledged online statistics: from individual, to cumulative, to heatmaps, highly customizable multiplayer game settings down to the scoring policy: Halo 3 is one of the earliest and richest example of how much content a game should offer and how it should integrate with its innovative community online system.

Many developers have followed suit at least partially, and some have even topped them in specific offerings. But even today there aren't many games that are capable of delivering the same amount of content Halo 3 already delivered 5 years ago. Compared to how innovative Halo 3 was, even Halo Reach was only a marginal improvement.

Drake117 is actually right in some aspects: Half Life 2 is indeed a last gen game (released at the same time as Halo 2 and even available for the original Xbox), and even (the awesome) Left 4 Dead which people mention here was actually developed by Turtle Rock Studios - so the credit should go to them. Valve themselves should be thanked mostly for the portal games (which are kind of a very strong point on their own) and the newer Orange box components (TF2, EP2).

Both companies should appear on such a list, probaby instead of Rockstar because counting their games (GTA, RDR and Max Payned 3) is basically ignoring the fact that there are multiple different studios under the Rockstar Umbrella, so that's not really a fair count.

I also find it weird how Epic isn't mentioned here: not only did the revolutionize the third-person shooter this gen with one of the most highly critically acclaimed trilogies, but they also did a tremendous step forward with their Unreal engine, which became something much more than just running Unreal Tournament and other few games: Mass Effect, Batman, Bioshock, Gears of War, Borderlands, Mirrors Edge, Lost Oddysey, Mortal Kombat, Shadow Complex, Rainbow 6 Vegas, Tribes Ascend and countless others in various genres are running on top of Unreal Engine, so we should at least partially thank Epic for all of these games.

[Shepherd 214]

humbleopinion said it way better than I did, and he is especially right about Epic.

Everyone misunderstand "best developer" and "best game". People want to praise Santa Montica simply because they're game had good graphics and was a good game, but that can have little to do with the developers personality. Did they dev innovate? Did they pack all of their games with content? Were they close and responsive to their fanbase? These are questions that you need to ask when choosing a top dev, otherwise it would be yet another "top five games" list. A game can blow you away with story or graphics but if you don't hear from the developer for months at a time, that should tell you something.

[ATi_Elite]

Nintendo - Mario Zelda Metroid but Nintendo brought motion control and innovation to gaming that we haven't seen in a while. You can NEVER leave Nintendo of a top Dev list.

Blizzard - WoW expansions, Starcraft 2, Diablo III, HUGE Pro-Gaming Sponsor and Blizzard makes a Billion dollars yearly even though only a lousy 10.8 million (down from 12.5m) people play WoW!!

Naughty Dogg - Uncharted series has brought a level of quality to consoles that NO ONE can deny. ND just does some many thing right with this series that you CAN NOT DENY it!

Bioware - Mass Effect alone has Bioware on the list but add in Dragon Age and The Old Republic plus Jade Empire and Bioware has been all the rage this Gen

Rockstar - Too much quality Too much diversity too many Big name titles. Rockstar pushes the boundaries every time out!!

Valve - There still is NO such thing as "a Bad Valve Game". Between the games themselves and the all the Mods I could play on the Source engine all year and never play the same game twice. In the Gen of the FPS NO ONE has consistently done it better and with more innovation and diversity than Valve.

Not on the List
Bethesda - Bugthesda has quality issues but makes OUTSTANDING games.

GSC Game World - STALKER series my personnel favorite and greatest innovative game this gen but they have the Bug issue too.

[SilentNegotiator]

Rockstar? Blech. A bunch of over-rated games with clunky controls, boring worlds, and not a single like-able character in sight.

[Ducky]

The controls being clunky is something that I can agree with... but Rockstar has some of the most human characters around. Being like-able is based on personal taste, but most of the characters were characterized pretty well.

RDR brought the wild west to life, and the GTA series has done a consistent job of creating a breathing world. I don't really see many devs topping them on those areas.

[tallkidoPL]

No cd projekt on the list?

[jamesensor]

Not many games launched but they do improve their few games to the best. It should be on the list by all means. Better a perfected game than a shallow and buggy one released one after the other to engross numbers. (Enhanced Editions of The Witcher that they released for example, shows care and perfectionism)

[AnotherProGamer]

I'm sorry but Bethesda doesn't deserve that title. their games are not up to the polish of games made rockstar, valve, or Naughty Dog.

[GamingPerson]

My top 10 not in order.
R*.
Nuaghty Dog.
Valve(portal 2 = 35,000+ puzzles).
CD Projeckt Red.
BioWare.
Creative Assembly.
The original Infinity Ward.
Frictional Games - indie true horror games.

Btehesda - buggy game but offers unlimited replay value on pc(85,000 mods) & anyone completely mad at them is a ps3 only player so I can't speak on that since I don't have ps3 version. I stop playing R* games after 2 months & will be playing skyrim maybe for a year or 2 years after graphics mods.

Arena Net - loved Guild Wars 2 beta.

I am sure to get thumbs down for the ps3 part though I play on ps3 and am a pc & ps3 fanboy. lol :(

Also nothing from MS.

[Lilioups]

so u played ONE freaking beta for lets say 8hours and u now you say arenanet is one of the best studios THIS GEN ????

a whole beta in a whole freaking gen ???

this guy is funny lol

[ExCest]

@Lilioups

Opinions, bro. Besides, Guild Wars is a really good game. And Arena Net is one of those companies that makes MMOs that aren't pay-to-win. So credit goes to them. (But I personally don't think they are worthy of my top 10.)

[dark-hollow]

or maybe because their games are bigger than gta iv, uncharted and portal combined.

[InTheLab]

Define bigger? Because the world of Skyrim is sparsely populated compared to a GTA or even a Assassin's Creed. Add that to how long it takes to get from point A to B and sure, Skyrim seems enormous. But you can walk for an hour and never see a soul.

There's also a distinct lack of variety with items. On Daedric axe enchanted with Fire looks exactly like the one enchanted with Soul Eater...and named that named axe dropped in that cave from some boss. Same thing with all weapons and armor. There's no variety to weapons or armor and I know this because I have them all via console commands on PC.

There's only a handful of voice actors as the same dude that's giving you a quest to save his chickens sounds exactly like the Jarl of Whiterun who sounds like the shop owner who sounds like the Blacksmith.

Skyrim is less than 5 gigs of data while those games you listed are twice that amount. Kingdoms Of Amalur is also a big game and it's no where close to being as buggy as Skyrim. I've played 40+ hours of Kingdoms and never had to worry about saving every 5 minutes. Same thing with the Witcher

Having a big game is no excuse for being a sloppy developer..

[Ducky]

^ Neither GTA nor Assassins Creed have a comparably large numbers of NPCs that you can talk/interact with compared against TES/Fallout.

When you say there's no variety in items, what other game are you comparing it to? Certainly not GTA/AC I hope.

The sound cast is small compared to the number of NPCs, but their newer games have improved that. It's par for the course for an open-world game. (Skyrim has like 80 voice actors?)

Amount of data is mostly a meaningless point because it doesn't have a direct link with anything. RAGE is over 20gb in size, yet it doesn't have a whole lot to do in its world.

On consoles, Bethesda is one of the few developers that make these large games where you can explore a large map, interact with many NPCs, complete quests using different approaches, all while keeping track of all the changes that you make to the game world. A 'sloppy developer' wouldn't be able to do those things.

On PC, Bethesda is one of the few devs to still offer SDK. I'm happy with that.

[european_cannon]

Naughty Dog makes interactive movies now, not games, like Bethesda. And ND can't even tell a story right as Uncharted 3 was a complete mess, not to mention a complete bore to play through.

Bethesda is eaisly the best Dev this gen even with bugs, followed by Valve and Rockstar.

[Lilioups]

hate more plz here have some cookies....

naughty dog do great G.A.M.E.S

eat that..accept the facts that they are the top 3 studios this gen and go take a walk stupid hater

[Hicken]

Bugs make them HORRIBLE devs; that should be as easy to see as it should be to spell "easily."

thatgamecompany is my #1 They've only done three games, but they showed me a side of gaming in those three titles that no one else has even come close to. Up until this point, Valkyria Chronicles has been my favorite game this generation, but the more I think about it, the more Journey deserves that position.

After them, I'd probably say Naughty Dog is number two... and then it'd be a toss-up for any companies after them.

[smashcrashbash]

Oh please don't even start. Bethesda doesn't get a free pass for making buggy, glitchy games. At least ND makes games that don't need a million patches to fix it. And the long overblown things that Bethesda makes that you call 'story' is a joke.

And the characters with the creepy staring eyes that barely look human. At least ND knows how to animate a characters and make them look like something besides lifeless dummies. People where concerned about Drake and the crew.Who were the characters in Bethesda's games? Did anyone even care about what was happening while they were out picking daisies, doing stupid tasks for lazy peasants and searching for plants?

They make huge worlds and can't even make you care about what was happening to the world or the fact that it was being destroyed. Stop the ND makes movies BS for the love of god. Just because your head is so far up Bethesda's @$$ that you can't see how careless and half @$$ed they do their games doesn't mean we all are.

[Nimblest-Assassin]

So Bethesda gets a free pass for releasing buggy games, and can be called the best dev's for releasing an unfinished product? What a world

[Chitown71291]

Yea definitely Rockstar and Naughty Dog for me....

[DeletedAcc]

Great decision ^^

[Waddy101]

My Top Developers this Gen are in no particular order:
Valve
Bungie
Naughty Dog
Rockstar
Bioware

Bungie deserve that spot more than Bethesda, Bungie are one of the best developers out there for listening to fan feedback.

[MrMister]

Ah yes Bungie--whoring out the Halo franchise so much that they had to finally leave MS because of the franchise abuse. I mean look at COD: Fan feedback is the reason why games like that never evolve. Developers need to innovate and the fans need to either accept it, or move on. Anything is better than conformity and a stale lack of innovation/creativity.

[Waddy101]

I'm sorry but how did Bungie "Whore out" the Halo franchise? They released 5 games in 10 years.
They didn't leave MS because of franchise abuse, they decided to stop making Halo games because they wanted to move onto something different.

[Kos-Mos]

From Software brought GAMING back!

[InactiveUser]

"Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn" wtf.

I assume that makes sense to people that know about Mobile Suit Gundam, but from the outside that just sounds silly.

[Wintersun616]

I must have missed something. When did gaming ever disappear?

Back on topic, my fav 5 in no particular order:

Rockstar
Naughty Dog
Valve
Bioware
Bethesda

[Ducky]

... Did... Did you just list the same choices as the article? O.o

[Wintersun616]

IDK, I didn't read the article. O.o

[Qrphe]

Definitely true!

And neither Bioware nor Bethesda should be in the places they've been ranked.

Edit: Platinum Games, them too, they're great!

[Series_IIa]

Decent list, I'd include CD Projekt though on mine instead of Bethesda...

Even though I really like them all considering.

[GraveLord]

Infinity Ward
Treyarch
Sony Santa Monica
Naughty Dog
From Software

[Kingdom Come]

Infinity Ward and Treyarch? Wow, you aren't even trying with your trolling anymore, you might have got a few laughs if you said Square Enix or Capcom but your COD Fanboyism is just getting pathetic now...

[Whitefeather]

It's his opinion. I do disagree though.

[TopDudeMan]

I don't think he's trolling...

[Baka-akaB]

he's not , he expressed multiple time his satisfaction with the state of cod . Can't say i share it even 1% , but hey ...

[MiamiACR21]

Trolling is the new word for an 'opinion'. If I liked cherry pie and you didn't, and you liked apple pie while I didn't, we'd be "trolling" each other.

[TopDudeMan]

Bioware
Naughty Dog
From Software
Sucker Punch
Valve

[MeatAbstract]

You do need From Software in there. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls have been two of this gens finest games. No, not perfect but goddamit they tried to break the mould of 'cinematic' and went back to trial and error gaming.

[Kingdom Come]

In my opinion: Epic Games, Rockstar, Irrational, Bungie, Bethesda & ThatGameCompany.

[Whitefeather]

My top 5 in order:
Kojima Productions
Rocksteady
Rockstar
Santa Monica Studios
Naughty Dog

[TopDudeMan]

Damn, rocksteady. That's a good one. How did I forget those guys?

[solar]

Alright list but i would switch the order. Valve really hit homeruns with the Portal, Left 4 Dead and TF series. All different games in the same genre that are a blast to play co op.

[Harelgur]

Valve.
Portal, Half LIfe, Team Fortress and Left 4 Dead.

[Rivitur]

Don't forget CSS...

[Harelgur]

not this gen.

[Rivitur]

It came out the same month as Hl2 so to consider HL2 and not CSS is a load of crap I you ask me..

[Baka-akaB]

In no order :

-Kojima Productions
-Rockstar
-Valve
-Naughty Dogs
-Capcom ( laugh all you want , they did bring back 2d fighting gaming from the obscure niche it dug itself into a few years ago , and that's the only aspect of them i'm praising there , since i love fighting games )
-Cd Projekt Red .
-Arc System Works (for its persistance and great work over 2d , instead of swtiching to 2.5d and 3d)
-Platinum games

And was forgetting From Software of course . Not even just for the obvious Demon and Dark Souls , they had an amazing Mecha game named Another Century Episode R , that most here wont care about

[LX-General-Kaos]

Nintendo

Retro Studios

[TCG_Returns]

A lone hero..

Must rise up and fight the evil that threatens everyone.Go on a journey, through scripted events, with the occasional moral choices that have small cinematic outcomes.Rally your team, of characters that you meet throughout your quest, and face the enemy that somehow affects you personally, and, those in your party.

Am i talking about..
Jade empire
KOTOR 1
KOTOR 2
Dragon age
Dragon age 2
Mass effect
Mass effect 2
Mass effect 3 ?

Hint: They're all the fucking same.Bioware is the most overrated dev of all time.Just re-hashing and re-skining the same game over and over, with a story so corny, it's as if they came up with it over lunch break at the offices.

/rant over

[Baka-akaB]

my issue is not more of the same . It's the drop in quality on the rpg side , with still some big spikes through their history , like mass effect 2-3 (sorry i know its not popular to say , but while i liked ME1's story , it was a chore to play and not even a good rpg compared to Kotor imo)

[Ducky]

You do realize that your little summary describes most RPGs in general right?

Remove the part about 'rallying your team of characters', and you've described most action/adventure games.

[Baka-akaB]

Generalisation are easy to do for any genre so far ...

[stonecold3]

quantic dreams naughty dog sony santa monica pd valve

[NastyLeftHook0]

naughty dog

[xtremexx]

naught dog
sucker punch
treyarch (out of infinitward and treyarch)

off topic, is n4g broken? 42 comments and 180 degrees? seems odd.

[360ICE]

would actually take bethesda before valve this gen. Valve is great as always, and bethesda has has at worst been hit and miss, but they did pretty much start the generation with Oblivion.

[ExCest]

I sincerely doubt Rockstar should be #1. Sure, they make good games but their PC ports are horrendous and unplayable by a lot of people because of poor optimization (that would include me). Valve should be #1 since Steam is amazing and Valve is just a good company overall. And Bethesda shouldn't be up there as their games, although good and fun, are some of the glitch-iest and somewhat unoptimized.

[Little_cavi]

1.Nintendo
2.Nintendo
3.Nintendo
4.Nintendo
5.Nintendo

[360ICE]

I agree with number two and three, but the rest is just BS.

[InTheLab]

Amazing how a dev that routinely ships broken games deserves a spot on the top 5 of any list. Bethesda is the most overrated dev in the industry and do not deserve the praise they receive. Same old dull as s*** gameplay with huge, but empty, open worlds.

[BitbyDeath]

My top 5-

1. Naughty Dog (Uncharted)
2. Sony Santa Monica (Warhawk/Starhawk/GoW3)
2. Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain)
3. Kojima Productions (MGS4)
4. Sucker Punch (inFamous)
5. Evolution Studios (Motorstorm)

[raytraceme]

Sony Santa Monica also makes mlb the show games ;)

[urwifeminder]

For me it has to be eidos for battlestations pacific i never played a game like it amazing.

[jamesensor]

I can't agree with putting DA2 in same basket of Origins (the latest being far superior), I'm sorry... that's just nonsense.
Bethesda and their Elder Scrolls are amazing, to simply put. Vast and rich content games with community support.
Valve and Left 4 Dead series were also amazing. A shot at a different content and gameplay that payed out well (constant threat, zombies, co-op). The other games I don't know lol, never played them.

[Redempteur]

For this gen if i have a top it would be :

1-Naughty dog ( Uncharted 2 nuff said )
2-that game company ( flower & journey)
3-retro studios ( metroid prime 3 )
4-sucker punch ( infamous 1 & 2 )
5-sony santa monica ( ( too many games they've worked on this gen )
6-Namco "Tales of" Team ( tales of vesperia & xillia )
7-Zelda team ( don't know the name )
8-sega( valkyria chronicles, yakuza series, ect ..)
9-criterion ( burnout paradise & nfs )
10-Gust ( atelier series )

Those team matterred a lot for my enjoyment this gen

[theeg]

personally, some of my fav devs;

Blizzard (diablo 3 is my goty, starcraft 2 is the best game ever made imo)

Bethesda

From Software (demons souls, dark souls)

Bioware (Baldurs Gate 2 Shadow of Amn is the best rpg ever made imo)

CD Project

R*

DICE

Bungie

NaughtyDog

Insomniac (ratchet and clank is a awesome series)

[DeletedAcc]

Naughty dog

[nik666uk]

Black Rock Studios showed promise with Pure and Split Second but went bust tragically, it's sad when u look at all the crappy NFS titles that get churned out!!

[Mariusmssj]

CDProjektRed

[Roccetarius]

Not much to yell hooray for on this list.

Bioware was only good for the first Mass Effect and Dragon Age this gen.

Bethesda just makes large adventure games, but nothing really substantial. The modding community is what attempts to make up for what they don't.

Valve? They haven't even given us HL2 episode 3, which was promised years ago. That hype train won't return.

I would replace those with Platinum Games, CD Projekt and Visceral Games. The last mentioned could easily screw up with DS3, unless the rumours about it aren't true.

I would mention Blizzard, but the impact of D3 still needs time to show.

Another one i would mention is Vigil Games. They only have Darksiders under their belt, but Darksiders 2 is already looking amazeballs.

Oh, and top xx lists are increasing in numbers. I'm guessing the sites don't know what to write about anymore?

[spektical]

Naughty Dog.. it shouldnt be close.