I think EA is the embedment of everything that is wrong with the game industry.

* Money hungry WHORE: who will charge you for every little thing if it can get away with it.

* lack of innovation: each iteration almost identical or very little chance from a year ago.

* Bullying: well, don't have to explain that one.

and then, claiming themselves not only the best company, but the "greatest'? What do you think you are? Ali? :)

can we start a petition asking EA to stop being money hungry jackasses, buying everyone out, and to make good games? lol

shouldnt you have to make a console to be gaming greatest company.

I agree with ssj12. Whilst Nintendo are more definitely one of the best developers in the world they aren't the best in my opinion. Now what Nintendo are good at (which ironically is what EA are good at) is making games from a wide variety of genre's.Nintendo are just much better at it then EA from a qualitative standpoint. But to be honest I'd rather play an RPG made by a games studio that is specialised in the genre then one made by nintendo. What are nintendo the best at? Platformers and I don't think that can really be disputed from a quality over time analysis. But that does not mean they're the best at everything.

So what studio's do I like more then Nintendo? Black Isles, Valve, Troika, Irrational Games, looking glass studios. I would have put Rare on that list had you asked me during the nintendo 64 days aswell. Unfortunately a lot of my favourite studios are now defunct :(

So the thrust of my argument is this. Nintendo are great but they aren't the best at everything. And since they aren't the best at the genre's I like the most they aren't my favorite. So yeah this is all personal opinion but some of the studio's I've listed most definitely do compete with Nintendo effectively from a critical standpoint.

Anyway the question whose the best is a flawed question. It should be whose the most significant? That is most definetely Nintendo.  

 Would you like to name a few???

I´m curious (Im a PC guy, but I´m a Nintendo guy too)

 they did, it was the 3D0. :)

hence confirmed once again, greatest company of ALL TIME. ;) 

 to name one that became a big company: PopCap Games

 Are you kidding me???

Are you putting PopCap and Nintendo in the same level??

BookWorm vs SMG ???

 yes, if Nintendo wants toplay in the casual game market they have to battle the king of the casual games ie PopCap Games

Ironically that is why they are learning they need to increase their quality.  Madden 08 sold poor to expectations and worse than Madden 07.  Why bc casuals also check out reviews if they are going to plunk down $60, and people that bought Madden 07 felt burned and wait for EA to release a complete version later.  So yeah, traditionally, crap to the market = money now.  But long term this will be the end of EA (at least no growth ).  Their CEO know's that.  They'll still release crap title that aren't supposed to sell much, but I expect that the quality of their games will increase.  I mean can they go down?