Your favorite studio?

[Shoe]

What is your favorite game studio? They dont have to be indie so what is your favorite?

Mine would be Ankama (creators of Dofus, Dofus Arena, and their knew game Wakfu). I LOVE their artwork and artstyle. Their music is great and they really know what people like in games.

[Mashew]

Bungie. Halo 3 FTW!


(If you haven't heard yet. Bungie is officially Indie again. Microsoft let them go since they asked to be let go. They moved back to Chicago. Can't wait to see what comes from Bungie now!)

[Ratboy]

I'm pretty sure they're still in Kirkland, WA. A friend of mine works there; he would have mentioned moving.

[Aleksi]

What is your favorite game studio? They dont have to be indie so what is your favorite?

Mine would be Ankama (creators of Dofus, Dofus Arena, and their knew game Wakfu). I LOVE their artwork and artstyle. Their music is great and they really know what people like in games.

I really love Ankama. I played Dofus right at the start. I contacted them many times in an attempt to work for them and compose new music. Perhaps it has changed by now, but when i was playing, it was simply horrible… And that is why i proposed to change it! :rolleyes:

But yeah, i second that, they do a great job!

But i think my favorite remains Blizzard. I don't really dig WoW anymore but the Diablo series and Starcraft I where great! I can't wait for Starcraft II! Not forgetting to mention Blizzard has always been smart enough to support the Mac platform.

Aleksi.

[Dan MacDonald]

The Behemoth (http://www.thebehemoth.com/) has to be up there for me, for the fun factor they achieve and the quality and quantity of amazing looking content, it's simply amazing from such a small team of people.

So shoot me, I think Popcap (http://www.popcap.com) are pretty amazing for simmilar reasons. Even if they arn't always making the types of games I enojoy, they always set a really high bar for all their titles and that commands my respect.

[Mashew]

I'm pretty sure they're still in Kirkland, WA. A friend of mine works there; he would have mentioned moving.

I think like 130 people stay in WA. while the others go back to Chicago.

[Sybixsus]

My favourite studio no longer exists. Troika. They made wonderful RPG's. Arcanum was probably the best PC RPG ever made. Vampire : Bloodlines had some of the best RPG moments in it ( the haunted hotel was just amazing. ) Temple of Elemental Evil was bloody good too. Shame they weren't lucky enough to partner up with a decent publisher who wouldn't have kept pushing their games out the door before they were ready, giving them a bad reputation they really didn't deserve. Bonus points because they could have and should have made Fallout 3, and it would have been good.

[GolfHacker]

It's difficult to pick a favorite studio. I've enjoyed so many games.

The old Sierra games were a blast: I loved the Kings Quest series, the Space Quest series, Colonel's Bequest, Robin Hood, Camelot, and others.

LucasArts has always been a favorite of mine too: I enjoyed all their Indiana Jones games, Sam and Max, X-wing and Tie Fighter, Dark Forces, Secret of Monkey Island, and Outlaw.

Interplay was another favorite in the 90s: I loved their old Lord of the Rings game, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, and Star Trek: Judgement Rites.

Also the Commander Keen series by id Software, the Crystal Caves series by Apogee, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, Re-Volt, Darkstone, Zuma, Fizzball, Text Twist, Lemmings: Paintball, and lots of others I could name...

[Sharpfish]

Epic... though only if forced to choose based on how much time I've spent with a studio's games and the fun I've had.

Edit > Oh and I forgot Capcom who on consoles at least have been the developers of a lot of my favourite games (Resident Evil 4, Dead Rising etc). They always seem to go the extra mile to push and polish stuff, but unlike Epic their PC games (ports) leave a lot to be desired, on consoles though they are amazing.

EDIT 2 (Dec 2007) > Sorry but couldn't leave the above here any longer without editing it, Forget Epic they've gone to seed (on PC at least) both Gears and UT3 while good games are not teh same company I loved all those years, their games no longer feel as if they were made solidly for the PC and everything felt compromised.. forget em.

New choice? Crytek and then valve. Crytek still have more to do to prove their gaming side but by god can they cater to the PC and write a good engine. I've had more fun with the Crysis editor (and the game) than any other game i've ever played (and i've played thousands of AAA titles since 1982). Yes you need a good rig, I run on very high config hack in dx9 at ~30fps @ 1440x900 widescreen and it's awesome, not just the graphics but the physics, the freedom, the gameplay and most importantly the fun, it's also solid as a rock and completely PC centric unlike Bioverhyped shock which was appauling on the PC this year (obviously a very bad port/afterthought - much better on the 360 which is stupid for a FPS to feel better with a controller)

[moose6912]

Sierra with all their classic adventure games such as Space Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, King's Quest adventure games were all a blast and I miss those games.

Blizzard is also on the list due to their Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo franchise.

[Dyno Kid]

Blizzard for me too:)

I entered the Warcraft 3 TFT Lost temple tourney yesterday (top 16 go through to a knockout stage ) and finished ......17th with 5 wins 0 loses and 2 draws (30 mins max a game) sadly i didnt have time to play the last game (you can play 8 games)

Its a great game to escape to when i need a break from developing, only thing is a mini break can last about 2 hours lol.

Yeah and im looking forward to starcraft.....as im a big fan of RTS games.

Sega has always been a fav with the sega rally, daytona, V fighter, chu chu rocket games and looking forward to 360 sega rally.

Darren.

[lakibuk]

Caravel Games (http://www.caravelgames.com)

[Twitchfactor]

Treasure's one of my all time favorite developers.

They've made some of the best shooters/run & guns ever made.

Castlevania Bloodlines (Genesis)
Contra III (SNES)
Contra Hard Corp (Genesis)
Gunstar Heroes (Genesis)
Sin & Punishment (N64)
Ikaruga (Gamecube / Dreamcast)

the list goes on, but hose are some highlights.

[Sammgus]

I think MicroProse would have to be number 1 for me (Master of Magic, X-COM, Master of Origin, Pirates, Civ etc).

The 2-man team at Illwinter (Dominions series) deserves a mention too. They're almost indie too (ShrapnelGames handles marketing and distribution I think).

[Agent 4125]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_Softscape

[Tr00jg]

Blizzard, most definitely. They have not made a game that I have not enjoyed.

As for indie, I would go for Nifflas (creator of Knytt). Its not precisely a studio, but yeah...

[bignobody]

Rockstar. They upset people and still make money hand-over-fist. I upset people and don't get squat :D

[Adrian Cummings]

DICE/EA (for Battlefield 2: Modern Combat XBox360) I've played that game online in multiplayer mode more times than is healthy :)

[James C. Smith]

Nintendo. Their 1st party stuff is always fantastic.

[Coyote]

Origin. R.I.P.

Currently existing studio? Bioware.

Indie Studio: NinjaBee. But I'm biased :)

[Pyabo]

Origin fo' sho'. I probably spent more time playing their games over the years than any other studio.

Blizzard close runner-up.

And Nintendo... man... how can you NOT include them?

This question is hard.

[TimS]

I think I might have to go with Bullfrog Productions...

They ate my childhood.

-Tim

[Addictive 247]

Bitmap Brothers - no one else even comes close :)

[arcadetown]

Last Day of Work for doing something right and producing hit after hit (even though games aren't my cup of tea).

Awem for making games I enjoy.

Enkord for doing various things to be succesful when many others just want to complain about it not being possible.

[willevolve]

Westwood Studios is my first choice,

For making, Eye Of The Beholder 1 & 2, Lands of Lore 1 & 2, Young Merlin and Command & Conquer

Other Favorites Include,

Bullfrog

For making, Syndicate, Magic Carpet 2, Dungeon Keeper, Theme Park and Gene Wars.

Origin

For making, Privateer, Ultima Underworld 1 & 2, Ultima 6 and Wing Commander.

Sierra

For making, Hero's Quest 2, Space Quest 4 & 5, Larry 5 & 6 and Iceman.

Lucas Arts

For making, Monkey Island 2, Sam & Max and Full Throttle.:)

[KG_Brad]

My favorite studios are id Software, Apogee Software/3D Realms, and ION Storm. That's right, ION Storm.

[Jesse Hopkins]

Of major studios, I guess it would be Nintendo, since the only games I am playing on console are Wii Nintendo brand games.

Of indies, I really like XXIst Century Boy Software.

Of old flames, CAPCOM and SEGA (16 bit arcade era games)

[tagged]

Bullfrog!! It's what my games are trying to recreate.


Oh and ION Storm rocked!
Always defending Diakatana. I've noticed only people who haven't played it (or only the first level) hate on it :( It's up there with Half-Life for me.

Waiting to try out the Quake MMO (I Believe) Romero's got cooking.

[vjvj]

In no particular order:

Treasure
Kojima Productions
Blizzard
Jaffe's team
Nintendo
Gollop brothers and their colleages
Bethesda

Of old:
SEGA AM teams
Rare
Lobotomy

And I know I said order was random, but I have to say that Treasure and the old SEGA AM teams are probably the most influential in my own design philosophies.

[ChrisP]

I'm sure I could go on for hours if I thought about it hard enough, but here are a few standouts:

* Irrational Games (now 2K Boston/2K Australia). System Shock 2 and Freedom Force were two of my most memorable gaming experiences.
* Looking Glass Studios (RIP). I loved Thief. Still do, actually.
* LucasArts. Adventure games FTW! Grim Fandango is a classic.

[bignobody]

Well, having purchased HL2:EP2 last night (and playing for far too long on a weeknight) I'm going to have to change my answer to Valve. HL2/EP1/EP2 is the greatest game(s) ever.

[rioka]

Vanillaware
Natsume - Harvest Moon FTW!
Nintendo
Camelot - for the Golden Sun series
Nippon Ichi - they have unique takes on strategy games
Enix - DQ, Illusion of Gaia (the better half of Square-Enix)
Namco - for their Tales series
and probably other RPG-specific developers that doesn't come to mind atm. ^.^;

I'd also put Square if I haven't been too disappointed with most of their games for that past 10 years or so. :( (And no, I don't like FF VII...)

[mhuang]

Ubisoft Montreal - most of their games are top notch.

Can't wait for Assasin's Creed and Splinttercell: conviction! :D

[KG_Brad]

Romero is making a Quake MMO? Where did you hear this?

[Ricardo C]

New World Computing. Might and Magic and Heroes of Might and Magic are probably my favorite series of all time.

[tagged]

Romero is making a Quake MMO? Where did you hear this?

Actually I didn't hear it, and no-one else in the gaming community seem to agree (so take it with a grain of salt).

Reasons:
He spoke about one and asked Carmack around 2001-2 about a Quake MMO. With Carmack granting the rights to him.(*)
And his new studio which is creating an un-named MMO is called "Slipgate Ironworks".

Could be off base, but those two things sorta make me think it's a good chance :D

*Page 287, Masters of Doom.