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Game companies you can't believe still exist

ULTROS!

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Matrix Software - First game: Alundra (1997), latest game: Final Fanasy VI iOS (2014)
Arika - First game: Street Fighter EX (Arcade, 1996), latest game: Dr. Luigi (Wii U, 2013)
indieszero - First game: Sutte Hakkun (1997), latest game: NES Remix (Wii U, 2013)
 
V

vagabondarts

Member
Konami is it.

If it weren't for MG, the company really would be gone.

It's obvious they suck resources from all over the company and hand them to Kojima.

I fondly remember the old glory days when the Konami logo meant you were getting an awesome game.

Oh yeah and they killed Hudson Soft.
 
ShinMaruku

ShinMaruku

Member
jabuseika said:
Sega.

When was the last time they had a massive hit? or even just a big hit?

Valkyria Chronicles and Yakuza sell moderately good.

Out of their umbrella studios, Warhammer, Company of Heroes, and Total War are niche genre games. Their only massive seller are the Football Manager series. They now have Atlus, but they're not known for Massive hits.

They really on stay alive in Japan making licensed games through affiliate studios.

How is Sega still going?
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Sega is one of the most sucessful publishers. They know how to market and they have a chain of hits that multiply into a massive hit, they also make arcades and patchiko that is where they make their money, they have very few busts now (Even those hated Sonic games make them money) They also make games people pay little attention to here that make decent success.


Sega's trick is they are much larger than they seem and they spend JUST enough to make a decent profit on their games. Look at pso2 it's doing great in Japan (Which is why other people are taking it to other areas because the model they have in Japan is retarded in other areas) they publish a bunch of big games in other areas. (If I recall correctly several tecmo games are published under sega in europe)

Never doubt Service Games. On one hand they are stupid as fuck but when it comes to making money with what they got, they are spot on and terrifying.
 
R

R_thanatos

Member
Blizniak said:
Tecmo Koei.
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Well not .
did you see the amount of dlc each of their game have ?
And people buy those !
No wonder they are still there ..i wouldn't want them to die , since they have Gust in their wallet.

iMax said:
Blimey. I knew Ubi has leveraged some of their studio network for marquee titles historically — but damn, that's something else.
Click to expand...

No way to output a game as big as AC every year otherwise.
 
W

Wynnebeck

Banned
Trying to understand people choosing Quantic Dream. Despite being batshit crazy, Fahrenheit did decently as did Heavy Rain and Beyond. Nothing to be surprised about really.
 
D

dpunk3

Member
Artorias said:
Bethesda and Bioware.

I get that their games are huge hits, but good lord are they fucking terrible. I have tried so many times, but I just can't get into the "wanna be RPG-lite" they are going for. The one thing they all have in common is gameplay so shallow and dull that only the dudebros will pretend they are engrossing. There is no thought put into combat whatsoever, no gameplay design at work, just a list of places to go and things to do when you get there.

I've actually had a guy tell me that Skyrim was good...when it came out. Apparently it turned bad by the time I played it (a week after it released)? He was not joking at all, he felt that it was groundbreaking in 2011 but dated in 2013. Pretty much sums up the thoughts of people who buy garbage games for adequate graphics and music.
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They're huge hits for a reason.... You may not like them, but you're part of the minority. How could you possibly be shocked two of the biggest developers aren't under? I'm more surprised Insomniac isn't gone. Ratchet and Clank was the last big hit they had.
 
Fox Mulder

Fox Mulder

Member
JohnnyFootball said:
Raven Software.

Haven't done anything other than Singularity.
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what?

they did amazing stuff just this generation with Marvel Ultimate Alliance and xmen origins wolverine. Even wolfenstein was good.

they deserve more than getting fucked by Activision and being put on CoD for dlc or whatever the hell they do now.
 
Ray Wonder

Ray Wonder

Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
LithiumSpade said:
I actually own ALL of these, and some on multiple formats. Maybe i'm keeping Team 17 afloat?!

Worms (1995)
Worms Reinforcements (1996)
Worms 2 (1997)
Worms Armageddon (1999)
Worms World Party (2001)
Worms 3D (2003)
Worms: Open Warfare (2006)
Worms (2007)
Worms: Open Warfare 2 (2007)
Worms 2: Armageddon (2009)
Worms: Reloaded (2010)

Incidentally they have a new game coming out this year that's NOT Worms related, called "Flockers" I believe?
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Flockers looks like lemmings, I like lemmings.
 
A

andymcc

Banned
ULTROS! said:
Arika - First game: Street Fighter EX (Arcade, 1996), latest game: Dr. Luigi (Wii U, 2013)
Click to expand...

they handled all of Nintendo's 3D Classics on 3DS as well. that's not really surprising they're open though i hear they're struggling.

i wish tetris grand master would get console releases over what crap ubisoft will inevitably spew out.
 
T

thelatestmodel

Junior, please.
Irem_Logo.png


Still in business thanks to pachislot I guess.
 
shaowebb

shaowebb

Member
thekonamicode said:
What has Taito done since 2008?

*edit*

I see they are "active" on mobile
Click to expand...

Nessica. Arcade.

Taito OWNS the japanese arcade scene since pioneering cabinets with a single board that can download multiple titles from them for arcade owners to use. If the game sells well they keep it, if not they put a different title on the cabinet...either way they only buy one machine and its super cheap and offers a ton of variety and current titles to any arcade affordably.
 
D

DocSeuss

Member
Mister_Ruck said:
Sega.

Surely Total War and Hatsune Miku can only do so much for your company, right?
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You seriously, seriously, seriously underestimate Total War. Sega's success with it was so great that they went out and purchased Relic so they could own even more of the RTS space on PC. Sega knows it's lucrative.
 
D

Dash_

Member
Before Elite: Dangerous, I would have said Frontier Developments. They didn't seem to do very much before last generation and after Elite II, though I remember them working for years and years on a stealth action title I forget the name of.
 
N

nbthedude

Member
Worms Armageddon and Worms Revolution are the bomb with friends. Good for those guys.

I may not need to buy a new one every year, but I like that they are out there making' em and it's fun to check in every now and then cause they do still put out some decent qualty products. The physics stuff in Worms Revolution is pretty fun even if they didn't go far enough with it in my opinion.
 
S

stump sock

Member
Takao said:
Kemco, and Majesco. Both of them make games that I don't care about so they might as well not exist.
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well that's pretty poor logic, but Majesco is kind of a good example. They're kept afloat by revenue from all their shovelware that somehow made them a shit ton of money. They put out some good stuff sometimes.

Codemasters is another good one. For a company that seemed to peddle exclusively in Commodore games and bootleg/unlicensed NES games, they've turned into a respectable company.
 
M

Mr_Appleby

Member
Saw the thread title and immediately thought of codemasters. was only a couple of years ago when i realized that they were still around.

Dash_ said:
Before Elite: Dangerous, I would have said Frontier Developments. They didn't seem to do very much before last generation and after Elite II, though I remember them working for years and years on a stealth action title I forget the name of.
Click to expand...

It definitely felt like they were in limbo for some time but googling tells me they released a game a year since 2003. The game you're thinking of was The Outsider. Funnily enough it was going to be published by Codemasters, but they backed out at some point. It's never officially been cancelled but i think it's fair to say it's a dead project.

I'm glad they're back making a new Elite though.
 
A

Atomski

Member
wrowa said:
I'm kinda surprised that MS hasn't shut down Rare yet.
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I think this is just the one case where MS is keeping the company open just for the name. Its not like Rare is actually the Rare it use to be or anything.

Also its that one company that if MS did shut it down there would be mass nerd mourning internet.
 
O

Omnii-chan

Member
Not sure if it has been said yet, but probably ID for me.

Doom 3 was 10 years ago. Since then there has only been RAGE, which wasn't particularly lavished by press or gamers.

I don't think the iOS stuff made them much money and they stopped doing it.

Also the fact that Carmack left, they've restarted Doom 4 a couple times now.

Pretty sure they are running on their name and legacy right now.
If Doom 4 flops, I'm sure they'll be dead.

I'm starting to think maybe Berthesda should have just absorbed them instead.
 
P

pete_clarf

Member
Wehrwolf said:
Culture Brain. They just released a 3ds baseball game in Japan.
Click to expand...

Stole my thunder. Have they done anything in the US since Super Baseball Simulator 1.000?

Another answer I was going to give was Broderbund, but they've been out of the gaming business for quite a while.

EDIT on Broderbund: I stand corrected. Looks like they still do Mahjongg and Slots stuff for PC.
 
S

sibarraz

Banned
SNK

How they recovered the company after the bankrupt will be a big mistery to me (I know the reason, but still can't believe that they pulled it out)

I hope to see a new videogame soon, XIII was amazing
 
M

Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
3D Realms. Although you might have to actually make games to be considered a game company, right?
 
C

Curry-Hakase

Member
ITT: People who are angry at once favourite companies that are now thriving doing something they don't like.

sibarraz said:
SNK

How they recovered the company after the bankrupt will be a big mistery to me (I know the reason, but still can't believe that they pulled it out)

I hope to see a new videogame soon, XIII was amazing
Click to expand...

This, I hope they're successful enough with their weird pachinko games but I hope that won't step on the toes of KoF XIV development.
Hang in there SNK!
 
S

Syril

Member
I had no idea that the developer who did Battle Arena Toshinden is still around and that they do the Oneechanbara games.
 
S

someguyinahat

Member
Vibranium said:
Yukes. And the rumour is they're still fucking doing WWE2K15, dammit 2K.

I wonder if they're self aware of the internet/wrasslin' fans' hatred of them haha.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing they don't care. Their target market currently seems to be kids, and to a lesser extent their dads. If you're a ten year old wrestling fan, and your choice is to play a wrestling game regardless of its quality, or not play one, what will you choose? I played Wrestlemania Challenge and WCW Wrestling on the NES. Were they good? No, clearly not. But I could be the Big Boss Man. I could be a Road Warrior. And I'm guessing today's kids feel the same about their favourite wrestlers. The kids who grew up with the N64 games were the lucky ones, and I had a blast playing those at my best friend's house even as a twentysomething. I have no idea how well the Yukes WWE games are selling but even the WWE knows when to abandon something that isn't making money (XFL, The World, etc.)
 
L

Lomax

Member
Funcom's continued existence amazes me. Anarchy Online fizzled and was one of the first f2p game converts (before the term really even existed). Age of Conan fizzled. The Secret World fizzled and quickly had to change the pay plan. In the era of MMO failures eating companies after just a few months, how they've been doing it for so many years now is a wonder.
 
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