SW VOTES: Greatest Game Company (Last 24 hours)

SYSTEM WARS VOTES 2014

Welcome to the second edition of the rebooted System Wars Votes. Our first one was one that asked you, as a forum, to vote on the Greatest Game Franchise of All Time, and you as a forum rose to the occasion- over 150 people voted, over 70 franchises were represented, and we had our definitive Top 10 list.

And now, for this second edition, it's time to answer another question- what is the greatest game company of all time?

THE GREATEST GAME COMPANY OF ALL TIME

Two years ago, I posed this question to all of you- what is the greatest games company of all time, really? And we got an answer then, but that was then, and this is now. A lot of things have since then changed. The gaming industry, like all technology industries, moves fast, and empires can rise and fall within two years. Maybe your answers have since changed too. This is how we find out who the best game company is now.

So, we'll do this the old way. In this thread, you'll name your top three game companies of all time. Make sure you list them in order. The first game company on your list will be awarded 50 points. The second one will get 25 points, and the last one will get 15 points. The order you list your favorite company in is therefore very important- it will determine the points for the final tally.

There aren't a whole lot of restrictions to how you can vote, but please keep the following in mind-

• Remember to have only three companies in your post. If your post has more than three companies listed, the first three listed will be counted towards the tallies, and anything after that will be disregarded. If it has less than three companies listed, then the post itself shall be disregarded. Feel free to list as many honorable mentions as you like, but remember, only the first three, in order of your posting, count.
• If you edit your post, please make sure to make a note of the edits you made, otherwise only your original post will count towards the tally, and your edits will not reflect towards it.
• The company that you nominate may be a publisher or a developer. There is no distinction whatsoever for the purposes of this contest.
• You are free to nominate either a developer working under a publisher (because you may like that developer's work, but not the publisher as a whole- for example, Bioware and EA), or a publisher. However, if you nominate a publisher, you can't nominate individual developers working under them. That is, you can't nominate Retro Studios if you nominate Nintendo, and vice versa.
• You need to have a post count of at least 50 posts for your vote to be eligible.
• You have until 12:01am, October 11 2014, to get your votes in. That gives you over two weeks to get your votes in, so get started!

Got it? It's not gonna be hard, really. But with all of that said, it's time for me to get my votes in. Here goes:

1. Nintendo
2. Atlus
3. Square Enix

LEADERBOARD

1. Nintendo: 2255 points
2. Valve: 825 points
3. Rockstar: 435 points
4. Sony: 365 points
5. Blizzard: 350 points
6. Ubisoft: 245 points
7. Bioware: 245 points
8. Atlus: 230 points
9. Square Enix: 215 points
10. Capcom: 200 points
11. Konami: 170 points
12. Bethesda: 140 points
13. Electronic Arts: 140 points
14. CD Projekt RED: 135 points
15. Sega: 125 points
16. Bungie: 115 points
17. Activision: 100 points
18. Ensemble: 90 points
19. Black Isle Studios: 80 points
20. Firaxis: 65 points
21. Take Two: 50 points
22. InXile: 50 points
23. Free Radical Design: 50 points
24. Kojima Productions: 50 points
25. SNK: 50 points
26. From Software: 45 points
27. Naughty Dog: 45 points
28. LucasArts: 40 points
29. 2K games: 25 points
30. Viambeer: 25 points
31. Larian: 25 points
32. Origin Systems: 25 points
33. Insomniac: 25 points
34. NISA: 25 points
35. Namco Bandai: 15 points
36. Grasshopper Manufacture: 15 points
37. Team ICO: 15 points
38. Sir Tech: 15 points
39. Platinum Games: 15 points
40. Looking Glass: 15 points
41. Relic: 40 points
42. Irrational Games: 15 points

Tallied to post #155. Last tallied 5.18 pm, October 2 2014, CT.

1 Nintendo

2 Valve

3 Rockstar

Nintendo
Take Two
Bethesda Game Studios.

1. Atlus
2. Nintendo
3. Namco-Bandai

1. Blizzard

2. 2K Games

2. Valve

1. Sony - I'd list Naughty Dog separately as they are THE major contributor for them, but can't.

2. Rockstar - They still churn out quality games after all these years.

3. Ubisoft - I simply really enjoyed the AC series last gen and continue to do so.

A short five years ago there would have been no question in my mind that Capcom and Crystal Dynamics would both be in my top three, but sadly since then, both have shown to not give a shit about their fans.

1. Nintendo

2. Squaresoft (yes, "soft", not Enix)

3. Black Isle Studios

Get a life

Sorry, this will be counted as Square Enix, since that's essentially what the company exists as today (call it a rebranding if you must). Allowing people to vote for Squaresoft and Square Enix separately would be like letting people vote for DMA Design and Rockstar North separately, and to keep it at least somewhat under control, I will be consolidating all Square votes into Square Enix. Same with all Enix votes.

1) Nintendo

2) Blizzard

3) Bungie

Stay classy Blabadon

Nintendo

Valve

Atlus

Blab is a typical console goon.

@charizard1605: You wrote valve 2 times.

1. Valve

2. Ubisoft

3. CDPR

@Gamerno6666: You're right, fixed that, thanks!

1) Nintendo

2) Atlus

3) Naughty Dog

Updated tallies. This is interesting, really.

I am wondering if anyone is gonna list EA :p

1. Electronic Arts
2. Activision
3. Ubisoft

Purely from a business standpoint, not my personal preference with regard to gaming.

@lamprey263: I was going to ask you if that's a pity vote, since no one else will vote for any of them, but I am not sure your reasoning holds true. For example, if you are looking at it from a purely business perspective, no company has sold as many units of hardware, as many units of software, generated as much revenue, generated as much profit, remained profitable for as long as it has, created as many successful IPs, created as many alternate ventures to exploit said IP, and created a sustainable (and unique) business model, as Nintendo, in the gaming industry.

@lamprey263: You monster.

1. Nintendo

2. Sony.

3. Bethesda:

So, could I say Intelligent Systems and Nintendo EAD? :p

Yep, you could lol

1. Ubisoft

2. Electronic Arts

3. Valve

From most annoying to least on the PC.

1. Nintendo

2. Sony

3. Ubisoft (of course)

1. Nintendo
2. Valve
3. Blizzard

1. Nintendo

2. Valve

3. Blizzard

1. Valve

2. Nintendo

3. Blizzard

Okay, you're going to have to be clear here, which one of these am I supposed to count?

Wrong post deleted . Sorry :-p

Okay haha, no worries

Nintendo

Capcom

Grasshopper Manufacture

@charizard1605: I've always felt EA has been getting shit treatment from gamers, when I'd say they delivered a good amount of quality fun in gaming this last gen. Last gen I've bought and played:

• Army of Two
• Army of Two: 40th Day
• Battlefield Bad Company
• Battlefield Bad Company 2
• Battlefield 1943
• Battlefield 3
• Battlefield 4
• Boom Boom Rocket
• Bulletstorm
• Crysis
• Crysis 2
• Dante's Inferno
• Dead Space
• Dead Space Extraction
• Dead Space 2
• Dead Space 3
• Dragon Age Origins
• Fight Night Round 3
• Lord of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth II
• Mass Effect (which they later republished)
• Mass Effect 2
• Mass Effect 3
• Medal of Honor: Airborne
• Medal of Honor (2010)
• Medal of Honor: Warfighter
• Mirror's Edge
• NBA Jam
• NBA Jam On Fire Edition
• NFL Blitz
• Need For Speed Most Wanted
• Need For Speed Most Wanted Criterion
• Saboteur
• Sims 3
• Syndicate

I mean, that's what I bought, played, and enjoyed, minus maybe Dragon Age and Saboteur, which I didn't like. But weighed against everything else, I'd say they've got a substantial track record with me for delivering satisfying games. And for all the shit they get for DLC I'd only splurged on DLC for Mass Effect (with no regrets), and the Vietnam Expansion for BFBC2. But that's it, for all the damn crap they get for DLC.

So, no I'm not pity voting it, I really do think of them as a great (but sometimes flawed) company, one many people do give a lot of undeserved or overblown crap to. Their games are not of the highest caliber but they're still good, and they make lots of them. Hell, there's still many more I wish I played last gen but didn't.

But you're right about Nintendo, but I thought I'd focus on publishers and not the big 3 myself. I also pondered what Valves annual revenues are since they mediate a sizable chunk of PC sales and wondered how that factored in but thought it was too complicated to justify not knowing about the way their cash flows. But, I didn't want to conflate that with their development/publishing side of their business, and to that end it's not really that sizable IMO, though they have made some stellar games.

1. Rockstar <3

2. Nintendo

3. Ubisoft

1. Konami (includes Ultra)- Overall #1... has anybody else said this? Makes me think people don't know their game companies very well. Not necessarily all my favorite games were made by them, but the sheer number of great games is unprecedented by all but perhaps Capcom or Nintendo. That being said, in my opinion, Konami had the best NES games, so Konami takes the one hole by no short margin.

2. Capcom - Overall #2... If ever there was a close call between the best two, it should be Konami and Capcom. Either company being at number 1 is fine with me.

3. Lucasarts - Overall #3... This was a tough decision, but some of my favorite games cam from here.. funny thing is they aren't Star Wars games. Gladius and Metal Warriors take top mentions. A lot of companies could go here though. There just isn't the HUGE LIST of great games like the first two.

runners up (honorable mentions) Rare, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, SNK, Bethesda, Squaresoft (not Square Enix. Yes I can separate the two), Enix (Once again not Square Enix), Zipper, Koei/Tecmo.

1. Nintendo
2. Square-Enix
3. Valve

Instead of voting for specific developers, I'm just gonna vote for the publishers who own them.

1. Sony
2. Take Two
3. Ubisoft

1. Valve

2. Vlambeer

3. CD Projekt RED

1.- Nintendo (is not even a contest)

2.- Blizzard (the best RTS games ever, period)

3.- Konami (Mostly because the classic stuff they made, you know gems like TMNT4)

I updated the tallies. I think I may have made a few mistakes because I am really sick and exhausted, so I will go through these again tomorrow to make sure there are no irregularities. For now, treat them as tentative.

Naughty Dog

1. Valve
2. Bioware
3. Rockstar

Three nominations, or your post will not count towards tallies.

Nintendo is not 1 company who makes games. Nintendo has 6 different companies that makes game. So it´s not fair compare 6 companies as 1 company!!!

1)Valve 2)Rockstar 3)Sony

No, Nintendo is still one company, bro. it's one company with multiple divisions, yes, but it is still one company.

...were you dropped on your head as a child?

You saying that Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment are same? They devisions is like ND under Sony but its different company, but just name is called Nintendo but locations are in different places and they making different games. Mario Party 3D world was made by 1-UP Studio, not Nintendo. Mario Party 9 was made by Nd Cube, not Nintendo. Mario Kart 8 was made by Bandai Namco Games.

So, clearly those are not Nintendo. If its all Nintendo, then Naughty Dog is also Sony divisions because Sony 100% owns Naughty Dog.

What the **** is this shit?

Yes, yes it is. I think you are starting to catch on.