Companies who always seem to put out great games.
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Robert
Do you guys have any favorite publishers?
Personally, I highly enjoy the work of Level 5. They've published my favorite game on the PSP (Jeanne D'arc), a [for me] mold-breaking RPG for the PS2 (Rogue Galaxy), and they've done all the Professor Layton DS games, which have attracted many of my friends. I also enjoy a few selects by Grasshopper and Atlus, namely No More Heroes.
Rahul
@Robert I'm more interested in who developed my favourite games than who published them, to be honest. Being a publisher just means you sign a contract with a development studio to assist in the funding, distribution and publication of their software, and possibly shared ownership of the intellectual property. That doesn't mean very much to me. Saying you like a publisher means you could say you liked EA. EA consists of a dozen internal development studios and it takes on external projects by way of partnerships like EA Partners. I'd prefer to say I liked the titles created by those studios than EA itself. Or perhaps I would say I like the initiativ EA Partners is showing.
Matt
@Robert I think what you mean to ask is, do we have any favorite developers. A publisher finances, publishes, and markets a game while a developer makes the game.
Jeanne D'arc was okay... Personally, I think there are much better TRPGs on the market, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions being one that immediately comes to mind.
Level-5 is a decent developer I suppose, but I have to be honest... I've never finished a single game they've made. Dragon Quest VIII, Layton, and Jeanne D'Arc included. Their games have a great quality to them, but after playing them for some time they just feel flat and one-dimensional.
My personal favorite developer is undoubtedly Nintendo. Despite my near total disillusionment with the Zelda series and my disappointment that I'm still not playing Pikmin 3, I think Nintendo still has that magical touch to make the best games in the world, Super Mario Galaxy being the most recent progeny.
PS, welcome to Videogam.in. I am in awe of you amazing avatar.
Matt
@Rahul ARGH beat me to the punch you damn dirty dastard
Nels
@Robert I'm still a big fan of SquareEnix. I suppose that's getting harder to be these days, but what can I say? Old habits die hard. Recently I've liked the work coming out of Sega and Atlus quite a bit. I'm a big RPG fan so publishers (and developers) that put a lot of effort into those areas pique my interest. I think I may have done myself my disservice and not pay attention to Gust and NIS America for so long.
I don't know, I spend a lot of time talking about playing games these days and I don't really buy new ones. When I do buy games I get PS2 games for $20 and then put them on my shelf for when I have more free time. I'm generally not impressed with this generation's output.
Matt
@Nels
I'm still a big fan of SquareEnix. I suppose that's getting harder to be these days
So true!!!
Pugz
Will agree with Matt here, Nintendo is right up there but more specifically Nintendo Software Planning & Development (Nintendo R&D1). I think to spice this thread up, I'll predict young and newly established developers with great potential:
Junction Point Studios (Epic Mickey)
ArenaNet (Guild Wars 2)
Ninja Theory (Enslaved: Odyssey to the West)
Armature Studios
Sora Ltd.
???
