Which developers are hot and which are not?

[Necrolepsy]

As time goes on, industry giants either shrink or grow based on their success.

The obvious example is how massive Blizzard has become after thei SC/Diablo/WC universes.

As we venture into 2012+, which developers can you see either losing the edge or being edgy and becoming great?

I think Bioware will grow due to TOR obviously, no MMO can cause a company harm with that much hype and current subscriptions.

VALVe (my personal favourite) always look after their customers, Gabe Newell and Doug Lombardi constantly keep in touch with the community. On top of this, they always release excellent titles (my opinion!), even if they're by a sub-studio they've bought like the guys who developed Narbacular Drop -> Portal + Portal 2, Turtle Rock Studios etc. I foresee a lot of Half-Life hype coming in 2012, so VALVe will surprise us with lots of goodies next year as they've been relatively quiet this year apart from Portal 2.

Blizzard will shrink but not immensely, due to Diablo 3 coming out. The primary reason for my thought on this is the bad reception MOP is getting and a stunning trend in sub loss prior to 4.3, and what will happen after 4.3 burnout etc. Again, just my opinion based on what I've been reading and seeing.

Activision will take a big hit. I think people have too much faith in Kotick (apart from hardcore gamers). I personally despise the guy. His business model of screw over the consumers and milk them won't last long in my opinion, especially since MW3 was not a decent sequel to MW2.

Bethesda will grow massively due to Skyrim. Nothing further to add there.

ArenaNet is 50/50. Depends on how soon GW2 arrives. Depends on whether it's overhyped etc.

Your thoughts?

[Neeshka]

Hot: Valve,Blizzard,CDProjekt, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Square Enix, Ubisoft
Not: bioware/bethesda (used to be hot in the early 00's)

[Deleted]

Hot: Valve,Blizzard,CDProjekt, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Square Enix, Ubisoft
Not: bioware/bethesda (used to be hot in the early 00's)

You do realise that Bethesda's little baby Skyrim sold 10 million copies the first month and are the fastest selling game on Steam ever?

I don't think they are going down

[Neeshka]

You do realise that Bethesda's little baby Skyrim sold 10 million copies the first month and are the fastest selling game on Steam ever?

I don't think they are going down

Yeah they aren't going down anytime soon; that's certain.

[Tarien]

Hot: Infinity Ward, Treyarch

Don't make me laugh. IW can barely manage to make the single player half of the latest Modern Warfare game and that's using a set of tools and engine they've already used for two previous titles, another developer made the multiplayer side of MW3. And Treyarch just plain suck. Granted Black Ops was the best game in the CoD series they have made yet but it was still light years behind MW2 and MW1.

Neither of these developers is doing anything new or innovative, they are churning out sequels for the cash cow that is Call of Duty and that is the full extent of their development.

[rkma]

Hot: Atari, Interplay, Novalogic, Ion Storm
Not: Zynga, Namco, Broderbund

[Deleted]

depends on what you mean by hot/not. If you mean which devs are doing well in terms of revenue or in terms of providing good products etc

on revenue i'd say;

hot: Valve, IW/Sledgehammer, Bethesda, ubisoft, DICE and a butt ton of IOS devs and facebook game devs
not: Blizzard(lost around 1mil subs, not struggling but still a lost a penny)

On the Product side;

hot: Valve, from software, Tripwire interactive
not: IW/Sledgehammer(MW3 is fine, IW net, is so bad its not even funny.)
Gearbox Software.

[Ausr]

depends on what you mean by hot/not. If you mean which devs are doing well in terms of revenue or in terms of providing good products etc

on revenue i'd say;

hot: Valve, IW/Sledgehammer, Bethesda, ubisoft, DICE and a butt ton of IOS devs and facebook game devs
not: Blizzard(lost around 1mil subs, not struggling but still a lost a penny)

On the Product side;

hot: Valve, from software, Tripwire interactive
not: IW/Sledgehammer(MW3 is fine, IW net, is so bad its not even funny.)
Gearbox Software.

You know ActBliz gained tons of profits, right?

[SKYeXile]

Don't make me laugh. IW can barely manage to make the single player half of the latest Modern Warfare game and that's using a set of tools and engine they've already used for two previous titles, another developer made the multiplayer side of MW3. And Treyarch just plain suck. Granted Black Ops was the best game in the CoD series they have made yet but it was still light years behind MW2 and MW1.

Neither of these developers is doing anything new or innovative, they are churning out sequels for the cash cow that is Call of Duty and that is the full extent of their development.

yea agree. that series ahs gone to shit now with the original IW crew leaving, they release the same crap every year, im surprised people still go back for that shit. idiots.

It's cool to dislike IW or MW3, but please post constructively. That and don't insult others for their taste in games. Infracted. -Edge

[Edge-]

And...closing this before it gets any worse. I was hoping that people could constructively post about developers they thought weren't doing hot, but I guess that can get difficult.