Who can have their head held highest?

[THATinkjar]

Forgive the rather cryptic title - I was rather clueless as to how best describe this thread. It's called "I-Work-Too-Hard" syndrome. Or something.

I'm curious as to which company you think can stand tall and proud in the gaming industry for their continued commitment to both technology and games. Which company has consistently gone that extra mile in your mind? Which company refuses to drop standards and continues to pioneer?

I think I've explained it as best I can. And to answer my own question, I whole-heartedly put forward Nintendo. The quality of their in-house titles from day one has been first-class. Their technology was as legendary then as it is now. Take the GameCube, for example: a real quality piece of kit at an unbelievably low price. Nintendo, in my mind, has always stood for the best value for money.

We all let out a great big sigh of disappointment when Sega discontinued producing their own home hardware, but it would be unthinkable should Nintendo follow a similar path. Nintendo stands for all the good in the gaming industry. And they will always remain the benchmark for the competitors that rise and, as has so often been the case, slide into obscurity.

[WanganRunner]

-Treasure
-Polyphony Digital
-Namco
-Sega (especially for Virtua Fighter)
-Square

Can I saw Working Designs? Are they even really a developer or just a publisher? They certainly haven't ever had their name on any crap, that I'm aware of.

[Immutable]

Nintendo & Capcom... and Bandai when it comes to some of the Bomberman titles. Heh.

[Nez]

My votes for Treasure. I must say there products are allways high in quality and fun.

Capcom or nintendo would also be a good choice but they have a coupld of games that they just whore out. Namely Mario Party Pokemon and Street Fighter. So for those little blemishes there not quite at the top.

[fishsandwich]

I would say Treasure too, but they did do Stretch Panic... not so hot. I guess eevery developer can have a dud, though. Astro Boy was supposed to be quite fantastic, or that shooter they did for PS2 (the latest one.)

Every good developer has a bad day now and then. Sega has had quite a few lately but I still think they are a damned fine game company that has been compromised due to financial demands. Nintendo has had a few lemons too lately, but they are still A+.

:D

[Queen Of The Felines]

I think Rare consistantly puts out some quality stuff (whenever they DO put out stuff, that is).

Kristine

[Jed]

My vote goes to Capcom, if only for the Mega Man games, which are still going strong.

[GobopopRevisited]

Oddworld Inhabitants ( :( )
Treasure
Tecmo- Team Ninja

But really, its all about OWI. All of their games are of the Highest Quality, only Munch's Oddesy suffered a bit from Repetitive gameplay and Camera Issues. Their artist's approach to game design really makes them stand out in a world overrun with Techie Whores. They leave for all the right reasons... but gosh darnit, its surely sad to know of a world no longer inhabited by Mudokons, Gabbits, and Steefs. Hopefully they will make some heroic comeback, or open up an external development studio.

[The_EniGma]

SNK/Playmore (for pushing the neogeo to the max) and their continued efforts with such kickass 2d games.

[s1lence]

I'm going to put my flame suit on and go out on a limb,

Bungie -- Not a lot of titles but the ones that they have had to stand out

Nintendo -- The gamecube/n64 publisher, whenever its a true nintendo title it always seems to be good or gets the attention that it will be. There hardware always seems to go against the norm and that says something about them as well.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I would say Capcom, Konami, or Square-Enix. One of the big Jap boys on the block. Especially as they don't tend to discriminate what console they develop or publish for.

Plus, each has a wide variety of games from varying genre's, but all have one particulat genre it is better at - Ie, Square & RPG's; Capcom & 2D fighters; Konami & shumps...


And each is never afraid to try something new and ground-breaking - And often create or define a specific genre in the process

[-hellvin-]

For me, I choose Konami and Hudson. Not really for their newer stuff but just overall.

[shvnsth]

sony- they have some really good first and second party developers (hot shots, god of war, ratchet, jak, gran turismo, sly, the list goes on..) and the psp shows the tech side

nintendo-they have the best first party devolpers, but the last 2 gens have shown that they make good games for there systems andn no one else will

square-back in the 16nit and 32bit they put out some of the best rpgs of all time, and they always do there big series well

atlus working designs and treasure-good jap games

[shoes23]

Free Radical did three very nice shooters (Timesplitters 2, Time Splitters Future Perfect, and Second Sight). Everything in these games is fluid. Free Radical is a company that shooter fans need to keep an eye out for.

[AJay17]

My vote goes for square. I've never been disappointed with one of their games.

-edit-
can you guys see my sig? I know I entered it in my profile but I can't see it.

[CullJeff]

Nintendo looks down at our simple little world from their castle of gold coins in the heavens. They sit there eat mushrooms and laugh at how hard other companies work to defeat them, but they will not be defeated, the strong will provide for the innocent and in the end the only company remaning will be Nintendo and their sub-companies Sony, Sega, and SNK (thats right nintendo will re-release a new neo geo with games the size of Toyota Tundra's)

[machine.slave]

can you guys see my sig? I know I entered it in my profile but I can't see it.

I believe you have to buy that option in the shop..

Anyway, I'd say SEGA for sure. They've been pushed around by the best of them and hit by several financial disasters, but they're still going.

Runners up:

Blizzard - yeah, they take forever to put out games, and don't have very many to their name, but I haven't played a bad one yet.

Codemasters - same deal as Blizzard .. and they live up to their name! :D

Epic Megagames - these guys were great. What ever happened to them??