Top 10 Best Video Game Companies of All Time
Video games are among the greatest creations by human hands, but which companies are the best?Nintendo was founded in 1889 as Nintendo Karuta by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade hanafuda playing cards. After venturing into various lines of... read more
Nintendo is the best of the best. There is no doubt. Nintendo has innovated the video game industry and taken it to new levels. With household names like Mario, Zelda, Kirby, and Metroid, how can they be beaten?
They offer good quality games, consistently brilliant storylines, and some pretty good consoles. Nintendo's games composed my entire childhood. Even today, I play Nintendo games. They make them so well that you can't help but want to replay them. Once you get hooked on Nintendo, you'll never settle for any other.
Nintendo is the backbone of the industry itself.
Perfection is what Rockstar is all about! They don't release a game unless it's going to be a massive hit. They are the ones who are sure to hold the Game of the Year award for every game they release. Whether it's the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne, or even Bully, Rockstar does its best.
The best thing about this developer is the tiny details they include in their games. Go see the IGN list of tiny details in Grand Theft Auto V, and you will come to know why Rockstar is the most loved game company right now. They are the ones who pay attention to every detail a game should have. Wow! I love this company so much. They are the reason my childhood was awesome!
Ubisoft has always revolutionized gameplay in every aspect through their games, which has been readily copied or borrowed by other games.
Eagle vision in the AC series, wall-run in Prince of Persia, naval combat in AC, and the open wild safari of Far Cry have been seen in many other games after Ubisoft has shown them how to use it.
The best thing is that Ubisoft always offers a great storyline with twists and turns. I remember they really blew my mind with the Warrior Within storyline.
Guys, come on, Ubisoft is number one! Think of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and the upcoming Watch Dogs. Consider the graphics, the stories, the realism, the features, and the details! How is Nintendo number one? The Wii sucks. On the DS, the only fun games are Mario and Sonic, but that doesn't last long.
But I played Assassin's Creed 2 three times in a row for fun! And I bought them on Steam but then again on CD because I wanted them so much. So, pick Ubisoft.
Portal was one of the first "FPS" games I ever played. After doing research into the Portal Universe, I stumbled upon Half-Life 2 and experienced one of the best action FPS games out there. I own pretty much every game Valve has ever released. I love the company, and in every way, they are probably the best.
The fact that they give players what they want, spend all the time in the world perfecting their games, and ask for very little in return makes them one of my favorite game developers. Although they take long periods to make their games, they're all worth the wait. I'm a bit irritated by the loss of communication on the subject of Half-Life 3, but I'm sure it'll be one of the best games ever made.
Valve has a lot to compete with, especially with all the amazing games coming out recently. However, I'm sure they'll surpass even the infamous "The Last of Us." Once the Xbox One and the PS4 are released, I'm sure Half-Life 3 or Half-Life 2: Episode 3 will be just around the corner.
I just want to say that if you ignore Sonic for now, Sega actually has a great selection of games. This includes Shin Megami Tensei via Atlus (and by extension, Persona), Bayonetta, Yakuza, Phantasy Star, Valkyria Chronicles, and Ecco the Dolphin, among many others.
I also get the feeling that Sega is judged solely by one franchise, even though they have other titles that have done rather well on their own.
In my opinion, Sega is a respectable gaming company, but unfortunately, they don't know what to do with their flagship character and franchise. Look into other series to see Sega's potential.
Sometimes, I'm just having a bad, bad day. Let's say, for some reason, I can't get any kills in Fortnite, my Minecraft world looks ugly, I'm not racing well in Forza, I'm raging at my mom in Overcooked!, I've gotten all the Rocket League out of my system, I'm bored of Sea of Thieves, and Cuphead is - well, you know - impossibly hard.
You know what I do? I load Battlefront and take out my frustration on the Stormtroopers. I get myself some peace and quiet and customize my car in NFS. EA can always cheer me up, even when I hate gaming. Thank you, EA, for improving my life so much.
Awesome company. They made my favorite game on earth, Infamous Second Son! I really loved the game. Delsin really looks cool with his powers: Smoke, Neon, Video, and Concrete. Additionally, karma bombs add to the beauty: Orbital Drop, Radiant Sweep, and Hellfire Swarm. Trivia is cool.
Good and evil karma have increased my liking of the game. Good: Protector, Guardian, Champion, Paragon, and True Hero. Evil: Thug, Criminal, Bioterrorist, Most Wanted, and Infamous. I would rate it a ten-star game.
Sony Computer Entertainment has the best exclusive games, such as Uncharted and many more. It has sold more of its consoles than any other console company in the world. The PS2 was the most successful console ever made and it is the most sold console ever.
I absolutely love MVC, Street Fighter, and Mega Man, and here's why.
Mega Man 2 is hard but fun. I don't play after I get past the masters because it's pointless to me.
MVC (Marvel vs. Capcom) is absolutely phenomenal, and I am shocked every time another game comes out. But the scary part to me is that they haven't made or even announced another game since Disney got Marvel. Could this be the end of an era?
Last but not least is Street Fighter. This is the reason I play the Capcom characters in MVC because this made me learn that superheroes aren't the only good fighters.
Okay, first off, if you've ever remotely tried to make a game, you know all about the complex protocols and coding that go into creating the game. This is extremely true when it comes to game quality and performance. Bethesda puts a lot more effort and time into creating their games than other companies that have been listed above them.
Not to mention, Bethesda games are very popular, more so than the games created by higher-ranking companies. It's not about the quantity, but the quality of the game, and Bethesda is a primary example of quality vs. quantity.
Really, guys, is EA above this?
And I'm just going to be honest, Valve kind of sucks now. I like Half-Life and Portal as much as the next guy, but they've proven that they care more about making money by selling other people's games than making their own.
In my opinion, Square should be at #4. They're game-changers, to say the least, and while they're not as influential as they once were, they still make some of the greatest games each year. I think people anticipate Square games more than any other company's games, period.
The Newcomers
This is another indie dev team that accomplished something truly awe-inspiring. They are the creators of the gratifying game Cuphead.
It all started when two brothers made and released a short game in the 1920s style of cartoons back in October 2013. It was really just a concept showcase. The idea of the game became popular and pleased many, and the two brothers wanted to deliver on the wishes of the gaming community for the best experience in this style.
They spent the next four years developing a full game in the same 1920s cartoon aesthetic, as well as building up their little indie company from scratch. All that long and hard work finally paid off when they released Cuphead in September 2017.
Let me rephrase that: nearly four years went into making this game, all out of pure passion. This success story is one that many indie developers share - making an amazing game out of practically nothing but passionate work. Studio MDHR is definitely a great example of the raw potential in any indie game developer.
This is another hard-working indie dev team that created the game Hollow Knight and all the following extensions to that game.
Hollow Knight is an amazing indie game. It has a very broad and open world with so much interesting stuff packed into it, and the adventure you play through in this world is super fun and engaging.
The incredible part is that the ideas for all of this came from just two guys. They hired just a couple of programmers and worked passionately for the next 2-3 years to develop this awesome game.
Once again, this shows just how much one or two people can accomplish with passion. This is yet another example of the amazing work indie developers do.
How is this not #1? At least put it in the top 3! Let me name some games for you:
The Last of Us
The Uncharted Series
The Crash Bandicoot Series
The Jak and Daxter Series
All of these games I have just named are outstanding. I grew up playing Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. They were two of the very first games I ever played and two of the best. Over the following years, the Uncharted games came into play. Each of the Uncharted games has great graphics, an even better storyline, and fun and smooth gameplay. The Last of Us just came out this year, and for most people, it is the best game of the year and possibly the best game of all time. Must I go on? Naughty Dog for the win.
How is Rare so far down? This company and Nintendo made gaming popular and more mainstream. Without GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, you can forget about all the rubbish first-person shooters you get nowadays. I can't mention Rare and not mention Banjo-Kazooie!
Rare is the epitome of video game development. As Tim Stamper, one of the founders, said in the '80s, "We worked seven days a week, 8 a.m. till 1 or 2 in the morning. I don't feel it's any good having engineers who only work 9 to 5 because you get a 9 to 5 game."
Rare made a ton of classics that Nintendo gets undue credit for. How can you forget games like Donkey Kong 64, Banjo Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Goldeneye007? Just a few in a big list of classic games that Rare made.
Pac-Man is to video games what Mario is to video games. Even if you've never touched a game in your life, you know Pac-Man.
Much like Valve, Blizzard works with the mentality of quality over quantity. We only have as many as three main Diablo games and two main Starcraft games because of this. They don't spend their efforts trying to crank out as many games as they can in the shortest amount of time. Instead, they focus all their efforts on perfecting the few games they have.
The sequels to games may take longer this way, but in turn, they are much better made than if Blizzard had rushed out the game sequels. This same idea also applies to World of Warcraft. Instead of making lots of sequels to it, Blizzard has just kept on adding to the initial game. Updates like Wrath of the Lich King, Mists of Pandaria, or Battle for Azeroth could have just been standalone sequel games. However, Blizzard chose to add all that onto WoW instead, deciding that it would be better to improve the first game more and more than to produce a bunch of smaller sequels. This mentality of quality over quantity is what I like the most in video games.
Oh, this company. It started out as a simple company and became even more awesome over the years, until the great disaster that is Call of Duty. They started milking the series, which is normal for companies (for example, God of War), but after a while, things went out of hand. Modern Warfare 2 was the last game for them. After that, they started killing off the main character in every campaign, copying other games when it came to weapons, online in general, maps, etc.
The graphics went from good to bad (Ghosts), and let's not forget about the price of every single game. Uncharted 3 came out in 2013. Black Ops came out earlier. It still costs more because why not.
Microsoft is one of the leading gaming companies in the world. They produced Microsoft Kids, which includes titles like Creative Writer, Fine Artist, and Scholastic's The Magic School Bus.
Microsoft started out focused on desktops only and has branched off from computers to games, creating a wide variety of universal software. Microsoft gets my vote.
They make the best consoles. They might not be dirt cheap, but hey, if you want the best, go with Xbox. They may not make games, but they are the biggest company on the market.
With Halo: Combat Evolved, Bungie pretty much carried Microsoft through the sixth-generation console era. A company that practically carried a whole console deserves some credit. Additionally, they are possibly developing another franchise that will change the way we play video games: Destiny.
These are the guys behind Halo, which is said to be revolutionary to the FPS game industry. That means that every unique thing that Halo brought to the genre was coined by Bungie Studios. I respect a gaming company that tries out different methods to the formula and thinks outside the box when making games.
Why is this ranked 17th? They're the first gaming company to only publish one type of game (Minecraft) and still be successful! How crazy is that! Now, for my list of qualities that make a good company and how much I rate each:
- Is very unique: 10/10
- Is crazy but cool: 10/10
- Has made lots of games: 4/10
- Provides good updates: 1,000/10
- Has a unique logo: 1,000,000,000,000/10
- Has extreme achievements: googolplex/10
Overall: So amazing it blows my mind.
Minecraft is by far the most open-minded game ever, with all of the possibilities. To add to that, mods for Minecraft are easier and more abundant than for any other game I know.
Konami has been quiet over the last decade, but all of a sudden, they have come back into the spotlight with Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill. I can't wait for those games.
This company should go from #18 to the top 5. It is indeed legendary and should not be thrown under the bus while companies like EA retain the number 4 spot. Metal Gear and Silent Hill are reasons enough why they should be much, much higher on this list.
Konami deserves to be higher. They were one of the greats. There are too many games to mention, really. Going from early titles like Frogger, Scramble, and Pooyan, all the way through the NES era of Castlevania, Contra, and Gradius, then the SNES era with Turtles in Time and Sunset Riders, and Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hill on PS1.
Sports games like Blades of Steel, Hyper Sports, ISS. Just a huge, huge body of work.
They made one of the best franchises ever, and along with that came some of the best video games ever.
Responsible for their Indiana Jones games.
2K Games did way better with their sports games than EA did. NHL 2K11 feels way more realistic than EA's NHL 21, and the game is a whole decade older than NHL 21, which says something. However, they ended the series with 2K11, so now they can only produce NBA 2K for sports.
The Bioshock series is truly a masterpiece. It has an excellent environment, an interesting storyline, and an exciting combat system.
I love this company for reviving XCOM, my favorite turn-based strategy game, which I have played since I was a kid. It is by far the most challenging strategy game I know. No other video game developer has brought XCOM back to life except for 2K. Thank you so much!
Playdead Studios is the creator of two of the most uniquely amazing games I have ever seen: Limbo and Inside. You may have heard me gush about these games before. To summarize my previous comments, Limbo and Inside stand apart from any other games primarily because they are much more than mere games. They are unique experiences. Both serve as psychological journeys, most comparable to watching a silent film without context, though they offer even more than that.
It's difficult to fathom how the small team at Playdead could conceive of such experiences as Limbo and Inside, but they managed to create worlds that are both unique and abstract. What's even more impressive is that Playdead is an indie company. As of my last check, it had no more than eight people on its team. Imagine how small the team must have been when the company first started!
These two remarkable games were not produced by some large, technology-rich corporation. They were made by a small group of people with limited resources. Despite this, Limbo and Inside have achieved what no big, corporate-made AAA game has ever done: they provide a truly unique experience to the player. Given their limited resources, Playdead had to work exceptionally hard to bring these games to life.
To give you an idea of the level of dedication involved, the development of Limbo took more than four years. The team released a trailer concept in 2006 and didn't complete the game until July 2010. That's four years dedicated to making Limbo what it is today! The development of Inside took even longer. Just a month after Limbo was released in 2010, Playdead announced that another game was in the works. That game wasn't completed until May 2016 - nearly six years spent on making Inside! This level of dedication is something I've rarely seen in the video game industry, perhaps only paralleled by companies like Studio MDHR or individuals like Toby Fox. All of this is what makes Playdead Studios completely... more
Persona 4 alone should put them in the top 10. The whole SMT series, Persona, Catherine, and a slew of other greats make for a fantastically underrated game developer.
Persona 5 is the best. Catherine is the best. I just like them.
This company was founded by Regalis after creating the beta of SCP: Containment Breach. This is a small indie-game company that works very hard on their games. I generally respect indie game developers more than triple-A game companies because indie devs work harder.
Indie game teams, like Undertow Games, don't have the massive resources that big triple-A video game companies have, yet they still manage to make a pretty decent video game with the little resources they have. Undertow Games would have had to work much harder than any big corporation to make a game as good as Containment Breach.
The other thing I like more about indie developers than AAA developers is that indie devs tend to be more interactive with their fanbase. Undertow is very interactive with their fans. They have changed and updated the SCP game so many times in response to what the fans want. Not many big game companies work like that! Undertow Games is a great example of what I love about indie game developers: they work hard, out of passion, and for the fans.
Telltale Games is one of the best developers when it comes to story-driven games. They also let you choose how the story unfolds. They do not define what the "Good" or "Bad" choice or ending is, but they let you make the choice based on how you would handle that situation brought to you in the game.
Telltale Games was one of my favorite video game companies before they shut down, which is a shame. It's sad to see such a great company go down in shambles, but they'll always have a place in video game history for starting the trend of games where your choices matter.