Jump to content
NEurope
Sign in to follow this  
flameboy

This gen's under appreciated/performing developers.

Recommended Posts

They are out there certainly. Which developers do people think are under appreciated or have under performed in sales?

 

My vote would have to go to Ninja Theory. Seemly put I think Enslaved and Heavenly Sword are up there this gen as 2 of the best experiences both narratively and in their combat mechanics. Granted I only just played Heavenly Sword (like literally just finished it) but I certainly hold it in high regard. I wonder if we will ever see a sequel to the series? Sony still hold the rights? Thinking about it I would rather have seen a sequel to this than another God of War game at E3.

 

Hopefully Devil May Cry will see them get a bit more coverage along with critical and sales success.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Bizarre Creations. Was sad to see them shut down. Created Project Gotham, Geometry Wars and Boom Boom Rocket.

 

More recently they made Blur - a fantastic racing game if you ask me but was released alongside a couple of other racing games and suffered from a lack of dlc... and 007: Bloodstone which was the first Bond game I've liked in a long while.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

From Software. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls aren't exactly unpopular but aren't exactly massive sellers compared to the big titles (e.g. Dark Souls sold just over a million worldwide).

 

Both games are amazing and critically acclaimed, easily some of my favourite games this generation. While there's some other games I could mention that are pretty fun, these are at another level in terms of originality and gameplay.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Platinum Games who seemed to have a promising start when they released Mad World on the Wii closely followed by Infinite Space on the DS, the sales of these games seemed decent at first but they tailed off after a while yet they must have both been pretty successful as they then went on to make the fantastic Bayonetta which went on to sell a great deal I would imagine as the game was very popular indeed at its time of release and it's easilly their biggest hit to date.

 

Of course then they decided to release Vanquish which is another shining example of a brilliant game that didn't sell too well perhaps either due to the timing of release or the fact that there were so many other games available at the time, which is a shame.

 

Still it can't have hurt them too badly as since early 2011 they have been working alongside Kojima Productions on the now quite honestly genuinely stunning looking Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance which will no doubt help to put them firmly back on the map again, then looking to the future they are also working on Anarchy Reigns for Xbox360/PS3 think Madworld but with colour, in HD, with more characters and instead is an online arena-based beat-em-up... then we have Project P-100 recently shown for Wii U in collaboration with Nintendo which shows a game looking part Pikmin merged with Marvel Superhero Squad and Transformers.

 

The latter two games are not exactly a match made in heaven but I have hopes that both of those games will have a significant redesign before we next see them again to avoid things going full-circle as obviously they'd like all future titles to sell well, I'll be doing my bit to support the developer more from now on too as the only game of theirs that I bought for full price was Bayonetta which actually warranted its price-tag I thought... the rest I picked up for next to nothing and are on the 'to be played' pile. :blush:

 

I will be buying MGSR:R upon release though as that looks fantastic and I can only hope that their future titles will sell even half as good as I'm sure MGS will because if they can assure that then their future will surely be secure for a good time to come. :D

 

Long live Platinum Games one of the finest yet most underappreciated developers of this generation. : peace:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Underperforming would have to be Rare.

 

They've done very little these past two generations. Though I can almost forgive them due to the excellent Viva Pinata.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah under performing for very different reasons though...Rare haven't created games of any interest this gen. Where as the others thus far are all developers who have created great games that just haven't sold well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
More recently they made Blur

 

I still don't understand why they couldn't leave the power-up system alone in the beta. Hiving the items set locations was brilliant, and added a lot of tactical thinking.

 

When they made their positions random, it ruined the whole experience for me.

 

This generation for Rare:

 

Kameo: Elements of Power - Brilliant adventure, lots of creativity. While it lacked what looked like a more open world from the original GameCube footage, it was a lot of fun.

 

Perfect Dark Zero - Admittedly, this was terrible. I don't think it would have been as bad if the enemy AI wasn't so...off. Enemies could land perfect hits from miles away, even on the easiest settings (which is one of the reasons I also hated Far Cry 2, but in that they could also spot you in a bush a mile away and took about 10 headshots to kill).

 

Viva Piñata - A great game. Admittedly, I didn't play it too much, but that was due to getting distracted by other games.

 

Diddy Kong Racing DS - A port of a brilliant game, and it played wonderfully on the DS. The online features were also great and I didn't mind the coin thing at all. The only disappointing thing were that the bosses were much easier.

 

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise - Sequel to Viva Piñata. I haven't played this.

 

Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise - A DS version of Viva Piñata, probably made because the audience for the game is fairly small on the 360, whereas it's there on Nintendo platforms. All I know is that it got pretty good reviews.

 

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - It's not Banjo game. Everyone should have realised it early on instead of giving it low reviews based purely on that and not talking about the actual game. Nuts & Bolts is a brilliant vehicle creation game, the online lobby system is one of the best I've seen (It's like Halos, except that your party is put in a playground between games, which was awesome) and the challenges were a lot of fun - helped by leaderboards and replays (you could look at the top 10, see what they did, and find a way to improve on their method/vehicle). It's among my favourite games of this generation.

 

However, because these games underperformed - mainly because the games still suit Nintendo's systems - Rare were thrown onto Kinect and Avatar duty.

 

And even then, Kinect Sports as a game is much better than Wii Sports (in terms of stuff like content, modes and attention to detail) - it was just the control method that didn't suit it. Once again - it's something better suited for Nintendo's platforms.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll just mention Cing, who made some fine games for the Nintendo consoles this generation. I'm currently playing Another Code R, and it's such a big leap from the DS game, I can't help but wish they were still around to continue the series, or simply continuing developing their brand of Visual Novel/Point&Click games.

 

Speaking of which, I have yet to play their other series, the Hotel Dusk games.

 

They also made Little King's Story, which is my favourite game on the Wii. Simply superb.

 

Unfortunately, they fall more into the "underperforming" label than the "underappreciated". They went bankrupt, after all.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

 

Couldn't agree more, I went in knowing it wasn't a third Banjo game and I loved it! It still had the cutest and charm of the games (imo) but being something different, I loved creating all the different vehicles and than using them to complete courses etc.

 

It was so much fun.

 

Bizarre Creations

 

Admittedly the only games I have played from them was Geometry Wars but they were great games! The second added loads with the different modes and the leaderboards made it great to compete with other XBL friends, sad to see them close down.

 

Platinum Games

 

Yeah, Bayonetta was AMAZING, I think the best game I have played for them genre, fluid combat with combos and extremely fun!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Nuts and Bolts had the humour and atmosphere of a Banjo game which is what made it so good in my opinion. It was an interesting idea and could easily have failed but I think they pulled it off well.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ryu ga Gotuka Studio.

 

Whilst other Japanese studios have floundered they've been very prolific — 5 console games with a 6th on the way — and I've immensely enjoyed those that have been translated to English, most notably Binary Domain and Yakuza 4. They actually do good business in their homeland, but in the West they've a fairly niche audience; not too surprising, but disappointing.

 

I'm crossing my fingers that Sega will be in decent enough shape to release Yakuza 5 over here, but frankly I have my doubts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I'll just mention Cing, who made some fine games for the Nintendo consoles this generation. I'm currently playing Another Code R, and it's such a big leap from the DS game, I can't help but wish they were still around to continue the series, or simply continuing developing their brand of Visual Novel/Point&Click games.

 

Speaking of which, I have yet to play their other series, the Hotel Dusk games.

 

They also made Little King's Story, which is my favourite game on the Wii. Simply superb.

 

Unfortunately, they fall more into the "underperforming" label than the "underappreciated". They went bankrupt, after all.

 

I love you man, I love you :D

And I love Cing!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I sent an email directly to Cing after playing Another Code to tell them how much fun I had playing it. Was really nice to get a personal reply with genuine thanks.

 

For me there are a lot of developers who still seem to be firmly rooted in their PS2 generation success. The biggest culprit of this is S-E I think, although there are some notable exceptions, as well such as Konami. Two companies with some very strong heritage and are just failing to wow me at all. I know Konami have been pretty good to the DS and seem to be lining it up for the 3DS as well but their refusal to do anything but print very small runs of any of those games has had an impact on growing popularity of their franchises and growing their sales.

 

In term of under appreciated, I think I would have to give that to Capcom. Their teams have done great things with reinvigorating Street Fighter and seriously saved the PSP's bacon. Their treatment of their Retro catalogue has been fantastic with a Neo-Retro Megaman game, some serious fan service and franchise love being dealt out in the fighting games and so on. Personally I appreciate their work at trying to gain more of a global appeal and to think outside of Japan. They have some very talented people and I just think that they need to play it a little less safe. Also they need a MASSIVE round of applause for their hardcore support on the 3DS.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Capcom's a good one. Their games manage to come out quite awesomely, and they kept supporting several platforms, instead of playing favourites.

 

From the stories I hear from their behind-the-scenes, though, I fear things could take a turn for the worse, but I sure hope not.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

On the flip side, Capcom need to sack the people who make decisions like putting DLC on disk six and not even selling it for ages, so pirates can enjoy the DLC six months before anyone who pays for the game/DLC; and the people who decided to make people pay extra for the ending of the game they bought.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I sent an email directly to Cing after playing Another Code to tell them how much fun I had playing it. Was really nice to get a personal reply with genuine thanks.
I sent them an email after completing Little Kings Story! First time I've ever even contemplated doing something like that let alone felt the need to do it! Just shows what great games they could make!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'll be one to say that I personally hated BK Nuts and Bolts. Putting aside the fact it wasn't the game everyone hoped it would be, as a standalone game the vehicle control was bonkers terrible (even using the presets), the missions repetitive (cycling between about 3-4 different types of missions) and the game was just generally tedious in places (like making you transport your jiggies manually to actually make them count).

 

Sure, I can see that some would enjoy it as something different. But no way in hell will anyone remember this as one of the best games ever, unlike the original BK. They honestly didn't do themselves any favours by using a mascot to pin up the game that would lure in nostalgic fans, even going as far to throw in the HD remade original. Obviously those kinds of fans are going to want a sequel of the same genre, no surprise really why many weren't happy.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My shout out for an under appreciated developer is Double Fine. These guys have made some quality DD games as of late. Stacking, Costume Quest and Iron Brigade are fantastic and more importantly stupidly fun to play.

 

Deciding to focus more on small digital only games has really worked out in their favour.

Edited by Hero-of-Time

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this  

×