Is the answer not Bethesda for bringing us the Elder Scrolls?

Which companies have really made a positive impression on you?

CAVE
- King of Schmups they make a concentrated effort to put their games in the hands of the players who love them. When they couldn't get a Western Publisher for Mushi Mushi Pork Sweets (if you don't know... don't ask) they removed the region protection from their discs so Wester players could import and play them.

Platinum Games
- Everything they have produced so far has been produced to a very high standard of quality.

Which developers really stand out to you and why?

Az

Obsidian. They still make actual rpg's.
Alpha protocol and new vegas were great, they had issues. But the good points far outweighed them. Good writing, and lots of choice.

CD Projekt. Not just because they make awesome games, but especially because of how well they treat their customers. Sadly, it seems like they're one of a kind these days.

Valve, because of how Gabe treated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Wolpaw.

Bethesda has been pretty positive, so I say Bethesda.


That was so much win.

Absolutely. No DRM, free DLC (and that's 10GB, 4-5 hour playtime DLC), and a great franchise in Witcher. They are developing 2 other non-Witcher RPGs,, I hear. I am very interested in what they are going to produce.

Infinity Ward and EA

The old incarnation of Bioware (pre-EA) and Obsidian for consistency.

Bethesda made a great world with great lore, that's what makes me keep coming back.

EDIT: Special mention to best new-ish talent Taleworlds.

To name something a bit different, thatgamecompaney. The really know how to make a case for video games being art.Plus they are great with their fans, which is probably a benefit of being a small team.

i share your opinion on Platinum games but somehow im afraid all those jappanesse develloppers are having a hard time now Sega
has difficulties and i have a hunch Platinum is in the same boath sadly.

All i can say that im a big fan of Tri Ace its been silent around them and for that i also predict an insecure future . "Sob"
Why i like them: from what games i played they where Deep/inovative/addictive games decent story,s and astouniching grafics for JPRPG,s


editing : add why, and remove unessesary facts

Kojima Productions
Grasshopper Manufacture
Rockstar
Bethesda Game Studios
id Software

What they all have in common is that they spit out quality titles. In my oppinion you can never go wrong with any titles made by these studios. As for publishers.

Rising Star Games
Konami
Bethesda Softworks

I have already made it clear I dont like bethesda as a developer.
But how can you say they are a good publisher ?

Rogue warrior.
Brink.
FNV.

All released in a buggy as hell state. Its the publishers job to do QA.

Then you have average things like hunted, WET and rage. Nothing special.

Prey 2 is on hold.

I like New Vegas bro. I liked it much more than Fallout 3. Given NV was Obsidian's first go with that engine, and the amazing things they did compared to 3, I'd say they could have done a lot worse.

I have not played any title you mentioned. However, FNV is quite hit or miss among people. I could see myself enjoy it. A friend of mine quite enjoyed WET and I could see myself enjoy Rage. Infact I'll probably buy Rage someday in the future. The rest of the games just don't intrest me at all. BSF isn't perfect, but the games I'm interested in that they have published have been good or great.

I like NV too, I loved NV. Infact I still play it.

But it was very buggy at launch. Im just saying the thing wasnt tested properly/at all.

So how cna you say they are one of the best publishers if you havent played any games they published ?

I think he mentioned all the one's they've published.

New Vegas wasn't "buggy as hell" - not on this end anyway.
I only got one major bug and that was the result of a patch, a patch that affected every players save, but then they released a patch the next day or two that rectified this.
Not to mention some bugs are random and can't be recreated and fixed, especially when the people that complain about them don't give full explantions as to what happened, how it happened and what region of the world they play in*.

*I'm under the influence that there are differences in the games sold to Americans/Europeans/Asians.

I would say Square Enix for both, purely because of FFXIII and FFXIII-2, these have to be the most beautiful looking games I have played and they offered something different in terms of combat that was more attractive than the standard FPS system that's as common as dirt, not to mention it reminds me of Pokemon - to an extent.

- This is my more serious answer than my other one.

Rockstar games.

All their games have had a lot of work and effort and they're always trying new and different things.

Red Dead Redemption is my all time game and I'm looking forward to GTA V hopefully being released this year.

There are a lot of games they've published: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bethesda_Softworks_games

Sea dogs, Call of Cuthulu: Dark Corners of the earth and then the games made by Bethesda Game Studios.

I thought they just bought the Cthulu licence?

I suppose I can support anyone associated with the Terminator franchise.

Bethesda included?
I'm sure they did a Terminator game years ago

Terminator 2029 in the 90's, I remember reading or watching a recap of their history some time ago.

Activision / Blizzard. They make most of what I love. Call of Duty, of course. You can cry about it being unoriginal or the same thing every year, but if it's already top quality, why change it? I'll drop $60 a year every year from now until the day I die as long as I can keep having the best multiplayer gaming experience possible. It's a blast, I play with all my friends and family from all around the country / world, and we all enjoy every minute of it.

Then there's Diablo / Starcraft / Warcraft which is always quality.

#2 for me is EA (yeah, hate some more). Best sports games on the market and then there's the Sim games, Bioware games. Love all of it.

Bethesda rounds out my top 3.

Developers
-Nintendo
-Kojima Productions

Nintendo is by no means perfect, but I can't think of another games company that's as old as they are and have a track record that comes anywhere close. I can't imagine gaming without 'em.

As for Kojima Productions, they're mostly Metal Gear (though Konami refers to all of Kojima's past games as KojiPro titles). Metal Gear also happens to be one of my top five game series of all time and KojiPro makes them very well. Maybe we'll get to see them do something else one of these days, and when that time comes I'll definitely be on the edge of my seat.

Publishers
-Nintendo
-Atlus
-Square Enix

They release most of their games in North America, and in Square's case they've gotten pretty good about timely localizations.

Square Enix Japan also lets Eidos (now Square Enix Europe) run itself for the most part, instead of stepping in and telling them how to do things. I don't care for a lot of Eidos games, but that seems like the right way to go about studio acquisitions.