Actually they often have a lot to do with game development.  They are paying the bills, setting the milestones, making developers do things they don't want to do, making them skip things the developers want to do (because of cost/time), etc...  Some games they have more involvement then others...

Activision. Seriously, fuck them.

Midway kind of blows, too.

Agree with all of those exept Konami. C'mon, MGS, Silent Hill, Castlevania, Suikoden, Contra. Konami are one of the better publishers.

lol at people saying Ubisoft, Activision, EA and Capcom. They put out some crap sure, but they're far from the worst.

Activision this gen
THQ always
Blizzard since the Activision merger thing [Starcraft II :( ]

Activision/Blizzard... I actually have to say that in the past couple of years EA really managed to become a respected publisher in my eyes :|

Other than that? I dont know, every publisher has its good and bad moves, so I cant say that I hate them or anything :|

Well, I'm pretty sure it's in regards to this generation. I don't know how many good Silent Hill and Castlevania games we've seen lately. That said, regarding your avatar and your sassy tone, I was reminded of this:

People like to be overdramatic and ignore all the great games put out by a company because something small irks them.

The last Ubisoft game I enjoyed was Splinter Cell Chaos Theory.

No, it wasn't, I liked Double Agent and GRAW2, but they weren't up to Ubisoft standard to be honest. Ubi are sinking, but they're not at the bottom of the pond yet. EA are closer to the bottom of the pond, but sinking slower, and occasionally, they actually make a game that's worth a damn (Burnout Paradise, Dead Space). Then, they go and make crap like NFS Undercover, and everybody forgets.

Activision aren't doing very well on the quality front either, but Call of Duty is still amazing.

Midway are flailing. They haven't made a good game in years.

Same with Eidos.

@Montana

That Man Talk thing was unexpected, but hilarious.

Uhm, that mantalk thing was kinda wrong.
Anyway, I love all game developers, I don't hate any of them I just don't buy a lot of them.