Ok here goes my list

4J Studios - To be given sole responsiblity on the console port of minecraft, not any pressure to compete with pc version yet rake in millions of sales and moneyzzz. They have no pressure to work on any other project during this time as minecraft will last them a while before it stops making money.

Insomniac - Everyone wants them. As long as they have a publisher, financially they have nothing too much to worry about. They make fun games, a genre which is being overlooked by most, however they can do it.

Valve - No pressure for continuous releases, sequels etc. To be fair this is less luck and more hard work, they are mostly supported by steam revenues and the fact older titles still make money on microtransactions (Fair ones too)

343 - To be given Halo, arguably the biggest fps, is extremely lucky. Ofcourse, comes with pressure added too to match or exceed bungie, but hell, Halo!

Gamefreak - Pokemaaaaaan!

add!

(Oh yeah and purely opinion based )!)!)!)

Team Ico - Extremely Lucky to not have been shut down yet.

Retro Studios
Acquired by Nintendo for the sole reason of needing a western 1st part dev, granted Metroid license and created one of the most critically acclaimed games of all time at their first try.

Valve, obviously. They make so much money with Steam that they can do what they want with no pressure. They're worth billions, they own the PC gaming market, and they're more profitable per employee than Google or Apple.

Blizzard, for much the same reasons. People joke about Nintendo printing money but that distinction should really belong to Blizzard. WoW is an absolute monster. They can pretty much set their own time-tables without having to worry about deadlines and outside pressure.

Compile Hearts. They don't even really have to worry about game-play as long as they have cute characters.

Everyone wants Insomniac? I thought their reputation and "aura" in the market was really damaged by FUSE.

Not to say they are bad or anything, just that they can no longer really be listed as one of the "luckiest." (though they are lucky to have tangoed in the infamous EA Partners Program and survive)

Actually good one!

It was to consumers, but microsoft picked them up, then they have the r&c movie coming out (not made by them but if/when they release r&c they'll benefit from cross marketing) They just make games and leave the worries to others

Sledgehammer Games: Getting to work on the best selling FPS franchise will no doubt make them some good $$$
Rockstar North: They seem the only dev who actually decides what happens to a franchise, unlike most franchises where the publisher decides what happens. And according to a lot of people, they make the best games!

So much this. Literally zero production for a whole gen.

Seems to me like these guys don't even have to worry about meeting some simple fucking deadlines

Also Gearbox. Borderlands is only good when played co-op and otherwise massively overrated. Fortunately for them, people love Borderlands, because without it they have nothing. In fact, everything else they touch seems to be a total disaster.

Thanks i try