Which Developer is the Most Overrated

Square Enix, Capcom and Sega haven't put out anything wonderful in a long while.

Valve, while they do troll their fanbase, they did make my favorite games of the generation.

Valve isn't really a developer anymore so they kinda have to be the most overrated as a developer hands down.

But "real" developers i would have to put my money on Blizzard and Rockstar, Blizzard because they tried to rip gamers of with their p2w game Diablo 3 and Rockstar for what they said would be GTA V and what they delivered.

Naughty Dog for sure. They've just degraded over the past generation IMO.

Valve is just overrated in my view. I don't think their games are really that good. Metal Gear Solid might be a great series, but people do look at Kojima as a god in game development. I am not saying he is bad in any way, just a little overrated. Also COD is just overrated as hell

Went with R*.

RDR was a great game. But any other game than that, I feel that the gameplay in general is terrible. I can't stand games that have horrible gameplay.

Any developer who makes stealth games.

How the Hell did Bethesda not make your list ! Fix It.... !

Naughty Dog. And it's actually in first. I'm proud of you forums.

rockstar bcoz every game they have like this ugly filthy looking protagonist and antagonist....Red dead redemption just doesnt have anything good beside targeting system....its a insult to humanity the way the people are shown in rockstar games...i will never buy there games unless they change

Naughty Dog, not even a contest.

All they do is derivative and uninspired action blockbuster yawnfests with a B-movie story yet they're heralded as some sort of geniuses. What a load of horseshit.

rockstar

Naughty Dog, 100%... Its games are great tech demos, but beyond that, they're forgettable.

Nintendo is a Publisher.

Yeah, it's getting hard to peg them down. Developed by Nintendo, ok, which part of Nintendo? The Retro area? Tokyo EAD? One of the other teams under the umbrella? My vote went to Square-Enix. They have done absolutely nothing this generation that is worth mentioning, aside form running Final Fantasy into the ground with a bad game and two sequels no one asked for to same said game.

And a developer

Also Nintendo isn't just a publisher, they are also a console maker. So arguing about what they are is kinda stupid.

Valve.

Anyone who lists Valve as overrated are practically advertising they know nothing about gaming.

Nintendo as a whole is a publisher in the same way that EA and Activision are publishers. Nintendo EAD, Intelligent Sytems, Retro, HAL Laboratory are developers just like EA Canada, EA Tiburon, BioWare and DICE are developers. I don't understand why people think this applies to everyone except Nintendo.

Valve and Naughty Dog

Square Enix

If you have chosen any developer off that list other than Treyarch/Infinity Ward than you must have some sort of bitter resentment of whichever solid dev team you did pick.

Take a look at any COD campaign, lack of gameplay variety and one use gimmicks which are often tied to QTE-like mechanics. You could say the same for many of the weapons, vehicles and more. The stealth sections have you follow a very specific path usually alongside an A.I partner who instructs the player of every move they must make, failure to do so often results in a mission failure. They do little to give the player freedom when on foot and set up each area like a shooting gallery. Add in fairly bland visuals, muted sound design, uninteresting story and characters and all you're left with is a solid multiplayer offering.

Treyarch/Infinity Ward/Call of Duty are widely hated and despised so you can't really say that they're overrated. But they're the worst of the bunch, that's for sure.

Bethesda. Skyrim has got to be one of the most overrated games in the history of gaming. It's a perfect example of something being better than the sum of its parts. Nothing is particularly well done in any of Bethesda's games.

Kojima also. Well ok: good developer, shitty writer (if he can even be called that).

I also am beginning to find Nintendo to be lacking. Lazy and boring.

@UpInFlames:

This is a thread based around which developer is overrated. Not a community popularity contest. We're talking about a series that constantly scores very well considering the train wreck of titles they have produced over the years yet still garner nominations across the board for their games and sell a ridiculous amount of copies.

The fact that anyone would even put Rockstar, Naughty Dog, Valve, Bungie, Rocksteady and Nintendo on this list is a damn tragedy. I understand some people here dislike Naughty Dog, I disagree with you and those people and I'm sure most on these forums would as well. But putting them up is just wrong. Also anyone who votes Valve should instantly have their account banned. This is a great developer who focuses on fantastic design while retaining an interesting narrative line without ever interrupting gameplay. They are not my favourite but I highly respect what they do and so should everyone else.

It's also disgusting that Rockstar has more votes than Ubisoft, while I enjoy their titles I am not going to put them up at the top with Rockstar who deserves every bit of praise they have received over the years.

I don't think this thread is based on reviews and sales exclusively, at least I didn't perceive it as such, but rather on which widely beloved and respected developer you personally think doesn't deserve the praise it gets. And like I said, Treyarch and Infinity Ward aren't widely beloved nor respected.

Adoration versus product quality is exactly what this discussion is about, not sales figures or industry contributions. I would assume that the inclusion of some favorited developers is the reason for the discussion; the TC isn't stating a belief that these developers necessarily are overrated, but that they have a lot of adoration and inquiring as to their deservedness.

EA....where are they in the list?

Valve is the emperor of all overrated developers.

The question was "Which developer is overrated" which means it has a good public image or widely recognized for the games.

Do you think EA have a good public image?

Half-Life series, Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead series, and the sheer genius of the Portal games. I'm utterly flabbergasted how a dev with this kind of credentials is overrated.

2 Portal games

2 Halflife games

2 TF games

2 L4D games

In 20 years , compare that to many of the other developers and how many hits they have released, i would say its pretty clear why Valve is overrated.

Some would argue the influence of these relatively few games have had on the current status of the gaming industry rises about a sheer number of good releases.

There is no developer that released more games than Valve in the past 10 years - no one has released at least one game per year except Valve:

1. Half-Life 2 (2004)
2. Counter-Strike: Source (2004)
3. Day of Defeat: Source (2005)
4. Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
5. Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
6. Portal (2007)
7. Team Fortress 2 (2007)
8. Left 4 Dead (2008)
9. Left 4 Dead 2 (2009)
10. Alien Swarm (2010)
11. Portal 2 (2011)
12. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (2012)
13. Dota 2 (2013)

@Jacanuk: from video games to historic film trilogies, a lot of franchises either screw up or lose their sophomoric magic on iteration number 3

Either it's superstition at this point, or its them formally declaring to world that they frankly gave up on concluding half-life back in 2008 if another franchise gets a 3.

Valve

You didn't mention Quantam Dream and Bethesda.

bungie, ubisoft

bungie is a joke and ubisoft uplay is horrible - far worse than origin.

Bethesda not on the list? Why the **** not? Easily one of the most overrated developers. I beat both Oblivion and Fallout 3 and thought they were trash. I decided to buy Skyrim when it was on sale and my word... I only paid £15 and it was £15 too much, what absolute rubbish.

And Valve... they're OK, but Half-Life is DEFINITELY one of the most overrated games ever.

Actually, Valve is amazing.

If you take away sequels and games they didn´t actually make but just bought, what is there left.

Nintendo.

Yes well, there will always be some kind of a meaningless parameter you can use, but the fact remains that you made a claim which is simply not true.

All of those games were developed by Valve or at least co-developed. Just take a look at Turtle Rock's Left 4 Dead and then look at the final game. If you take away sequels, then I'm afraid nobody anywhere made any games.

Nintendo is a publisher just like EA. The actual developers are Nintendo EAD, Intelligent Systems, HAL Laboratory just like EA Tiburon, EA Canada, DICE...

Naughty Dog, Valve, Valve, Valve, Valve, Valve, Naughty Dog, Valve.

Ubisoft for sure unfortunately.

Out of the choices on the poll, I went with Kojima, Infinity Ward/Treyarch, and Bungie

Wrong, Nintendo is a company which branches out, so calling Nintendo a developer is as right as calling them a console manufacturer, they have in house dev teams, so unless they hire outside , its Nintendo who develop games.

So Microsoft, Sony, EA, Activision are also developers?

The same rules and definitions apply to everyone and Nintendo is in no way, shape or form exempt from them.