It's never easy to judge the potential of an untested developer. A few years ago, Ion Storm was thought by many to be the "next big thing." Ion founder John Romero had just come off a huge hit with Quake while at id Software, and with a team of very talented designers, his company seemed poised to send waves through the industry. But time told a different story, and with development on Daikatana falling more than two years behind schedule, the company is hardly regarded as influential anymore. Conversely, new companies with little game-development experience like Valve Software have gone on to debut with world-class games like Half-Life.

This week, the GameSpot editors peered into their crystal balls to choose the most promising new developer of 2000. Our predictions included developers who've received a huge dose of press lately, like Nihilistic Software and Lionhead Studios, to development houses that have been somewhat more discreet. Read on to find out which developer we think will be this year's big winners.

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