Scoobes on 05 February 2011
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.
