5 Most Generous Game Developers and Publishers

"Most of us like to moan about how games developers are out there to bleed every penny out of our shallow pockets by peppering us with overpriced arbitrary DLC, elitist subscription services to keep us paying for games we already paid good money for, or making us pay for ‘additional’ content that should’ve been in the game in the first place."

[kesvalk]

top 5 most generous, pic with the logo of Blizzard...

gamers really have short memory eh?

[Xof]

Yeah, that raised an eyebrow on my side of the screen, too.

[da_2pacalypse]

CD Project, Valve, and Rockstar are the only ones I can agree with :/

[Baka-akaB]

Well Blizzard used to be , before the wow and activision era . And imo we gotta admit that even if WoW kinda mandates it , as a sub based mmo , they've gone beyond what's mandatory in patchs and content ... at least more than any mmo studios , besides ArenaNet

[SilentNegotiator]

Above and beyond what's mandatory? They have the biggest MMO of all time.

If they want to keep 10M players for so long, I wouldn't call what they do "above and beyond". And the way they've been slowly losing userbase in general, I'd say it's closer to "scraping by" than "above and beyond"

[Baka-akaB]

Sigh ... just check what's usually done in terms of patches updates and amount of content for every other mmo , and you'll notice that short of them and the likes of Arena.net , or square for FFXI , hardly anyone got close .

Yeah they went above , they frickin' created a new barometer in terms of content update for following mmos and to this day keep patching to huge pace . Now whenever a big mmo appears and it's not meeting that pace , they are dropped like hot potatoes .

While most others companies were busy doing hotfixes and balances patch and throwing the occasional content bone once every few months , when not exclusively in expansions , WoW was having those hotfixes , balances patches and then also a patch 1.2 less than a month after release already adding new instances and quests .

Despite an already overwhelming amount of quest available at launch and only a few lvl 40 rushers .

I dont even like the game , but i wont just blindly criticize it for the heck of it .

[Bimkoblerutso]

Seriously, I don't think they understand the concept of "generosity."

Though they are nice, expansions are NOT a token of goodwill toward gamers. If Blizzard didn't think they could milk the WoW phenomenon anymore than they already had, they almost certainly would never have released those expansions. Again, not that I'm trying to badmouth expansions, but "generosity" implies a bit of self-sacrifice. It's not like they're GIVING us those expansions. Nevermind the current shady business practices they've been engaging in with the RMAH and ridiculously tyrannical DRM.

And how is some viral marketing on the part of 2K considered "generosity" by any stretch of the word?

[kesvalk]

i am okay with expansions, what i am not okay is with a sub-based MMO that have a cash shop!

i am not okay, with they selling only 1/3 of a game for full price.

i am not okay with a game that you pay $60 and don't even have actual single-player (and is completely based around a auction house where they get a share of the profit, mind you.)

they can keep their old servers, they can keep patching their old games, i don't care, this is in the past and you can't judge someone by his past alone.

[STK026]

Well deserved in my opinion. Like the author mentioned in his article, old blizzard games still have online servers and for the most part, have been patched for a very long time, to make sure the games would be compatible with newer OS and hardwares.

In comparison, EA has a long history of shutting down servers after only a few years, and they also have left many games completely unbalanced (CnC Generals comes to mind). Most publishers do that, even Sony, who have been shutting down a few servers in the last few months.

Also keep in mind that both Diablo 2 and Wc3 have received plenty of after launch content for free, something once again most publishers don't do. And World of WarCraft, even for a MMO, has received a whole lot more of free content than most other sub-based MMOs (excluding expansion content).

I can see why Activision is seen as a very greedy company (although, to be fair, greed is part of the business), but Blizzard, even today, is still a very respectable developer/publisher that gives a lot of content for a fair price.

[Trago1337]

Valve

[Eyeco]

Free DLC on the PC, whereas Microsoft charges it on XBL :-S

[Diver]

valve and cd projekt. every version of witcher and witcher 2 are loaded with extras.

[Bimkoblerutso]

^ AND CD Projekt is a very big proponent of DRM-free gaming. That's a huge plus in my book. I tend to like it when I'm not treated like a criminal.

[USMC_POLICE]

How about the guys that made burnout pardise? or light box for starhawk. Both gave a ton of free DLC

[Redempteur]

Criterion ? they're good guys that gave free cars for NFS:Hp and burnout paradise ... nothing to see here ..criterion idea for burnout paradise wasn't supported ..it's not going to happen again ( a total shame i know )

[Ducky]

Blizzard & 2K seems a bit of an oddity. Civ5's DLC is a bit out of hand, and if I'm not mistaken, Bioshock2 required GFWL for the DLC.
Even Rockstar is somewhat shaky, considering the DLC of LA Noire. They might make good worthwhile DLC, but that's not exactly generosity.

That, and if a publisher/developer is originally charging $60 for their games on PC, then I wouldn't really consider them generous.

[MySwordIsHeavenly]

Valve is obviously at the top. :)

Lightbox... Hello?!?
I am also inclined to add many iOS/Android developers who give their games away for free and/or add levels to their $0.99 games all the time.

[ninjahunter]

Blizzard is being pretty generous with starcraft 2, even when their releasing a new expansion they upgrade your online game for free so you can stay competitive.

[taquito]

ninja hunter, totally agree....starcraft 2 is the single best competitive game ever made imo, and the starcraft arcade offers 1000's of hours of free mods and maps

valve, source engine, 1000's of hours of mods, total conversions, steam, steamworks, project greenlight, amazing sales, by far, BY FAR, the most generous of any company to the community

cd project are AWESOME as well, tons of free content for the witcher 1 and 2

atari, with neverwinter nights 1 and 2, amazing mods, mmo's and free campaigns, literllay 1000's of hours of free gameplay.

crytek, with crysis 1, the mods are AMAZING, many better than the base game

epic, with the unreal engine, unlimited potential, 1000's of hours of free mods, total conversions

all of these games on pc, where, just by adding mod tools you extend your game, you give it life and you let the community run wild with it.

[humbleopinion]

Valve - Obviously. Don't even need to reason this.

CD Project - For always providing enhanced editions and more contents free for existing customers, especially in an era where other developers are nickle'n'diming you for virtual goods.

Bungie - one of the only companies ever providing free DLC for console based games. Not to mention their intense support of the online community, the tools they release to the public, and the encompassing service they started providing with Halo 3 (stats, picture uploads and even film rendering on their server farms).

Bethesda - For not just releasing their editing tools to the public, but for also providing the most comprehensive mod management tools .

ID Software - The people responsible not only for the FPS as we know it, but also for the best mod community support ever since the doom wad files. Not to mention, they release their old engines as open source so people can benefit from them for free.

[shenpo_shin]

bethesda ?

lol dude...everysingle game they launch are 100% full of bugs...crappy company

glad the pc owners can mods their games

[humbleopinion]

Every game is full of bugs? I recall my first Bethesda game was Home Alone and it was pretty much bug free. Their most recent Game is Dishonored (although they only Publish it).

Perhaps you're mostly talking about their Elder Scrolls games, then considering their hugh hugh scope and tons of playtime hours they are actually holding up pretty well (except perhaps for PS3 versions, but what can you do when you try to cram such a hugh game into an outdated architecture?)
And in a world where many games are actually being scaled down from one iteration to another (killzone 2 to killzone 3, resident evil 5 to resident evil 6, crackdown to crackdown 2 etc), the amazing ambition of the Elder Scrolls series should be praised.

But that's beside the point, isn't it? We were talking about being generous with free tools provided for to the community, and here you went trolling about bugs, weren't you? ;)

[Saryk]

Where is EA, come on guys!

(I laughed while typing that)

[KMCROC]

2-5 for me ,1 flip-flops way to much .

[THE_MACGREGOR]

From my xbox 2005-2012
1. id say which is hard to believe now a days but
Activision/Infinity Ward Call of Duty 2 (not big red one)
Two free maps .
2. id say Rare/Perfect Dark; which gave me 2 remakes maps
from goldeneye
3. Bungie for their support in halo 3
4.Turn 10, i think im pushing 30 cars gifted to me by the studio

[zugdar]

Valve is my #1 for sure.