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Forums - Gaming Discussion - So, what game studios left are considered worth getting excited over?

Watching Lucas Arts being closed by Disney has me wondering who exactly is left that you can trust to be able to put out consistently quality content worth following?  Thinking over, my mind is blank.  And I think of a number, and issues:

* Gearbox had Borderlands which was promising.  Now you see dog after dog with them.

* Blizzard is down to the likes of Starcraft, but Diablo 3 took a hit.

* Maxis has mucked up Simcity.

* Timegate Studios did Kohan back in the day, a notable RTS title.  They have their hands in the debacle of the latest Aliens game.

* Electronic Arts is Electronic Arts.  Look at their recent offerings by their various studios, and their CEO resigning.  See Maxis as one example.

* Activision is Activision.  Maybe the next Call of Duty title will be worthwhile.  What studios are there?

* Rockstar I guess is doing decent at this point.  Red Dead Redemption was decent.

* Epic is pretty much no longer Epic, reduced pretty much to Chair and People Can Fly.  Cliffy B is out, as are other key players.  Cliffy B is now on the sidelines.

* Bullfrog never really arguably was, or hasn't been for years.  This was Peter M's company with Fable being overhyped.

* iD's Rage was disappointing pretty much.  Pretty competently executed, but on the boring side.

* Insomniac is coming out with Fuse.

* Square-Enix?  Any studios there?  Maybe Crystal Dynamics.

* Crytech?  They do engines.  Farcry 3 is notable, but what about Crysis 3?  

 

Are we down to Ubisoft's studios at this point? Who else I am missing?   Maybe Bethesda? 



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343i will always have my attention after Halo 4 proved they don't just know what they are doing, but do it better than the rest.



Retro Studios, Nintendo EAD, Monolith Soft, Platinum Games, Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, Kojima Productions...just to name a few that came to my mind immediately



kain_kusanagi said:
343i will always have my attention after Halo 4 proved they don't just know what they are doing, but do it better than the rest.

Which reminds me now of Bungie and Destiny.  Will see who else does what.  Even Peter M's stuff isn't around.  What is his company now, Five Cans or something?



Bethesda Softworks (Elder scrolls / Fallout), Nintendo studios, Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch, I'd say Capcom Japan have still got some talent (Dragons Dogma, not RE6). I think lots of indie teams are worth a shout too tbh, thatgamecompany, the unfished swan guys, castle crasher guys etc..



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Atlus has been doing pretty good in the last couple of years, all of their titles have been pretty solid.



Rising Star Games and Grasshopper Manufacturer. Don't dismiss Epic Games. With UE4 (And I hope they work their way into WiiU too) consider some games comin' from 'em. Cliff B was a main component, but without him they're still Epic Games.



Naughty Dog. And personally (for me) - Media Molecule & SCE Japan Studio.

Any of Nintendo EAD. I'm not a huge fan of Retro Studios myself but a lot of Nintendo fans are hyped about their next title being revealed.

I think EA Canada (Skate/SSX) and Criterion (Burnout/Need for Speed) put out consistently good work, too.

I also personally look forward to hear/see what Media.Vision is working on. Although chances of ever seeing their titles in the west seems to be shrinking as time goes by.



richardhutnik said:

* Bullfrog never really arguably was, or hasn't been for years.  This was Peter M's company with Fable being overhyped.

It's hard getting excited over new games from Bullfrog Productions. Molyneux sold the company to EA in 1995, it's defunct since 2004. You mean Lionhead.

OT:
When everything fails and anything's closed down, there's always Nintendo and their excellent studios.

Plus many small developers around the world most people have never heard of (like e.g. Daedalic Entertainment, the company which made the game shown in my sig - a game which ironically wouldn't exist without the now defunct LucasArts).



Crytech ? What is that supposed to be :P

It's Crytek and no they didn't make Far Cry 3. That was Ubisoft.