I've always had my opinions about game developers (that means you south peak) but i wanted sveral second opinions on the subject. feel free to disagree, really gaming is an art form and is open to diferent interpretions. So go vigorously fight over them in a forum :)

-edit also in my opinion Bioware and Bethesda are. and i hate South Peak
-edit my bad forgot Lionhead

Valve.

None. It's at a dead end IMO

I think Maxis, if they would only get away from EA.

Limos:
I think Maxis, if they would only get away from EA.

Ya probably.

PersianLlama:
Valve.

Yup. What they've done for content distribution is nothing short of incredible. Would there even be an XBLA or a PS Network today if it wasn't for Steam?

And then there are the games they've made as well.

Let's hear it for Valve!

If only google did buy valve it would have made it so much more accesible.....

oh and epic games seem to always do something cool every once and awhile like gears and UT.

harhol:

Would there even be an XBLA or a PS Network today if it wasn't for Steam?

XBL came out a year earlier so yes.

Imo its the little known devs like GSC (S.T.A.L.K.E.R), Massive Entertainment (World in Conflict) and Gas Powered Games (Supreme Commander) that really make the big changes in gamplay.

Insomniac. You may laugh, but one of their concepts has been copied by Microsoft, Sony, Valve and Blizzard. Considering this concept has been spread uniformly, that might make it the most copied concept in modern gaming, and hence make Insomniac the most influential developers in the modern gaming era.

Indigo_Dingo:
Insomniac. You may laugh, but one of their little has been copied by Microsoft, Sony, Valve and Blizzard.

Exactly what I was going to say! Valve too.

BioWare's healthy right now, and looks poised to become the first western RPG developer to seriously challenge JRPG superiorism. Valve is as effectual as always.

It's easy to overlook Nintendo because they're so residual, but even given the relative flaccidness of the Gamecube and Wii in relation to their earlier consoles, they've still managed to produce a steady stream of notables - Super Smash Bros. Melee, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy, etc.

Capcom seems to be having a second coming, perhaps best evidenced by the success of Resident Evil 4 (their best game since Street Fighter II), and the positive PR encircling Street Fighter IV's eminent release.

As smaller developers that command interest go:

- Studio Gigante appeared ready to reenergize the bereft American fighter industry after Tao Feng and WrestleMania 21, then promptly collapsed. After that the founders - Mortal Kombat co-creators Joshua Tsui and Dave Michicich - suffered a brief stint at EA Chicago where they graced the excellent Fight Night Round 3 before beginning a new company, Robomondo. For my money, it will be one to watch.

- Founded by ex-Lionhead employees, Media Molecule is currently working on LittleBigPlanet - a title that could lend the PS3 some much-needed steam by way of exclusives.

- Bethesda Softworks, of course, is hard at work on Fallout 3. And on the strength of the IP, it may be their best title yet.

- Slipgate Ironworks was founded by John Romero and several others after his and Tom Hall's departure from Midway. So far, the only thing I've read about them is that they're working on an MMORPG, and that they've developed a musical scoring system that arranges itself into compositions in the same way, say, the dungeons in Diablo would. This may turn out better than Daikatana.

- Double Fine Productions were responsible for Psychonauts - which critics praised, and Edge had the gall to call one of the greatest games ever - and soon they'll be releasing 'Brutal Legend', a heavy-metal send-up featuring voice talent by Jack Black that will hopefully reprise Tim Schafer's signature LucasArts aesthetics.

- Not a dev per se, but Microsoft Game Studios is really hot right now: Rare seems to be ramping up their outpost post-PD Zero, Ninja Gaiden 2 was recently released, Fable II may be a Zelda-killer, 'Infinite Undiscovery' (co-published w/ Square Enix) has been dubbed an evolutionary RPG even before its release, etc.

And there's many, many more. But I'll stop here.

NOT CAPCOM..... Epic fail for those guys.... DLC to level up in their RPG's.... Lame-o

I would vote insomniac...

Blizzard. Every single one of their games introduces new concepts/refines concepts to such an extent that they always raise the bar by bloody miles.
Sid Meier too, maybe...

Well, on the technical side I'd say Crytek. Their CryEngine 2.0 is nothing short of awe striking and in a market characterized by constantly surpassing itself technically, it's been around a year and nobody has managed to even touch their engine.

On the creative side, I'd have to say Valve. There's very little companies that can keep up with Valve in quality per game or that have released so many innovative game tittles.

Lionhead, Valve and media molecule

PersianLlama:
Valve.

Valve, Valve makes my rockets.

Bioware just does the same thing better and better each time. It's fun but not moving forward, lately anyway. Unlike say Blizzard who move forward and make fun games.

But we can all agree the most modern and forward thinking game developer is 3DO.

harhol:

PersianLlama:
Valve.

Yup. What they've done for content distribution is nothing short of incredible. Would there even be an XBLA or a PS Network today if it wasn't for Steam?

And then there are the games they've made as well.

Let's hear it for Valve!

What have they actually done? Other than stick to making mediocre overrated fps's and then making a gimmick which got old in two hours (which was lucky because the game was over by then anyway)

Now IMO the ONLY game coming out soon that is pretty unique is Dead Space. Strategic dismemberment, no hud or out of game menus, zero gravity fighting and puzzles...All this looks brilliant and refreshing! Only weird thing is the developer is EA!

Nod goes to whoever is making Mirrors Edge but i personally believe a FPS game based on Parkour just isnt going to work but i would like o be surprised.

Ivoryagent:
*shivers*

Man, it's cold over here. There must be a blizzard outside.

I see what you did there.

Valve... becuase I love em...

I think only EA isn't moving forward :P
Most developers do their best to combine good things from old games and try new things, but if you try something new it's not always coming out right.
Don't blame developers for their misses if they try something.
Namco created the dynamic cover system we see in Gears of war, but kill.switch never was a hit.
Valve only made a few shooters and steam is a distribtion method they are not moving the industry forward.
Blizzard does what it does best making rpg and rts games. Won't say they do it badly.
But they don't really try anything new that other developers pick up and use in their own titles.

and from that point of view I must say Epic. for their marvelous unreal engine that has been used in the industry for about a decade.

blizzard, valve and even EA have all done their part to push it forward, but in recent years, they have produced only decent, mediocre and piss poor games respectively. Bethesda is putting its heart into it, and whilst they are stumbling a bit, i still hold none but the highest respect for them.

maxis gets an honorable mention. its never really innovated, only mixed and matched the bes of what others offered.

i hold a special place in my heart for bioware, as they brought us both baldurs gate and mass effect, both of which i love, and truly believe pushed their respective genres forward.

however, i believe now is the day of the indy developer. people who make small, low budget games, that never the less become awesome. portal, for instance. a true innovation in both game play and in game technology.

Obviously it has to be EA - I mean, they've made so many games recently that they must be really innovative and skilled. Why else would people keep buying them?

[/sarcasm]

I don't think there's much innovative stuff happening now outside of the Wii - there's only so many ways to dress up a FPS or RTS, and only so many gimmicks to include. Good games are coming out, yes, but none of them are exactly ground-breaking. Fable 2 is a sequel, so surely that cannot really be considered to be innovative? The Wii wins because with its unique control system it has the most potential for new gameplay.

ID software used to be very groundbreaking in the FPS field. Bioware did a lot for rpg's... With all the mergers it is hard to tell which developer has the most talent on board these days. There is a lot of it in the indie gaming scene though. The major players seem to relying too heavily on reselling the same concepts over and over again albeit with added graphical sparkle and gimmicks. And that includes Valve.

Stubee:

What have they actually done? Other than stick to making mediocre overrated fps's and then making a gimmick which got old in two hours (which was lucky because the game was over by then anyway)

Now IMO the ONLY game coming out soon that is pretty unique is Dead Space. Strategic dismemberment, no hud or out of game menus, zero gravity fighting and puzzles...All this looks brilliant and refreshing! Only weird thing is the developer is EA!

Nod goes to whoever is making Mirrors Edge but i personally believe a FPS game based on Parkour just isnt going to work but i would like o be surprised.

And here's where your whole point against valve and portal fall: No Portal, No Mirror's Edge.

Portal was a beacon, a proof you can do more of FPSes than the average "gun in hand -> shoot people/monsters". You never kill a single person in Portal, and here you spend the whole game in first person view shooting things to solve puzzles using gravity, momentum shifts and creative thinking.

Mirror's Edge took this concept and went with it, seemingly (from what we've seen so far at least) taking it a step further: "What if we CAN shoot people...But what if we can do more? People like games where they can simulate free running and have freedom of movement, like say Assassin's Creed, what if we give them that in first person + FPS elements?", and it might just work.

I'll give you "short" against Portal though, 2 hours long, 4 most if you never played an FPS before and take your time to adjust to the mechanics or if you really sandbox it a lot by playing around with portals. But at least those are 2 - 4 hours of pure quality.

So nintendo still rocks huh :P

Criterion & DICE are awesome too - they regularly update their games with free downloadable content available to anyone with an internet connection. They may not produce perfect games but they sure as hell refine them. In terms of constant community support these guys really up the ante.

Stubee:

harhol:

PersianLlama:
Valve.

Yup. What they've done for content distribution is nothing short of incredible. Would there even be an XBLA or a PS Network today if it wasn't for Steam?

And then there are the games they've made as well.

Let's hear it for Valve!

What have they actually done? Other than stick to making mediocre overrated fps's and then making a gimmick which got old in two hours (which was lucky because the game was over by then anyway)

Now IMO the ONLY game coming out soon that is pretty unique is Dead Space. Strategic dismemberment, no hud or out of game menus, zero gravity fighting and puzzles...All this looks brilliant and refreshing! Only weird thing is the developer is EA!

Nod goes to whoever is making Mirrors Edge but i personally believe a FPS game based on Parkour just isnt going to work but i would like o be surprised.

You made me laugh when I read that. I completely agree that EA is moving things forward. They just finished collaborating on Spore, which, for all it's failings, is an incredibly unique game in the way that you can customize ANYTHING and that it takes other people's creations randomly from the net and adds them to your universe. That's not been done before.

You were talking about Dead Space and the strategic dismemberment. Also incredibly innovative, if something I'll never play (not a fan of horror games. They scare me, and I'm not kidding)

And, Mirror's Edge, even though I find it hard to believe somebody could forget the logo if they've seen the trailer, that seems to be made in a footprint of blood, the developer for that is EA as well.

In short, THREE of the most innovative games to be released around this time are coming from one developer, things that will very likely pave the way for more ideas from other people along the same lines, and may even change the way first person shooters are done forevermore. I think EA is moving the industry forward. I really do.

Media Molecule, Valve, Bethesda and EA and Lionhead. All they have pretty innovative games, which are also hyped from heaven to hell to someone's ass and again and again.

Knight Templar:

PersianLlama:
Valve.

Bioware just does the same thing better and better each time. It's fun but not moving forward, lately anyway.

I do agree, KOTOR was NWN with Jedi, I am going through Mass Effect right now and I am seriously disappointed in that there is nothing mind blowing about it. They have a four year dev schedule and the writing is fragmented in its quality and delivery. Mass Effect had 1 Excellent Writer, a handful of pretty standard writers, and a couple that needed a little more time in the oven. The game is noticeably buggy, their different "planets" are a terrain editor with slightly different texturing and skyboxes.

Four years! What the hell were they doing? And the only "new" thing in the game was the way you could get quests by riding in an elevator. An unexplored RPG feature (making your adventure be defined by more than the people you chat with).

Work like this is not going to push the industry forward.

I will say Atlus is pushing Boundaries. With Orange Box Valve took the award (game-play) Steam is one of the most progressive business pushes out there. Love 'em or hate them, Mirror's Edge is an exciting experiment with the FPS genre That gives EA a mention. And Vivendi is an industry powerhouse with WoW and the fact that they are still driving and shaping the MMO side of things.

Valve!!!!!!!!!!!!

Valve is definetly doing something to innovate, and I think that Bethesda and Rockstar are up there too

I'll throw in a reference for Bungie, but not for what you might think... it's for the back-end stuff they're doing; UI design, dynamic host switching (part of their the "Party system), and AI architecture of theirs are particularly influential the industry.

-- Steve

Stubee:

Now IMO the ONLY game coming out soon that is pretty unique is Dead Space. Strategic dismemberment, no hud or out of game menus, zero gravity fighting and puzzles...All this looks brilliant and refreshing! Only weird thing is the developer is EA!

Nod goes to whoever is making Mirrors Edge but i personally believe a FPS game based on Parkour just isnt going to work but i would like o be surprised.

DICE is the one making Mirrors Edge and also:
Am I the only one who doesn't get the hype behind Dead Space? It all looks like more of the same to me, System Shock 2 without the gripping story, also, other games have been doing dismemberment before it, and you might say "it's not strategic" yes it is, in Lost Planet there were creatures with weak points on arms and legs and VATS in Fallout 3 looks to be using it also, from everything I figure it's just more of the same.

The no HUD system might be cool but other titles that I can't remember the name of have done this before.