Psygnosis: Creates some absolutely awesome series. Whenever I see their logo I get absolutely nostalgic.
Square/Enix(old): Used to be company with amazing output that influenced my taste heavily in the 90s. Sadly those days are gone.
Nintendo: Over 20 years of amazing games. I might not be happy with their hardware output, but they’ve constantly nailed it with software over and over again.
Naughty Dog: Currently probably one of my favourite developers. They seem like technical wizards at times.
Epic/ID: Creators of amazing games/engines that are awesome to this date.
Epic, CCP, Valve.
Epic because lots of reasons, just sad to see them supporting Nvidia hardware more. CCP because EVE online and sticking to their planning, having CSM and so on. Valve because workshop and allowing people to make money through content creation.
For me when I was younger it was Nintendo, Blizzard and Westwood (RIP), they got me into gaming and nurtured my gaming soul Many an hour was spent on the Starcraft Map editor and the original Command and Conquer games I really enjoyed. I remember really wanting to work at Blizzard or Westwood when I grew up.
Now 15 years later while I still love Blizzard, I feel Nintendo have stumbled a little and sadly Westwood is no more.
Thanks to Gears of War and UE4 Epic have a place in my heart. I loved Gears the story I thought was great (I’ve read all the books and comics) and I’m not ashamed to admit I nearly cried when Dom died. Sadly I felt a little let down with Judgements with the plot holes after reading the books. Still I’d love to work at Epic and now they have a studio 15 mins down the road in Guildford, UK (Question: what’s the rules - as a UE4 dev - on dropping by? )
Microprose. I became a PC gamer in the early nineties. My first 5 games were all Microprose, without me even realising it. The company is a foundation of PC gaming, and deserves to be talked of in the way people talk about Looking Glass, Ion Storm (the good bit) and Valve.
Bioware. For oh-so-many games that affected me in ways that the others didn’t.
IO Interactive. For Hitman: Blood Money. This is the game that made want to make a game.
Oddly enough, non of the above companies have made my top favorite games of all time though.
Rainbow Six Raven Shield
Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory
Mass Effect
Deus Ex
The Sims (dont play it much, but appreciate it nontheless)
GTA 1 (birds-eye view was the shiz back in the day)
Epic Games - Great games, great engine, and extremely approachable and community-focused. “Customer service” so-to-speak is second to none.
Sony - Non-bigoted approach to console gaming (although I do wish they’d release an official SDK for their PS4 controller that UE4 can hook into). They also employ one of the most talkative females I’ve ever met
Pandemic - No longer around sadly, but made the game that got me into gaming, modding and now development.
Many an hour was spent on the Starcraft Map editor and the original Command and Conquer games I really enjoyed. I remember really wanting to work at Blizzard or Westwood when I grew up.