Companies that are falling apart, or have fallen apart

[evil_ash_xero]

I'm a huge fan of Japanese games, so there's a number of companies, that sadden me nowadays.

First off:

Capcom- They rocked last gen hard. Devil May Cry. Resident Evil 4. Clover games. Onimusha. Now, they lost they guys that made all those games. I don't know who they have now, but they seem kind of stalled. Maybe Asura's Wrath will bring more positive feelings.

Konami- Well, they don't make anything. The Metal Gear games are still made well, by the folks at Kojima Productions...but there's nothing else(unless you want to bring up those new crap shooters they made). That same branch made Lunar Knights, which was cool. But obviously they don't "pump 'em out". Other than that, Konami outsources everything. And the results are usually pretty bland. What happened? They don't anger me, like Capcom, but it makes me shed a tear.

Squaresoft-Ah ha..they kind of died for me a long time ago. But they still had their moments with Dragon Quest VIII, and....uh...yeah. Now, they're making 10 multi-player(so that erases my hopes of fixing the problems with 9), and....well, FF sucks anymore. All the money in the world...and nothing.

CAVE- Make some fucking shmups, guys! Hard ones! Good ones! I'm tired of this "it's easy, unless you play it for score" shit. Glad they got rid of the lolis...but now I don't even know if they're gonna make any more proper shmups. All is quiet.

Sega- I brought it up, but I don't want to go there. R.I.P.

Any companies angering/saddening you?

[Neith]

I agree about Squaresoft

I loved their games back in the late 90s, when they released several of their BEST GAMES EVER in a period of 12-24 months.

FFXIV made me cry, literally.

[DragonInstall]

Japanese games now days seem to be dull, or maybe I'm just getting old.

Capcom - I do wish they would revitalize some of their old games, but like any company they roll towards the $$. They pretty much sparked the boom in fighters again with SF4 and are cranking out fighters now. But I would be so happy if they made another BoF game, preferably similar to BoFII.

To me BoFII was the most ambitious RPG in the snes time. I mean it has it's fault, but overall it tried to go for many things out of the norm, and also had a very dark story. Probably the darkest one in any RPG of the snes era.

Konami - To be honest I don't really give a damn about anything they make after MGS on ps1. The MG series went way too anime that I lost interest. Plus the stealth and survival elements seem to diminish each iteration.

Squaresoft - Died to me after FF6... I was a huge FF fan, but I could never finish FF7 because I would get bored. Now when I look at the rpg's they make today.. I feel as if the entire series is too distant from where it started.

What happened to knights, kingdoms, magic, and the whole lore of the medieval days? Final Fantasy now completely tossed it's history to the curb and started to make their own little world. Well I couldn't give 2 shits about the new world they make now, with it's anime cliche look and story.

CAVE - I think this company has given up on shmups for arcades or consoles. They are just branching off to earn more $$.. I can't blame them since shmups is a dying genre, but it's just depressing how much the company has changed.

Sega - Last game from them that I thought was ok was the 2nd 3D Sonic on the Dreamcast. RIP

Maybe I'm just getting old, but new games these days tend to suck hard. Especially the RPG genre.

[Emuser]

Maybe I'm just getting old, but new games these days tend to suck hard. Especially the RPG genre.

No I feel the same way about games nowadays. We live in a time where a typical game's lifespan involves hyping it up to ridiculous extremes (Rage, Gears 3 examples) for months before it's release. Come release day, people will play for about 2 weeks tops before moving onto some other game(unless its CoD or something that people play for the community).

I just find it so annoying that gaming companies have such insane budgets to use on their games and how they usually reveal a bit too much information about it/talk about it WAY before its even going to be released, so that by the time it comes out it's kinda like old news to me and I don't care anymore.

Plus most developers don't make games with replay value in mind today, as replay value would hurt sales and have people buy less games. Nothing really creative gets released nowadays since graphics are the big rage among many people who are too young to have played games in the SNES/Gen/PS1/N64 era. They are too young to know the feeling of playing a game that actually had to be made to be REALLY good in older times due to hardware limitations.

[ZacharyB]

Everyone's getting old. The cost for game development is going up all the time. As far as I know, game companies have to keep their games in the 10-20 year-old demographic, because those are the ages that spend enough money on games to keep them afloat. It sucks when the players' interests mature out of this demographic and then every game that comes out becomes irrelevant to them--that's what happened to me. I can't even imagine what it's like for the developers, who, being most likely outside of this demographic already, might be bored of their own games. I will say that I've found that, as I've gotten older, games have become a lot more fun to make than they are to play.

As everyone here knows, shmups cannot exactly carry a gaming company any longer, even small ones. There are simply not enough fans. Games like the Final Fantasies can stay aloft regardless of their enduring quality because there are so many fans. And the fans are young, so they will be able to remain inside the target demographic for a while. We're old, so the attrition rate of our loyalty to game companies is already really high.

...If there's anything I'm disappointed in, it's that the circumstances have to be like this. The companies are going to have to keep changing with every new generation that comes into that profitable demographic. Some just remain too loyal to the way they were and, as a result, do not survive, because the fans that sustained them can do that no longer.

[Ghegs]

Most of the companies listed are still going strong financially, even if you don't agree with what they're currently doing.

A true warrior fallen is Irem.

[Hagane]

Capcom's new fighting games are garbage. I haven't played Akai Katana but other than Death Smiles modern CAVE games are fine IMO.

Games today mostly suck because most people think a game is better the more it has in common with movies. And they are scared of challenge or true complexity. So companies do what the general public likes and we get so much crap.

Sega - Last game from them that I thought was ok was the 2nd 3D Sonic on the Dreamcast. RIP

Outrun 2 / SP is amazing.

[Vexorg]

Probably the best example of a company falling apart in a hurry I can think of would be Midway. Up through the mid-to-late 90s they generally made pretty decent stuff, but eventually they got to a point where all they were doing was rehashing the same games over and over, only with more and more gratuitous violence in each version, which doesn't do a blasted thing if the underlying product is garbage. They spent most of the last decade circling the drain before finally biting the dust last year.

[Daigohji]

Psygnosis (aka. Studio Liverpool). First bought and then 'restructured' into oblivion by Sony. Remember Rastan, Shadow of the Beast, Barbarian, Lemmings, Wipeout, Colony Wars, Destruction Derby, Walker, Rollcage, Agony, and G-Police?

[louisg]

Psygnosis (aka. Studio Liverpool). First bought and then 'restructured' into oblivion by Sony. Remember Rastan, Shadow of the Beast, Barbarian, Lemmings, Wipeout, Colony Wars, Destruction Derby, Walker, Rollcage, Agony, and G-Police?

Oh, that reminds me. DMA turned into Rockstar. They used to have such diversity in their game designs (Lemmings, Hired Guns, GTA). All three of those are clever and well-executed. Now, no matter how you feel about GTA and its offshoots, you have to admit there's a lot less experimentation and originality.

Sega - Last game from them that I thought was ok was the 2nd 3D Sonic on the Dreamcast. RIP

Monkey Ball was quite good, but the arcade version might have predated SA2. F-Zero GX is, imo, excellent, and that was pretty late. They're also one of a long list of companies which switched to being primarily a publisher.

Some new R.I.P.s:
Data East - They made some of the best run 'n guns around
Broderbund - Lots of really clever classic designs came from these guys (Choplifter, Lode Runner, Carmen Sandiego)
Atari - They had a good shot, but could never get it together.. especially when it came to devs. It was pretty painful to watch them flail around.
Epyx - Another great classic computer dev company, and responsible for the great Lynx design
SSI - They made good strategy games, but went out with a whimper when they tried to make action games when the PC game industry went more console

And of course all the shmup devs, minus Cave, Milestone and G-Rev

[Ruldra]

A true warrior fallen is Irem.

Also Bullfrog. Their logo on the box pretty much meant 'quality, fun game right here'. Who can forget Syndicate, Theme Park and Dungeon Keeper?

[Gus]

The Cave hate in this thread is mind boggling. To me they're literally the only dev still making quality games and right now they're trying to expand their market and show people who normally wouldn't give them a shot that they're making what I believe to be the best games ever made. Yeah, fuck them.

[evil_ash_xero]

No hate, towards CAVE. Well, not from me, anyway.

I just haven't been knocked back, by them, since DeathSmiles MBL. And that was a ways back.

Akai Katana was a step in the right direction, but it's still not quite there yet. I want some Futari level stuff here.

[Paradigm]

I want some Futari level stuff here.

Play Futari then.

CAVE have put out how many games on the 360 already? Enough to keep you going for a few years at least with the amount of scoring depth they offer. Akai Katana was only released in arcades just over a year ago and the 360 port is less than six months old... CAVE have given us a hell of a lot this generation if you ask me.

Now just because they're actually trying to make some money doing smartphone games and such, you say the company's dying? Hardly. Stop asking for more more more and get stuck in to the wealth of games they've already put out there.

[mrsmiley381]

Capcom has always been somewhat of a corporate monster. Re-releases have always been common with them. But murdering Clover and Megaman? Really? Not to mention their DLC plan is pretty disgusting. I'd call them the eastern equivalent of EA.

Konami is nothing but Metal Gear, Silent Hill, and Pro Evolution Soccer. Metal Gear I like but should just end already. Castlevania has been thoroughly sodomized. I'm interested in that new action horror game they have on the way, but only time will tell on that.

Square-Enix has done its best with ports and remakes. That's not a good sign.

Bandai-Namco murdered Splatterhouse. They also drop MSRP on decent games far too quickly, which tells me they have no faith in them. Soul Calibur is just bigger titty monsters every game.

Sega has been a bit of a zombie, but don't tell me you didn't like those budget releases of After Burner Climax, Sega Rally, and other ten-dollar items. Sonic Generations might (might might might might might Colors broke the Sonic Cycle right?) be pretty awesome, and their light-gun shooters on the Wii have been decent. And dammit, they published the first four games by Platinum, and Vanquish was my 2010 Game of the Year.

THQ has gone a little overboard with DLC and making Red Faction a mess.

Arc System Works keeps branching off in interesting directions with BlazBlue and now this Persona game, but I'd like to get my hands on Guilty Gear again. They were working on making sure they had the license back, so let's cut the extra-weeaboo crap and go back to the normal weeaboo crap.

SNK has been a mess for a while, but KOFXIII looks nice and the Neo Geo Station on PSN is cool, I guess. They're not nearly as prolific with stuff any more, of course.

Like mentioned earlier, most of these companies are financially solvent but are targeting a different audience. Personally, I feel like anything with Shinji Mikami's name on it is gold and the rest is a gamble. I was certainly more happen with the last console generation. I can't say much about PC games, but I do wish iD would get creative with DOOM faster.

[Zeron]

SEIBU/MOSS

How about a new shooter guys or hell Battle Balls 2 atleast do something with the older titles like a Raiden 1,2,DX,3+Viper Phase1 360 collection. But I guess Seibu/MOSS should not even be here they aint doing too shabby what I know unlike IREM....

Oh now I remember one HUDSON SOFT maybe I am clueless but it feels like the only thing they have been doing since 2001 is porting and rehashing bomberman.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Capcom: At one point seemed to be going in an intresting direction with Bayonic Commando Rearmed and Megaman 9 & 10. Since then they have gone downhill with pulling the megaman games, the DMC reboot. By far the worst aspect of Capcom is the lengths they are prepared to go in milking their fanbase. IE Bullshit Updates & DLC for their fighters, charging for their (psudo) demos. Plus they are even worse than western publishers like EA when it comes to DRM. IE allways online DRM for console games and that Resident Evil 3DS game which only allowed one save profile.

Konami: Im looking forward to the ZOE HD, Ive yet to play Castlevania LOS but it does look good imo, but they need to make a better 2D castlevania with new artwork and bosses. That new contra is ok I guess. They need to start making new IPs though (like everyone else)

Square: Apart from FF7, 8 & 10 and maybe a couple other titiles I never really played much of their games. Ive been going on a JRPG binge recently including NIER, Last Remant PC, Infinite Undiscovery all a mixed bag. Im playing FF13 atm and unlike most ppl im really liking it (apart from the item upgrading which sucks). They need to make more console games and less handhelds. FF Type 0 looks great and should be a main FF game rather than 11 & 14 MMOs. The best part of Square has gotta be EIDOS im a big lover of their games. Its about time a new Soul Reaver was made

Sega: After sucking for so long seem to be finally getting their act together. While Sonic Ep1 royally sucked, Generations plays much better as a 2D game. Vanquish, Bayonetta are great, looking forward to Binary Domain and Colonial Marines. Renegade Ops,, Valkyria chronicles and Aliens Infestation / Shinobi 3DS seem intresting. They also own Creative Assembly who make Total War. Sega atm are my favorite Japanese publisher.

CAVE: hope we get a couple more AAA grade shooters out of them.

[iconoclast]

Sega gets far more crap than they deserve. Both the Yakuza and Valkyria series are high quality RPGs, and even the 3D Sonic games are better than they've ever been (not saying much, I know). Plus, AM2 is still around, and they're pretty much the best development studio on the planet.

They're obviously nowhere near as good as the old Sega, but they're still a solid developer. And they're a great publisher as well, since they put out some of the best games this gen in Vanquish and Bayonetta.

[CMoon]

Thread needs to be changed to 'companies you want to bitch about'. As said above, many of the above companies (Capcom in particular) are doing fine or even great; they just aren't doing what you are happy with. Regardless of above shit-talk, SSF4 and MvC3 are very popular releases, and it looks like Dragon's Dogma will do well. They put a lot of time into the SF3-3S re-release and I hope it did well for them.

My one question for Capcom: Why no Monster Hunter for the PS3?

As far as Sega: I'm still playing the Yakuza games, though they are at this point hugely unoriginal (I love 'em anyway.) Really, when was the last time Sega had an original idea?

So if this is a thread about stagnant creativity, I hope US and Japanese developers are taking note of From Software/Dark Souls. This game is doing just about everything I currently want in a video game. The fact it has done well and received so much incredible publicity makes me think that other developers will HAVE to take notice. Not that I want my total casual/drunken gameplaying to go away, but it would be cool if instead of another bullshit 3d castlevania, we could get an awesome, atmospheric, difficult castlevania with deep gameplay.

[Siren2011]

Sierra Studios - What can I say? Kings Quest, Quest for Glory, and countless other adventure games were made by these guys, giving countless hours of magic and enjoyment that 98% of game companies today cannot provide me. A big finger to Vivendi Universal for ruining them. Even if you don't typically like the Adventure game formula anymore *raises hand*, you can't deny that the sprite work was impeccable, and the stories were rich and interesting, if not a bit eerie when I was a youngster.

Dynamix (Subsidiary studio of Sierra) - These guys are responsible for Starsiege and Tribes 1 & 2. I even had the pleasure of visiting their headquarters in Oregon through a friend who worked there with her husband. I saw concept art for Tribes 2 and everything. It was magical.

Basically everything everyone else has said. Especially, SEGA. Their deterioration guts me more than Cave's gradual pandering to casual gamers. I still wait for the day when they make an "art" shooter. That would be hilarious...and sad.

Lucas Arts- ...just, leave it at that.

I used to find new classics repeatedly. But since I've played a great chunk of them, and have beaten two thirds of said chunk, I've noticed that, unfortunately, those discoveries are becoming very, very rare. After catching Dreamcast fever with Shenmue, discovering P.N.03, Godhand, Panzer Dragoon Series, Tekki, etc, etc, etc, there is not much left except the odd obscure Sega Saturn game that I stumble upon a video of on YouTube.

Though I will cut the cynical rope this thread is weaving to say that I am thoroughly impressed with Platinum Games, with the exception of Mugen Kouro. Good fucking job, you guys.

[GaijinPunch]

Remember Rastan

Yes, and loved the Taito back then that developed it.

Data East - They made some of the best run 'n guns around

thisthisthis

This list could be huge if we're talking about arcade and console developers from even as late as the early 90's. Almost all of them are gone.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I used to find new classics repeatedly. But since I've played a great chunk of them, and have beaten two thirds of said chunk, I've noticed that, unfortunately, those discoveries are becoming very, very rare. After catching Dreamcast fever with Shenmue, discovering P.N.03, Godhand, Panzer Dragoon Series, Tekki, etc, etc, etc, there is not much left except the odd obscure Sega Saturn game that I stumble upon a video of on YouTube.

Only enough I only just got around to playing a Panzer Dragoon game today. PAL Orta and it fucking rocks!

[Siren2011]

Hell yeah, dude! Orta is the only true PD game that I've 1CC'ed (PDS is not a good game to attempt it with. lol.). The first one and Zwei are harder, because there is no self-imposed health revitalization mechanic in the game, whereas in Orta, as long as your berserk meter was full you could do that. Definitely check out the other two when you're done with that beauty.

[Drum]

Data East kind of still exists as Paon. I haven't played any of their games, but they seem to be well-received.

Taito fell the hardest - The best arcade pub in the 80s completely collapsed after the fall of arcades and is now just a skin being worn by the hated Square-Enix.

[Gus]

Nah, Taito hasn't fallen off. They might not get much talk from mainstream gamers but back when I played non-shmups I remember them being a company that came out with a lot of innovative and fun hidden gem type games. I'd recommend checking out LostMagic.

[Drum]

Nah, Taito hasn't fallen off. They might not get much talk from mainstream gamers but back when I played non-shmups I remember them being a company that came out with a lot of innovative and fun hidden gem type games. I'd recommend checking out LostMagic.

That is a long, long, long fall from Rainbow Islands.

[Blackbird]

I think games have changed somewhat, but I think that I have changed more. I used to really enjoy platformers and RPGs when I was younger, but now I find RPGs somewhat boring. My tastes have changed as I've gotten older - now I tend to go for turn-based strategy games and shooting games more.

The mainstream has gotten kinda stale, though. An endless stream of mediocre "me-too" JRPGs, grimdark grey Sci-Fi/WWII FPS games, Western RPGs with cumbersome game mechanics... etc.

So, uh, getting back to the topic, I don't think it's so much that the companies are "falling apart" and making bad games so much as I'm just not as interested in the kinds of games that they are producing anymore.

I get a lot more excited about a new Intelligent Systems, Sting, or Yotsubane project than I do about a new Square game.

[BulletMagnet]

I get a lot more excited about a new Intelligent Systems, Sting, or Yotsubane project than I do about a new Square game.

Speaking of Sting, now THERE'S a developer I've been a bit worried about of late...after a string of interesting, semi-experimental titles (peaking with Knights in the Nightmare IMO) they seem to be moving in a bit more of a "traditional" direction lately, and considering how unimpressed I was with Hexyz Force this does not bode well if the trend continues.

[Moniker]

I have faith in Capcom. I can't/don't believe Mega Man is dead and still hold out hope for MM 11/ MMX9. How much influence did Inafune have over Inti Creates anyway? They took over the helm of MM and delivered some awesome stuff. Rock & Roll will never die. Obviously the financial well-being of the company seems well in hand.

Squeenix, well... I guess I won't write them off yet. I actually liked the combat system in FFXIII, but that was about all I liked about it. I think their "on-rails" RPG system is something they really need to reconsider. 4, 6-8, and everything since X-2 has had just about nothing in the way of interesting choices as far as char development goes. I think in 13 they're starting to go back to a stricter job type development where you have influence over how characters develop and not everyone looks the same in the end. Then again, in Shin Megami Tensei games you tend to only have influence over one character, and they're freaking great. Maybe the real problem w/ Squeenix is they've decided they're the Lucasfilms Ltd. of RPG devs. Great graphics & polish; no soul. They do turn out some decent games now and again- Space Invaders Extreme 1 & 2, Deus Ex: HR. Definitely in a slump, though. No longer synonymous with quality like they were in the 16 & 32 bit eras.

As long as Konami keeps churning out Castlevania games, I'm happy.

I can't help but sense that a new video game crash may be coming on, though. When most console games are unplayable the way they're released, and with the all-important FPS genre burning itself out, I think consumers are gonna lose faith sooner or later. Then Nintendo will pick up the pieces again and all will be dandy. Because Miyamoto is Jesus.

[Stormwatch]

As long as Konami keeps churning out Castlevania games, I'm happy.

Other than remakes, I think the last true Castlevania game came out in 1994.