Real Talk By: Haggy

There has been issues with trusting Game Developers and Publishers ever since gaming became bigger.  Earlier examples of this could be Atari having little care to the quality control of their early titles.  A more recent example being Ubisoft consistently rushing their products to the market.

There is a serious trust issue in the Gaming Industry, from games promising more than they can deliver (Lionhead Studios, EA), Games that simply do not work upon launch (Ubisoft, Occasionally Bethesda), Games that would be utterly incomplete without DLC(Capcom, EA), and all manners of other affronts to Gamers.  There are very few companies in fact, that do not have a blemish on their record.

Not all is doom and gloom though.  There are some companies, in my opinion at least, that actually deserve the trust of their fans.  So what follows is a brief list of who I respect, and why.

The Big Three: Consistency

Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony.  These three occasionally develop a game in-house, and they tend not to screw over their consumer base.  Sure, these games may not be the most prominent in most cases, and aside from Nintendo they don’t tend to be particularly fantastic games.  However, all three deliver on the shortcomings of game developers elsewhere on their systems.

Honorable Mentions for Consistency: Valve, From Software

Naughty Dog: Excellence

It takes a lot of time, effort, and enthusiasm to not only make a game that is critically acclaimed, but several, in a row, almost as if it can not fail.  Now-a-days I feel that whenever Naughty Dog releases a game, it’s not about if it will get an award, it’s about how many awards await.  Even I, who has said at some point some of their stuff is a bit over rated, has to admit that it’s still fantastic all the same.

Honorable Mentions for Excellence: Bioware, Relic Entertainment

Blizzard Entertainment: Community

There doesn’t exist a more loyal fan-base in gaming, and there’s very good reason for that.  Blizzard didn’t get the Excellence Naughty Dog got simply because of the rate of releases.  However, even so Blizzard are still making fantastic ratings and even profits on Games that have an unbelievably long life-span.  They listen to their fans.  I mean hell, just look at how WoW is still selling, despite it’s decline.  WoW, being a game that has been active since 2004!

Honorable Mentions for Community: Valve, Paradox Interactive

There are so many actually worthwhile game developers.  However, if you didn’t see one on my list, chances are that may be do to their publisher’s practices, or may be due to other factors like game functionality, or pricing issues.  However, one Game Developer that in my mind is above reproach from us consumers, and My Personally Most-Trusted Game Developer Studio is:

Paradox Interactive! 

What Game Publishers/Developers Do You trust?

@PlayLegit #RealTalk