Troika, RIP. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is still one of the best games ever made.
Capcom and Konami for being established companies who bring great franchises to the video game world.
Nintendo for creating good franchises even if they reinvent them into something completely different and put off those of us old enough to remember the originals.
Valve for making great first person shooters which don't require next-gen PCs to run.
Bethesda for making immersion a priority in their Elderscrolls games.
Free Radical for creating the Timesplitters series, and Rare for making classics like Goldeneye and the almighty Perfect Dark.
Square for making all Final Fantasies before 7 (anything after that except for Tactics was complete junk).
Take-Two Interactive. Since they're controlling 2K Marin, Firaxis, and Rockstar, they are pretty mighty as well.
EDIT: Bioware, how could I forget?
Originally posted by §P0oONY
To add to my list of yesteryear.. (5 years... man)Team Ico,
Namco,
Insomniac,
Naughty Dog,
Valve,
Bethesda,
Blizzard,
EA Sports,
Epic Games,
MistwalkerThere are so many people making great games it's hard not to forget some though.
I'd also probably remove Bungi.
QFT All awesome developers/publishers
Monolith Soft take it quite easily if we get to count their contributions when they were a part of Square as well as their co-developments with other teams. Not only were they the sole creative force behind what are really Square's best three games (Xenogears, Radical Dreamers and Chrono Cross) but they were also heavily involved in the creation of Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, and Final Fantasy IV - IX. Take also into account their involvement in the creation of Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of the Abyss, and then add all of that to their very own Xenosaga Episode I, Xenosaga Episode II, Xenosaga Episode III, Xenosaga I & II, Baten Kaitos, Baten Kaitos Origins, and Soma Bringer, and you have an overall lineup that no other company could hope to compete with.
In no order.
SEGA
Capcom
Platinum Games
Sony (all of'em)
Nintendo (since the Wii, I have been very disappointed in'em tho)
I choose theses companies because they make more than 1 type of game. I own and or play more than 2 of their franchises and they don't focus on 1 or 2 franchises. They have many great and or successful IPs.
#1 for Team ICO
Squaresoft (before the Enix merger) -- Chrono series, Final Fantasy 1-10.
APE, Inc. (now Creatures Inc) -- APE for MOTHER series, Creatures for Pokemon series.
2K Sports -- primarily for the NBA 2K series... beats EA Sports' NBA Live by a mile or two.
Last but not the least, SEGA --
Sonic,
Nights into Dreams...,
Columns,
Streets of Rage,
Boogerman,
Flicky,
Altered Beast,
Virtua Cop,
Phantasy Star,
Ristar,
Vectorman,
and more...