Are there good gaming companies anymore?

[ParanoiD84]

Creative assembly, sure they have done some meh stuff in the past like rome 2 launch but overall they do a amazing job atm and i cant freaking wait untill Warhammer part 3 it's going to be amazing stuffwith revamped sieges and expanded maps and new races.

Paradox is a favorite too with each game can easily give you thousands of hours of gameplay, favorite games there would be Stellaris and Crusader Kings serie.

[Seranthor]

No one saying he didnt break the rules its the action taken that caused the problem.

Yea, banned then unbanned... I have a problem with that too.

[Grubenwolf]

At this point I only believe that game companies have "their moments". After CDPR's sloppy release of Cyberpunk 2077 I no longer trust any company to be a consistently good company. At least enough for me to go out of my way to support them. I'll still hold some respect for some companies despite their mistakes because we're all human, we're not perfect and it's not like all of them are out just to scam us and piss us off. Believe it or not sometimes they genuinely just make mistakes and as long as they own up to them and fix them like CDPR is actively doing with Cyberpunk 2077 I won't right away write them off as a company to boycott or hate on. A company would have to be on the levels of EA and Activision for me to dislike them that much.

However with all that said I will no longer "follow" companies like I did with CDPR. CDPR to me was like the one company that seemed to do everything for their fans rather than the money which I believe they still do...mostly but they also used to be the most trustworthy of all the major developers. Now, after Cyberpunk 2077's release and after them taking pride in their belief and basically motto for the game that "it'll be released when it's done", their word doesn't mean much anymore. They'd have to seriously work on earning that trust back and even then I think I would still continue to be skeptical about them.

[Ochinko]

It really is hard since, like many people above / before me already said, that even those companies you felt like you could trust ultimately succumb to the new age gaming problems that is profit.

I feel bad for all the developers out there pouring their heart and time (so much time) into a game only to have some higher ups on the buisiness end without a clue or interest in gaming to make some decision to push a game out before its ready to "hit the numbers".

Gaming used to be by and for the gamers with the bonus of making money. Nowadays its just profit, like every other capitalist company out there.

Pretty sure we still have die-hard developers around but they can only go so far.

We've seen it with MTX, we've seen it with Fallout 76 (there's active correspondence between the devs and the mods inside the discord, they suffer a lot from arbitrary orders by the higher ups), same with the recent Cyberpunk and many more games.

One can only hope that the current systems implode and we maybe get a more balanced future with game companies going back to the roots of ye olde "its ready when its ready", if that really ever was a thing.

[MrFawlty]

Yea, banned then unbanned... I have a problem with that too.

I take it you arent in charge of PR in a company then. They got it wrong and overracted, not because the ban was reduced (thats why people got upset -added for clarity for those wearing Fanboy blinkers).

[Seranthor]

I take it you arent in charge of PR in a company then. They got it wrong and overracted, not because the ban was reduced (thats why people got upset -added for clarity for those wearing Fanboy blinkers).

What is the point of having rules if they aren't going to be enforced? And I DO love how folks like you make it all about the evils of Blizzard... Do you even know what he said that got him banned? of course not... because you dont care, you are just happy to have some 'weapon' to use against the evil Blizzard. Yet I bet you continue to give them your money and log into their games... Dont you?

[kukkamies]

Paradox still feels like a really good company. They've made good games pretty consistently. Even the games they only publish but don't make have been good. Can't wait for future EU5 but will still take a few years I'd think...

[AkundaMrdal]

Rockstar, quality over quantity.

[bloodwulf]

Rockstar, quality over quantity.

Unless you talk about the quantity of paid dlc for GTA5........

[MrFawlty]

What is the point of having rules if they aren't going to be enforced? And I DO love how folks like you make it all about the evils of Blizzard... Do you even know what he said that got him banned? of course not... because you dont care, you are just happy to have some 'weapon' to use against the evil Blizzard. Yet I bet you continue to give them your money and log into their games... Dont you?

I love it when people defend a company like its ther best friend - Im just pointing out why people reacted the way they did. We can be sure however, that if he said Gay Rights it would have probably resulted in nothing more than a warning, they have afterall official rainbow Blizzard badges and wear then on stage. They admitted they got it wrong, the US government got involved so that suggests they think they got it wrong most rational people think they got it wrong, what more do you need?

[Seranthor]

I love it when people defend a company like its ther best friend - Im just pointing out why people reacted the way they did. We can be sure however, that if he said Gay Rights it would have probably resulted in nothing more than a warning, they have afterall official rainbow Blizzard badges and wear then on stage. They admitted they got it wrong, the US government got involved so that suggests they think they got it wrong most rational people think they got it wrong, what more do you need?

Who's defending Blizzard, I'm simply pointing out that rules were made, rules were broken, punishment was handed out... If you dont have the integrity to realize that, then we are done. I personally dont care. If you hate Blizzard that much you really should stop giving them your money.

[Qnubi]

There is no "good" gaming company not because they actively try to be bad guys but simply for the fact that given enough time you are bound to fuck up. Humans are imperfect in every way possible, we strive to be the best we can be, but ultimately each and everyone of us fails at something, repeatedly. Instead of moaning about the bad stuff, cherish the good deeds.

Yes, CAPCOM has fucked up with RE 6, Umbrella Chronicles or whatever that abomination was called, but they redeemed themselves with Resident Evil remakes, and 7 wasn't that bad either. They also brought Monster Hunter to the PC, and is arguably the greatest MH game to date.

Yes, CDPR has fucked up Cyberpunk, but they also released Witcher 3, one of the best games of all time. It's okay to produce a "mediocre" game once or even twice, as long as they stay afloat they will most likely recover and make a good game again in the future.

I could go on and on, even Blizzard: D3 wasn't good, it wasn't bad. It was okay. D4 looks much more promising if you follow the Dev Blogs. So it might be another home-run there, ignore the bad games (or wait for sale), buy the good ones. If you are thoughtful like this you will save money and be happy. And don't worry about not buying a bad game even if you like the developer, there are MILLIONS of sheep that will buy a AAA game just because it is AAA no matter the quality. The market of uninformed gamers is immense, and also some don't care. They buy the game because that's what others do. Be thankful you are even in this thread considering and thinking about bad quality games, many don't.

[Vilendor]

I love it when people defend a company like its ther best friend

Don't bother with him, i pop in twice a week on this forum but i still remember our dwarf avatar friend permanently sucking Actizzard's D

[Seranthor]

Don't bother with him, i pop in twice a week on this forum but i still remember our dwarf avatar friend permanently sucking Actizzard's D

That's rather comical... I'm not defending Blizzard... I'm just even more opposed to intellectual dishonesty than I am to Blizzard. Why is it YOU keep giving your money to Blizzard?

[dlld]

There's a difference between quality of games a company puts out and they way they handle things.

Bethesda games have always been buggy and janky, yet they could sit on the top of the list of gamers trust for a long time. What changed? Did 76 just have one bug to many? I don't think so.

Imo if cyberpunk had released as it was, but out of nowhere as a PC only early access title, even with a full 60 dollar price, the game would be praised to high heavens, any complaints about bugs or glitches would be neatly sweeped under the rug of EA, there would be no broken promises or deceitful marketing and everyone would experience the game for what it is, not for what they had been misled to think it would be.

[Vash The Stampede]

Capitalism turns good gaming companies into good businesses, but doesn't mean they'll continue to make good games. At some point EA wasn't a bad gaming company, and Ubisoft were actually good and didn't put DLC into single-player games. This is why people hate when things go mainstream because mainstream usually means trying to reach a much broader and profitable audience, but usually this takes away what made the product special. CDPR used to make games exclusively on PC and then reached out to console gaming, but that's obviously putting stress on their ability to make good quality games as well. The lure of money is just too great. I'm shocked they didn't put DRM on the PC version of CyberPunk 2077.

[Issilian]

See, the mistake people make is to put good and company in the same sentence. There is no such thing as a good corporation, they are not your friends.

[LarryFromHumanResources]

I don't know that CD Project Red are malicious, I reckon they just bit off more than they could chew. They had a bad release of a game that without bugs seems pretty solid.

Contrast that with Bungie who literally deleted content people had paid for from Destiny 2 and made gear people had grinded for obsolete, or EA that tried to rebrand gambling to "surprise mechanicus" to get more money out of impressionable kid's and adults susceptible to that kind of thing.

I'm sure there are worse companies out there than CDPR, and many of the small indie devs that make games they're passion ate about.

[sador]

Well, one company came to mind, but they only have 1 game, so ... Hinterland studio with the game "Long dark"
Honestly, I think their work is amazing, and this is how a game should be, they have constant updates, listen to feedback well, really, spot on.
But yeah, the bigger you get, the quality usually suffers. Not always, but that's life. I mean, with bigger success, more people involved, more money involved, people expect more from you as well, you get less independent decision and more push from stock holders, boards, etc. I think it's really rare to get bigger and famous while also preserving quality.

[Biggfiner]

Yes! There are a number of companies that produce high-quality work. Flying Wild Hog is one of the companies that still make quality games. The are releasing a game called Shadow warrior 3 this year.