Who do you guys think is the best dev in the video game industry and why?

For me it came down to between blizzard and naughty dog. However I think Im gonna go with Blizzard. Blizzard is always consistent with their quality and usually all of their games can last you years and beyond. However i dont like how they are owned by activisioon. Thankfully in their games it doesnt say activision anywhere. (Not that I dont like activision. Okay nevermind I dont like activision.)

They're not owned by Activision as such. It was a merger so they're on equal terms I believe.

OT: Valve.

They created Half-Life and they use the gaming community to help expand with new ideas (Portal, Counterstrike, Garry's Mod). They have great games in both single player, multiplayer, have their own engine and distribution method. They also don't have shareholders so they can pretty much do what they want and retain their "artistic license". I don't think they've ever released a poor game.

Second would probably be Bioware.

Bethesda Softworks: They are the best at what they do.

Naughty Dog: Three very succesful and critically acclaimed franchises over three generations, all of them offering totally different experiences. In terms of variety and excellent execution, they reign much higher than the developers who strictly stick to one genre and never attempt to spread their wings.

Platinum Games: They take a crazy idea and develop it to perfection. In terms of gameplay design, they outclass every other developer in the industry.

Konam Computer Entertainment: Metal Gear Solid.

Insomniac: Similar reasons to Naughty Dog.

I'm going by my opinion here, I love Japanese games so these two companies are tied with me:

Konami and Capcom

I agree with all ofther above here ^^

but i would like to include Valve (half life ftw!)m and SEm (if i pretend they never made anyting other than ff games...and ff14.....*shudders*)

Ironically i'm having a hard time right now trying to update the 1.2 patch  on Starcraft 2 and the stupid "multiple problems saving data" error , yeah constant quality my ass.

(sorry , just a bit frustrated..)

Edit: pretty weird that the poster above me didn't mention Atlust ... er Atlus

Aren't they technically publishers?

Japan Studios because they fucking rule.

Blizzard because they haven't made a bad game in years and are one of the few companies that can actually do PC only game sales and make massive profit.

Runner up is Bioware whose only less then AAA game (imho) was their Sonic Chronicles for DS effort. But when you look at their history of video games that one dud in 20 games - pretty damn good track record.

I was gonna mention Platnium games but Madworld wasn't exactly a AAA title, outside of that they have had all AAA titles though and seem to be the best bet as a new developer with AAA abilities.

in the past i really loved squaresoft. they were the best developers for me. after playing ff 7-9 and vagrant story .who would think otherwise?... but after the disappointed that was ff13. i really don;'t have one. i like level5 cuase of jeanne darc and how theyve progressed so fast