After the loss of thq, atari, etc, a lot of negativity about the future of the industry started to surround us. But, i actually believe that this is just business, and when one go down, another shows up.

talking more about the future now, there a some publisher out there that are not that wide know, but has gained some traction with some of their last titles. I want to focus the dicussion mostly on the one that actually publish retail games on consoles, at least we know that they are willing to invest some money in this market, even disputing with ubisfot and EA.

I can think on 2 ritgh now. First, 505 games. Theirs mostly widely know IP are problably sniper elite and terraria. Not really big games, but they seems to be investing on it for some time now. Every now and then they try something new, like how to survive.

The second is deep silver. They recently acquired the saint rows franchise, and are know mostly by the dead island trailer, not the game. Anyway, they also have not so much big games, and pretty bad one too, like Ride to Hell: Retribution. They also have the metro franchise on their side, but mostly are not big games.

I don't know if deserve any mention, but recently nordic games acquired the ritgh over darksiders franchise and another developer changed their names for atari and are making a new alone in the dark game.

So what do you you think? what is the next publisher that we will hate?

I wonder if a smaller publisher, maybe even an indie publisher will make the jump similar to how Lionsgate did in the movie realm.

Self publishing will be a more viable option (although I am not so optimistic as to think that it will replace the current model).

More traditionally, I can see Deep Silver continuing to increase in size. Nordic Games is interesting too...most of their stuff is PC focused but they seem to be interested in expansion with how much of THQ they bought. I don't really pay much attention to publishers though...

Deep Silver seems like a good bet, but these things are pretty hard to predict.

I'd like to point out that 505 Games only helped publish the Sniper Elite games on consoles, they don't own the IP. Rebellion Developments are the actual developers and publishers for the PC versions.

I'm thinking Stardock, they have started several new development studios, and Paradox, see the news on Crusader Kings II passing a million in sales.

Deep Silver have been making some moves and expanding a lot lately. Dead Island really blew up for them. They did well from the fall of THQ picking up Saint's Row/Volition, Metro and I think the next 4A game as well. They also got Homefornt: The Revolution and from the sound of things most of the Crytek UK developers which brings them to 3 internal studios. Risen is also a decent B tier franchise for them. Whether they hit it big depends on how Dead Island 2, Homefornt: The revolution and whatever Volition is working on (Gat out of Hell is made by High Voltage). If those titles do well they will be well positioned to move into the big leagues with a few AAA franchises.

Microsoft Studios: ditching hardware and with Minecraft concentrating on games for all platforms.

I think Microsoft is becoming the biggest publisher in the industry. Halo, Gears , Minecraft, Forza, Killer Instinct and more. Also, Microsoft is grabbing exclusive rights to publish/co publish third party games like Dead rising, Ryse, Tomb Raider, Titan Fall. I know there may be some disagrees, but you can't argue that they've improved.

Question is tho do we consider Bethesda Softworks and Warner Interactive big publishers?

Because tho The Elder Scrolls and Fallout have been huge hits. That is just the output of one studio. Most of the other games haven't done very well at all with bombs like WET, Brink, Hunted: The Demon's Forge, Rogue Warrior and arguably RAGE tho it sold better than the others it had much higher expectations. More recently they have had success with Dishonored and Wolfenstein: The New Order. The Elder Scrolls online seems to be doing ok but hardly amazing. But they do have several upcoming games that could do very well like The Evil Within and DOOM 4. As well as the F2P bet with Battlecry. They are still nowhere near the output of the likes of EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Square Enix, Take 2/Rockstar, Namco Bandai or Capcom.

Warner Bros Interactive have certainly had success with the Batman Arkham games, Mortal Kombat and the Lego games. But nothing of real note outside of those, well they have Scribblenauts but that is hardly a mega franchise and they also put out F.E.A.R. 3 and some other movie tie ins. They have some big games coming up like Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, Mad Max and Dying Light. Which all could potentially be hits. And also major itterations in their big franchises Mortal Kombat X, Batman: Arkham Knight and Lego Batman 3. As well as some smaller projects like Gauntlet.

The likes of 505 Games, 1C Company, Paradox Interactive etc are doing well but I think they are content to be smaller publishers. And aren't really making AAA mega franchise bets.

Valve I think, though they're already pretty huge, but I think Steam will just continue to grow.

To be honest though I think the game industry will start to become a lot like the movie business, where you have basically the same 5-6 big studios (20th Century Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, and Universal) that control all the big movies and maybe some smaller indie studios that get in there once in a while.