What Companies Are On Our Side?

[OverdriveActive]

I don't play single player games much. I follow the news and reporting around them but I don't have a first person perspective on them. I'm also not into cinematic experiences so that cuts out a lot of AAA studios. One exception is NeocoreGames, the lot that made "The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing". I completed these games and thought they were well-designed, simply buy-and-play model and the extras and DLC were reasonably priced for what they offered.

I think Grinding Gear Games' transparency puts them in this box for me. Digital Extremes are in this category as well. Good games, transparently monetised with a lot of focus on communication. Overall this has lead to positive communities (with the odd outcrops) and high quality gaming experiences.

All other companies (mostly MMOs or fighting games) that I've dealt with in the last 4-5 years have implemented at least some anti-consumer or exploitative practices. Whether it be lootboxes, introducing significant grind instead of proper depth to sell stuff, overpriced DLC, exclusive preorder bonuses, etc.

[Murray]

Undertale and Deltarune chapter 1?

[PanzerFranzz]

The list has changed throughout the years. Blizzard and Valve used to be on the list for example. They aren't anymore.

Some companies I can think of on short notice are:

CD Project Red
From Software
Atlus
Obsidian Entertainment

And of course smaller indie devs like Toby Fox and inXile.

Why Toby Fox?

[Andreas]

SEGA. They are awesome.

[Percy]

For my pick of good companies that actually like making games and respect their customers would me companies that have so far for the most part avoided using major publishers to publish their games:

- CD Projekt Red
- Taleworlds Entertainment
- Paradox Interactive
- Obsidian Entertainment
- Egosoft
- Piranha Bytes
- Lo-Fi Games

Apart from the 2 big names on my list, the rest have started rather indie and still could be names indie to some degree. Though some of them have grown a bit beyond that by their own bootstraps, they do show a very deep love for the games that they make.

[Wingzzzzy]

My companies that i feel is in on our side is

Valve
SEGA
CD Projekt Red
Tencent (for the Ring of Elesyum)

[kalin]

We're a small indie studio, and pretty much just want the games to be good and serve our customers well. Not sure why the focus would be anything else really.

[Lennac]

I'm really excited to see what Warhorse does moving forward. I played the vanilla release of Kingdom Come and it was fucking phenomenal - yeah, a couple of bugs here and there, but it didn't sully the overall experience. Usually it was a side quest getting a little weird... but with so much player choice and stuff going on in the world (as a novice programmer) I can only imagine how difficult it is to account for the variety of player choice and how the game will handle it.

That being said, I really want to pick up some of the expansions and see how the game has been built up since release.

[Astraea]

A little sidenote; I would have to disagree with the sentiment that some gamers have that there really is no company that will always be faithful to the consumers. I think there's still people out there that care more about having a good reputation and legacy that want to make their mark on the industry rather than get rich. But I do think the more a company grows the harder it becomes to stay true to that, because more and more people get a say in the direction the company will go and real passion in the right place is somewhat of a jewel you don't find that often.
I would say that Grinding Gear Games from Path of Exile is all about the gamer, but they too have been bought by Ten Cent, so who knows what's going on.

I think you'll find the most passionate developers among startups and offshoots from major companies (seniors that want to have their own go at it).

[Methpoodle]

Relatively speaking the Khmer Rouge wasn't too horrible compared to the likes of EA and Activision.

[SereneYeti]

What about Larian Studios?

[Ryan]

Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Santa Monica, Sega -- and I would argue Ubisoft isn't too horrible, relatively speaking compared to the likes of EA and Activision.

[Cappy]

The only ones I currently trust (I would buy their games day 1 without waiting for review) are:

Amplitude Studios
CD Projekt Red

Digital Extremes, I've been very impressed with the continued support and the state of Warframe but I would be hesitant on a day one buy from them. They're still a developer I respect. The list used to be quite extensive but now only those 2 remain who I haven't ever felt burned on their games.

[GreyKingMag]

Cloud Imperium Games (Crowd Funding made game called Star Citizen). Yeah they've had development issues, and of course a few calling the whole thing a scam. But the latest releases really show the the tech is paying off. The game is now back on schedule and most people can play with pretty good frame rates now. Considering they are doing all this without using a parent publisher, I would say they are pro-consumer at least for now.

[skywalker0957]

I would say in reality no company is on our side in the sense that they are looking out for us. All companies are out to be successful and pull profit and if looking out for us, the consumer, ultimately costs them profitability they won't be on our side. That being said there are a few companies that base their success and profitability on creating successful and incredible games and creating a community that wants to buy those games and other stuff (merch). CD Project Red comes to mind with the Witcher franchise and Witcher 3 in particular. A fantastic game with fantastic expansions that sold gangbusters. Ultimately the developers are proud of their work and care about what the fan base says. In return they made a lot of money selling an awesome product. The flip side is EA, Activision, Ubi (sometimes) where their way of being profitable is to be manipulative and deceiving in order to push exploitative micro transactions or shoddy half baked products with great marketing in order to sell and be profitable. The sad thing today is more and more game developers are being bought or published by these big publishers and as a result the games suffer. There are few publishers out today that want their studious to be successful on the merit of their games. I think also that many game studios want to make awesome games but have to curtail to the wishes of a publisher first and that ultimately leads to the crap we see in EA games etc. That's my take on it.