Ok, so looks like this voting is really about software rather than hardware. There is some close competition here. These are the companies that stand out to me:
First the honorable mentions:
SEGA: Samba de Amigo, Space Channel 5, Seaman, Phantasy Star Online, Shenmue, Jet Set Radio
Blizzard: Diablo II, Warcraft III
This is a long list of games that I've heard great things about, but have never played. If I had to guess which games I'd like better though I'd probably choose Blizzard over Sega. I would like to get around to trying Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 at some point. Sega has a good list too, but it's more because of the quantity of games rather than 1 game that makes me super excited.
Anyway, here are my real contenders:
Sony: Gran Turismo 2000, ICO, FantaVision, The Legend of Dragoon
Bioware: Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights
Squaresoft: Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy 9, Final Fantasy Online, Legend of Mana, Vagrant Story
Ok, so first there is Sony. I normally don't think of them as top tier in software development, and I'm not much of a GT fan. However, this year had both ICO and LoD. That's an amazing year for Sony.
Bioware is not a company I'm really interested in anymore, but in 2000 I played both BG2 and Neverwinter Nights. Neverwinter Nights is one of my top 50 games of all time. This was almost all that I played for at least a year, since it has this amazing tool set that let players create their own modules. Most of these modules are only so-so, but the top votes ones are all amazing, and I had a ton of fun playing through all of the early ones.
Lastly, there is Squaresoft. This is still in the late Sakaguchi era, which was when Squaresoft was at its peak. Final Fantasy 9 and Final Fantasy Online are both in my top 50 games of all time. Even though I played NWN for over a year, I played FF Online for 2-3 years. And then there is FF9 which I would say is actually better than either of those games. It's my second favorite FF, which is my favorite series. The other 3 games are not games I've played yet, but they are all games that I would like to play someday.
Overall, I'd say 2000 was an awesome year for E3 with a lot of great reveals all around. However, if I had to pick one winner, then it would be Squaresoft. This was the era of their last few great years and it shows in their software lineup.
EDIT: I just noticed Squaresoft is not in the poll. WTF? Don't you know greatness when you see it.
Guess I have to pick Bioware?
Last edited by The_Liquid_Laser - on 10 June 2021