Blizzard is an amazingly high quality developer, but they definately take their time.
ID has made leaps and bounds for FPSes, you could consider them the father.
Valve Took what ID did and improved it.
Epic did, umm, well, a pinball game that was pretty fun, One Must Fall 2097, and oh yeah, Unreal, which was a competitor to Quake. They still feud on occasion.
In terms of History, ID and Blizzard are the most important, in terms of Quality, Blizzard/Valve are the best, in terms of spreading out types of games, Epic and Blizzard are about the same. So, by those 3 categories, Blizzard takes the win in my book, even if the others definitely cannot be overlooked.
See Ya George.
"He did not die - He passed Away"
At least following a comedians own jokes makes his death easier.
