Greatest Game Studio of All Time (PC)

[Blackadar]

I apologize if I've left a company out, but what's your vote for the greatest game studio/publisher of all time?

I know I've left a bunch out. But I tried to make it fair given the different business dynamics between the old school and the new school. I've also tried to show a pattern of excellence. EA today doesn't qualify, but the old version could. Neither could the Sierra of today. They'll both publish hundreds of games, many of which will be dreck. The hardest choice was not to include Microsoft and that may be a notable omission.

For what it's worth, mine's Microprose - X-Com, Civ, F-19, MOM, MOO - all top 20 classics.

[Axxon]

For me it was Microprose. For years I could literally pick a game up off the shelf and if it said Microprose I knew that I wouldn't be getting ripped off. I could buy it sight unseen even. I really can't say that about any other company so for me, Microprose was all that and a bag of chips.

R.I.P.

:(

[MrBug708]

Blizzard hsa put out some games, to say the least

[Maple Leafs]

I voted for EA, who in addition to the EA Sports stuff also did Earl Weaver and (I think) many of the flight simulators back in the day.

I have to admit, I'm not sure who deserves credits for half the games out there... they're developed by one group, published by another, distributed by another, etc. But I think EA is a good choice.

Others deserving a nominee:

Bethesda: did one of the first really great sports text sims (Hockey League Simulator), and hooked it up with a great graphical sports game (Wayne Gretzky Hockey). Wouldn't it have been great to see EA do this with Madden and FOF? I think Bethesda currently does the "Elder Scrolls" RPG series, but someone can confirm.

Bullfrog: I think this is the name of Peter Molyneux's (can someone correct my spelling?) company. Maxis gets all the love for the Sim series, but Bullfrog was right there with them with Populous, which along with SimCity launched the "God sim" genre that's now over-run computer stores. I think they're still around, and are one of the few companies that seems to be even trying to be innovative instead of just doing the latest "Tycoon" or movie tie-in.

[MrBug708]

The ever fun Syndicate was a great game

[Blackadar]

BullFrog's pretty good. However, they're gone and I didn't think they warrented bumping any of the choices out of the top 10. I loved Populous, though.

[Maple Leafs]

What was the company that did the Zork series, and theother text adventures of the early days? Infogames? Something like that?

I'd argue that Sierra deserves to be on the list for their graphic adventure games (all the Quest series) more so than Front Office.

I'm not sure Looking Glass deserves to be there based on what they produced, but if they'd been able to keep going they probably would have earned a spot.

[Axxon]

Originally posted by Maple Leafs
What was the company that did the Zork series, and theother text adventures of the early days? Infogames? Something like that?



Infocom. They definately had the coolest extra goodies in their game boxes. I don't think anyone will match that. Oh yeah, their games were ok too. ;)

[Havok]

no Bioware/Black Isle????? Thats Blasphamy.........

[ISiddiqui]

I would have voted for Interplay based on Fallout 1 & 2, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale, etc... but it wasn't on there :(.

[Swaggs]

Sierra also had the Leisure Suit Larry games. Classics. :)

[Blackadar]

I would have loved to include Black Isle and Bioware, but decided to include Valve instead. In retrospect, it was probably a bad call.

Infocom was originally included, but I decided to omit them for the same reason I removed Epyx games. Just too damned old. Half the folks wouldn't even remember A Mind Forever Voyaging. Which, to this day, is the best text-based adventure IMHO.

As far as Interplay goes, I just couldn't include them. They fall into the EA and Infogrames category. Lots of good stuff, but even more dreck. It's the same reason Sierra's not in there.

[Calis]

blech, Valve is on the list with this others?

They've made ONE game.

I probably wouldn't list Counterstrike under them, seeing as how they didn't make it...and I guess it would fall under Sierra for publishing, but it was published so long after it was widely available, I think it's a moot point. Now you could've given Valve TFC Classic! That game rocked.

Other than that, great selection, I'd definitely have liked to seen Bioware and/or Black Isle on there for sure, and I think Black Isle would've ran away with my vote easy.

With that said, this is an extremely tough choice to make. I voted Blizzard, not because they're my favorite personally, but I don't think any other one had set such a high bar, and for the most part maintained it after several games.

Of course if we're going publishers also, EA has a pretty tough resume to beat, seeing as how they own nearly half the industry now. :)

Anyway, good poll, got me thinking back.

edit: Doh, I was too slow on the complaining. It's already been fixed. Now if only I could take my vote back!

[Fritz]

SSI - bar none

[Blackadar]

SSI? Perhaps.

I can't believe that Origin doesn't have any votes. Between WC and Ultima, they owned the industry for a few years.

[Calis]

Damn, Fritz brings up an excellent point.

I don't think I skipped a single game SSI put out.

They also made my vote for best game noone ever played with Fantasy Empires. Group of friends and I used to have a blast playing that one together, some of the most fun multi-player I've seen, wish a similiar game would be made.

Loved those Gold Box games also.

[Schmidty]

I would say either Bethesda or Black Isle.

[tucker342]

Either Blizzard, or Microprose...

[tucker342]

dola-

I decided to vote for Microprose, Axxon summed it up pretty well at the top of the thread...

[ISiddiqui]

As far as Interplay goes

Well, they ARE the publisher for Bioware/Black Isle. Including them on the poll would have made it silly, seeing as both are developers, who Interplay publishes.

[Axxon]

I'd have to say SSI would have been my second choice but since we can only vote for one I'm not upset they didn't make the cut but they really should have.

I really like Black Isle/Bioware stuff a lot but my vote goes not only with quality but quantity. Some of the choices have made a few good games but if we discount quantity then I'd say SI would win for championship manager. I've gotten more hours of fun out of that game than I'd care to count. Somehow though, it just seems cheap to say they are the greatest based on that one game though.

[Abe Sargent]

I don't think that if a compnay does one type of game really well that it should count as one of the best ever.

Bioware has hit on RPGs, and made some of the best of all time, but one field is hardly worthy of best studio.

BTW, EA has done a f*ck load more than Bard's Tale and Madden, and to choose those two biases the poll, in my opinion.

EA can be very innvoative. I know people here hate EA for FOF and all that, but seriously, Majestic was the coolest game ever. But it's customer base couldn't handle it. An amazing game though, and I hope someday that a game like it will succeed.

Although Origins did the Ultima series, it was a cross-collaboration between EA and Origin that brought Ultima Online to fruition - one of the most innovative games around and it created a whole genre. EA has been running it solo for years.

So, I think EA blows the pants off of most of the companies listed. And it beats soundly everything else.

Although I agree that MicroProse was the best company in terms of giving me what I wanted. I also bought MicroProse games off the shelf without hesitation and was always pleased. Master of Magic is still my #1 "Needs to be Redone" game of alltime.

-Anxiety

[Blackadar]

Anxiety - What would you have me list for EA? I chose two of the top 50 games of all time that they made.

[Calis]

hey now, don't forget that Bioware did the MDK stuff as well, which I consider one of the better action games around.

But yeah, you have a point. :)

EA has made some great stuff, they've also made a larger amount of crap than any of the companies listed as well, so it's a give and take thing. I personally don't consider any actual EA Produced title to be in my top 10 at least, maybe even more, so I don't think I'd go so far to say they blew the pants off everyone else, they definitely enjoy the most success though, can't argue that.

I'm saddened that I never tried Master of Magic, I always hear it's the game most crying out for a sequel.

[Anrhydeddu]

For what it's worth, mine's Microprose - X-Com, Civ, F-19, MOM, MOO - all top 20 classics.

Blackie, you got it right for the wrong reason. When talking about Microprose classics, you not only must include Civ (as you did) but Pirates!, Pirates!Gold and Railroad Tycoon as well.

[Axxon]

Off the top of my head EA did:

Earl Weaver Baseball I and II
M.U.L.E.
Indy 500
Starflight I and II
Wasteland

All excellent games IMHO.

They also have a lot of junk. I don't think you should rank as the best simply because you threw a lot of crap against a wall and some of it stuck. They just didn't have consistant quality but arguably they have done the most for gaming than any other game company but that's an entirely different award. :)

[Calis]

See I guess I just don't consider EA in the upper tier because there's very few of their "classic" games that they had any hand in developing. They just published them.

Wasteland and the Bard's Tale games for instance were both actually done by Interplay before it got itself into the publishing game. Earl Weaver Baseball also falls under that category. Not sure about the other ones.

So I guess you can count 'em, but I wouldn't. ;) I think the best Dev and Best Publisher would probably be best off in different polls, as there's overlap, and it's really a different business.

[tucker342]

agreed. Probably the best publisher is EA, but they're not even close to the best developer.

[sachmo71]

Because of this thread, I decided to peruse Underdogs company reference and found some others worthy of discussion:

Simtex (http://www.the-underdogs.org/company.php?id=358)- the guys that wrote MOM and MOO.

Parallax (http://www.the-underdogs.org/company.php?id=744)- changed space games forever.

Broderbound (http://www.the-underdogs.org/company.php?id=69)-Lode Runner, Karateka, Carmen Sandiego

Here is a list of the companies with the most games honored by underdogs.com:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/companies.php?id=usa.&sort=developed

[Abe Sargent]

Hmmm....

Problem is that "Greatest" is subjective.

I consider new and innovate ideas to be greater than improvements. So, I look at ID and just chuckle, because all they ever did was improve existing genres.

Take RPGs, for example. Except for graphics and input, what seperates Wasteland from Baldur's Gate?

At least MicroProse created a genre.

However, if I take innovation and influence as my main means for determining greatest, then I would like to append my earlier statement. I think that EA is the greatest of those listed. But I remembered a studio that did their most influential games in house. Their first few games were done by Aph Technologies, since Mattell did not have any programmers. When the IntelliVision tested well in the Houston market, Mattell bought out Aph and hired all the staff to create their in house division (which they called themselves Blue Sky Rangers)


IntelliVision


Take, for example, some of these games, which for influence and design, have done more for computing than anything these other studios could claim:

Utopia - The very first strategy sim game. Utopia also features real time multiplayer support where you battle a friend as the owners of two rival islands that build various buildings along their shores. However, hurricanes, tropical storms, pirpates, PT Boats, and Guerillas all could get in the way and stop you.

AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin - The very first first-person game. You walk around a dungeon and fire bows. Its the first FPS.

NFL Pro Football - The very first football game designed where playability and realism were obvious components. Comes complete with playbooks to call a large number of plays.

Major Leagure Baseball - Just like NFL Football, MLB was the first baseball game to feature realism. Nine players on the field, actual ball, referee calling "Yer Out." Good stuff. MLB was also the first "system seller" for the IntelliVision.
IntelliVoice - A system for the IntelliVision that created the very first voice output from a console system beyond the poor scripting of words. There were four initial IntelliVoice games to take advantage of the system.

USCF Chess - The IntelliVision had to add an extra memory chip to their cartridges in order to create the very first electronic Chess game that was not an autowin for most people.

*MicroSurgeon - MicroSurgeon was one of the most innovate games to emerge out of the first Console wars. MicroSurgeon featured the player guiding a surgical micromachince through the body in order to cure various conditions in parts of the body. You had to stay within certain types of the body (veins, arteries, lymph nodes) or be attacked by the body's immune system. Your machine had various weapons to fight cancer, clogged arteries, antibodies, gallstones, kidney stones, infection, and more.

(MicroSurgeon is a cavet because it was released as an Imagic title. It was, however, done by a former Blue Sky Ranger who had creted the initial idea at Mattel before he had to quit the company due to personal reason.s When he rejoined gaming over a year later, he finished the game)

Explorer - Explorer was unfinished due to the crash of the console market, but was a pre-Zork game. It was a text adventure where you collected objects, dodged beasts and adventured through a cave system. Consider it if you want, but it's creation pre-dated the actual Zork games.

Astrosmash - A simple "Shoot Stuff" game that included a very clever premise in the code - The game should get harder as the game goes along. Well, that was in plenty of games, but the really innovate part was that the game got easier as you started to lose ships, those keeping the player at euqilibrium. The result was that a beginner could get a long period of play out of one game. This introduced psychological elements intot he design of games.


-Anxiety

[Dutch]

My vote was for Black Isle Studio's as RPG king. (For doing the D&D rules with so much entertainment that hasn't been seen since the early 90's.)

Papyrus developed the highest quality simulations in Grand Prix Legends and the Nascar Racing series. EA should also get a lot of credit for producing the best looking and most fun F1 racing game series, but the majority of their racing sims were pretty average.

SSI for developing so many wargames that produced so many awards....and they carried on into the Close Combat series (CC4 and CC5) and did a great job with that as well.

So basically, the poll was too difficult to create in the first place, but it makes for good harmless controversy! :)

[GrantDawg]

Anxiety, How could you forget "B-17 Bomber?"

[oykib]

I went with Microprose.

EA -- I think that they are much better with console games. But I considered them for a minute.

Interplay -- had they been an option, I might've gone with them. Someone mentioned a few of their games. Another one was Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and to a lesser extent Star Trek: Judgement Rites. Those were two of the few point and click jobs that I liked.

Sierra -- Too much of that point-and-click garbage that ruined PC gaming for years.

Origin -- had you asked me six or seven years ago, I might've chosen them. But they managed to ruin both of their franchise games, WC and Ultima. I'm not one of those that particularly cares for UO.

[Blackadar]

As expected, Microprose is running away with it. Still, I'm shocked that Origin still doesn't have a vote.

[BanBlackadar3]

How about those contronversial members now ? Cmon Blackadar that conversation is so interesting.

[sachmo71]

Some of the younguns don't remember Origin!

[Axxon]

Originally posted by sachmo71
Some of the younguns don't remember Origin!

Ah yes, I remember well the first in the Origin Series. Charles Darwin was the designer I do believe. That was one heck of a game and it's still being played around the world today. Remarkable.

These youth today, no respect at all I tell you.