10th March 2010, 5:11 PM
(This post was last modified: 10th March 2010, 9:32 PM by A Black Falcon.)
Quote:Yeah Kuju,
First games published in 2001. Has published games on both PC and consoles.
Just because you know more about Battalion Wars than Microsoft Train Simulator doesn't mean that the latter game isn't any good...
Quote:Climax,
Which Climax? There are like three or four game developers with that name...
This one? http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/69913.html
Lots of bad games there... (Climax Entertainment is Japanese, so that one doesn't count.)
Quote:Retro Studios,
Founded in the early 2000s as a first-party Nintendo developer. Key top staff came from Acclaim, one of the few major Western console-focused developers. (some of Acclaim's N64 Turok game people, particularly, were behind Metroid Prime)
Quote:Big Huge Games,
PC game developer founded by ex-Firaxis (which was founded by ex-Microprose) staff, now going console because they're sellouts like everyone else except for Blizzard pretty much. On PC they made two of the best RTS games of the '00 decade; their upcoming games are an RPG and something else, both for PS360PC. We'll see if they're good.
Quote:Bungie Studios,
Mac/PC only in the '90s. Originally they were a Mac-only developer, which is why selling themselves to Microsoft made their older fans so unhappy... Of course they have reached greater success with Halo, but I think their older games, such as Myth I and II and Oni, are better than Halo overall. Not sure about Marathon, never really played those.
Quote:Codemasters,
Old European developer which has existed since the '80s and supported both PCs and consoles ever since. Perhaps best known (for me at least) for their Micro Machines series, but they make a bunch of other stuff too.
Quote:Criterion Games,
Decent to good developer, yeah. Started out as a PC game developer in the mid '90s. Went console also in '99 and console-only in 2001 -- exactly on par with the times I'm saying when that happened to many developers, so they can go on the list of examples of this.
If the PC/console situation of the '90s had continued beyond about 2001, I'm sure that Criterion would never have stopped making PC games. It's very sad that that did not happen.
Quote:Crystal Dynamics,
Yes, it's console-focused, and has been around since 1993. They've published PC versions of many of their games over the years, but yeah clearly console focus. Made some good stuff too.
Quote:Eidos,
Major publisher who, like most major Western publishers, used to be a lot more focused on PC games than they are now. Still, they do still publish PC games for sure.
Quote:Epic Games,
Started out as a PC shareware game developer of course. Along with Apogee, they were one of the two most popular and most successful PC shareware developers and publishers. They reached even greater success with Unreal and Unreal Tournament. Now they have gone console-focused, thanks to the fading of the PC -- Epic Games (ex-Epic MegaGames) is one of the major examples on my list of "companies which help me to prove the point that PC gaming used to be better", that's for sure.
I know Gears of War was successful, but Unreal was too.
Quote:Free Radical Design,
Studio formed in 2000 from ex-Rare people. Rare of course had been a big computer publisher in the '80s, only to go over to consoles in the early '90s, earlier than most major Western developers. They were for a long time among the better Western console developers.
I've never played any of their games (that is, the TimeSplitters series and the unpopular Haze).
Quote:Humongous,
Kids game developer, mostly focused on the PC during their life as you'd expect from a '90s adventure game developer. In 1994-1995 they made 3DO versions of a few of their games, but that was it for console games from them. Branched out into hardcore games in the later '90s with their Cavedog studio that made Total Annihilation in 1997. TA was very successful but Cavedog couldn't follow it up with enough (their second RTS, TA: Kingdoms, wasn't that good) and went under in 1999. Humongous followed in 2001.
Today's "Humongous Inc." is a successor company founded by just a couple of people from the original company, and owned by Atari/Infogrammes. This company focuses on multiplatform, PC-and-console sports games based on the old Humongous' Backyard Sports series. That it went from a PC kids' adventure and sports developer to a PC and console sports developer is, as with many companies, yet another example of how the PC gaming market has collapsed, even for childrens' games...
Quote:Insomniac.
Sony-exclusive third party developer. First game from 1997. Like with many '90s console developers, they were first successful with a cute animal platformer game...
Quote: Irrational Games (2k Boston),
Essentially a successor to the great '90s mostly-PC developer Looking Glass Studios, who was one of the best developers of the decade and made some of the most innovative first-person games ever -- Thief, Terra Nova, System Shock, etc.
Irrational spun off from them in the late '90s and then developed System Shock 2, though they did it inside the Looking Glass building I believe even though they were technically a separate company. They survived after Looking Glass's collapse. Of their games, most are PC titles -- System Shock 2, Freedom Force, Freedom Force Vs. The Third Reich, Tribes: Vengeance, SWAT 4. Only after that did they go console... and it followed the predictable pattern of '00s to the present console games -- Bioshock was successful, but brain-dead compared to just about any of their past games. Gameplay-wise Bioshock is a simplistic spinoff of System Shock 2, essentially, with most of the depth removed because console audiences don't really like that. Honestly it's a good thing that they couldn't get the System Shock name away from EA, Bioshock may be good, but doesn't deserve it.
Quote: Factor 5,
Started out as an Amiga developer. Only went console-only with Rogue Squadron II in 2001. Sounds about on par with what I'm saying, datewise. (Yes, there were PC versions of Rogue Squadron 1 and Battle for Naboo. I have Rogue Squadron 3D for the PC, great game.)
Quote:Majesco,
Another mostly-made-poor-licensed-console-games developer... they did re-release the Sega Genesis and Game Gear, which was interesting, and eventually started publishing some somewhat better games, but still, I wouldn't exactly call them great, that's for sure.
Quote:Naughty Dog,
Since Crash Bandicoot in 1996 they have been Sony-exclusive. Obviously they have a close relationship with Sony... it might be worth noting, though, that before Crash, the founders of Naughty Dog had made four Apple II games, one 3DO one, and one for PC and Genesis. But since 1996 they have been Sony-only, and in 2001 they were bought by Sony, so that pretty much ends that - Sony first parties do not make PC games. Or at least, after 2000 they didn't.
The Crash games probably were some of the more successful Western console games in the late '90s though, so I will give them that. Of course there were some successful Western console game developers in the '90s, I never said there weren't. I just said that more and better Western developers were on the PC. Look at the number of games published on PC vs. consoles by Western companies back then and I think the point is made...
Quote:Neversoft (lol),
Something of an exception - console-focused Western developer that has released games since 1996. Many of their games have had PC versions, but consoles have been their focus... but of course as you suggest, aside from the early Tony Hawk games they haven't made that much of note (mostly just sequels). :)
Quote:Next Level Games,
Only since 2003... console-only, and mostly make sports games evidently... haven't released anything I care about (sorry, I can't stand boxing so I don't care one bit about Punch-Out). Given that I was talking about the '90s vs. the '00s though, companies like this one do nothing other than help show how yes, in the last decade most Western devs did indeed go over to consoles.
Quote:Oxygen Games/Studios, Papaya Studio,
Don't know these two, so I looked them up (as I did with many of the others, but at least I'd heard of the names...).
Oxygen Games - only dates back to 2003. Seem to have gone more console-focused in 2008, but still have a few on PC. Haven't made anything really of note - it's mostly licensed junk.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/72256.html
Papaya - Dates to 2002. Another licensed-junk developer with nothing of note to their name.
Quote:Popcap,
They have a few console releases, but are mostly PC-focused. They have been extremely successful at making popular PC casual games.
Quote:Psygnosis (now SCE Europe),
Another European developer from the '80s who at first made PC games only. They have a huge back-library of great Amiga, etc. games. They only went console-only after selling themselves to Sony and being forced to drop PC development in the late '90s'; their last two PC games were released in 2000. If Sony hadn't forced them to be Playstation only they'd probably still be making PC games/versions too.
Quote:Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain),
Late '90s startup. Their first two games, Omikron and Indigo Prophecy, were PC-first games that only later got console ports. Heavy Rain is their first console-only game.
Quote: Radical Entertainment,
An okay, console-mostly studio. Never said that there weren't some of them, of course they were. I wouldn't call them "some of the best" though... they made some pretty bad games back in the '90s, and that was for consoles.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/8747.html
Quote: Realtime Associates,
See above... http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/1365.html
Quote:Rockstar,
Huh? All of their major titles have PC versions, pretty much...
Also, Rockstar is a wholly owned subsidiary of Take-Two. They're not independent, really.
Quote:Snowblind,
Good developer, console only. Only date back to 1999 though.
Quote:SCEA,
First-party console publisher makes only console games? The world is shocked!
Quote:Stormfront,
Not a great developer, and they've been making both PC and console games since their founding anyway.
Quote:Sucker Punch,
Another good Western console-only developer that only dates back to the late '90s.
Quote: Take2,
And here's another publisher which has been publishing both PC and console games since their founding in the early '90s. They still publish for both PCs and consoles.
Quote:Telltale,
All their games are on both PCs and consoles now, because of the "consoles took over' think I mentioned above'; those of their staff who were in the industry in the '90s mostly come from developers who, back then, made only PC games. They started out in 2005 PC-only, but got into console games in '07 because of the current atmosphere.
Quote:THQ,
Started out console-only in 1991, but they moved into PC games as well in 1997, and have stayed in the PC gaming business ever since. Though they always have had a focus on bad licensed games, they also have published some great PC games in the past 15 years. This is still true -- for instance in recent years they published Company of Heroes, Supreme Commander, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War I and II, Red Faction: Guerilla, and more.
Quote: Traveller's Tales,
Yes, an example of a decent console-focused Western (British) developer. Who mostly makes licensed games. They have had a few PC releases here and there though, most notably in recent years where all of their Lego games have had PC versions. Also, again, almost exclusively a developer of licensed games.
Quote:Working Designs,
Not a publisher, just a developer. They did consider bringing over a PC game once, the PC version of Lunar I believe, but it was so buggy that they gave up on the idea.
If your business is bringing Japanese games out in the US, you do not want to be publishing on PC because, as I said above, there really are not great Japanese PC games.
Quote:XSeed.
See above, except this company didn't even exist in the '90s.
Quote:Zipper
Started out in the late '90s as a PC developer, and their only two games which were actually good in my opinion were their PC games. SOCOM is mind-numbingly boring and I don't care at all about any of those games! Recoil and MechWarrior 3, though, were fantastic games... Recoil is one of my favorite 3d vechicular action games, really. Great fun game with a fast-moving tank, good level designs, great multiplayer, great controls (move the tank with keyboard, look/aim/fire with mouse), lots of weapons... good stuff. MechWarrior 3 was the final true mech sim with the MechWarrior name on it; MechWarrior 4 was good, but simplified somewhat from Zipper's third game... it's really, really sad that they went from that to SOCOM and have never emerged. :(
Zipper is a good example of what happened as many developers moved from PC to console development in the early '00s.
Quote: (i'm sure i'm missing a bunch) would all love to have you suck their dick.
The list of '80s/'90s PC developers which went out of business or almost did so between the mid '90s and present day would be an even longer list, you know...
And that's what you're missing, that for every one of the companies you mentioned which actually did make more console than PC games in the '90s, there were many other companies back then that ONLY MADE PC GAMES but now don't exist because of what's happened to PCs gaming, mostly (that is, that MMOs, FPSes, and RTSes have almost entirely destroyed all other genres except for casual puzzle games and Facebook games).