410°

The 5 Greatest Multiplayer Game Developers

The amount of fun derived from a multiplayer game is usually directly proportional to the respective game developer’s talent.

Criminal5299d ago

Valve would be my pick. No other dev does post launch support like Valve.

Mister_V5299d ago (Edited 5299d ago )

Fo sho. And what kinda game do people play for for 12 years without it getting old? A Valve game.

Grizzl35299d ago

Or...a Nintendo game, haha.

Mrmagnumman3575298d ago

Absolutely correct, the only other game that still is played after 12 years is quake 3

jdfoster5298d ago

What about Cossacks Back To War (known as European wars)is still played by many people today. White Label (Developed by GSC Game World) An amazing RTS game that! And to just think it was released in 2001! :o Mind blowing! A very well supported multiplayer I must say with some AMAZING mods!

ATi_Elite5299d ago (Edited 5299d ago )

1. Valve - HL2 DM, Counter Strike, TF2, Alien Swarm, L4D
2. Blizzard - Diablo, WOW, Starcraft, Warcraft RTS
3. Nintendo - Mario kart, Smash Bros, Mario Party, plus a gazillion others
4. DICE - Battlefield Franchise
5. Infinity Ward - Call of Duty franchise

I put Valve at 1 cause they have done MP so well so many different ways plus co-op. Blizzard at number 2 for the complexity of their MP but if someone put Nintendo at 2 i wouldn't disagree.

DICE and Infinty Ward have two of the best and longest running franchises of online MP. Call of Duty was at a time the benchmark for online FPS and BF is the Platinum standard for online team warfare with it's rock paper scissor approach and they deserve to be on the list at 4 and 5.

for those wondering why No Bungie....cause Bungie has Halo which is just an updated version of Starsiege: Tribes developed by Dynamix. Tribes was the hottest online MP game at the time when Microsoft ask Bungie to change Halo from a RTS game to a FPS with Tribes being the model. Go play any Tribes game and you will immediately notice the similarities.

Not taking anything from Bungie but I can't put Bungie without putting Dynamix.

Criminal5299d ago (Edited 5299d ago )

Just a side note, if you mean Old Infinity (Aka Respawn), I'm with you 100%, but the new IW is still untested. We'll see how MW3 turns out.

Mister_V5299d ago

I'd say that Diablo II is the one game that I think I could play at any stage in my life and still enjoy it. I remember playing this a few times in middle school, high school, and then again in university. If Diablo III wasn't coming out, I'd probably still play DII as an old man!

solar5299d ago

whats missing in this list is how Steam has done for MP. Steam was very revolutionary.

Virus2015299d ago

I would replace Dice with Bungie. Yeah you said Bungie copied from some game I've never even heard of, but Dice has not had the success that Bungie has had. Also Bungie has always had a great relationship with their fans (Bungie.net). Dice and Activision are now trying to do what Bungie has done since Halo 2 on with COD Elite and Battlelog.

You say that you didn't put Bungie up there because they copied or it's an " Updated version of Starsiege" well all Fps have once copied or took elements from another game.

Finally "Dice and Infinty Ward have two of the best and longest running franchises of online multiplayer". Halo 2 made online multiplayer what it is today. That was the first game to truly have a matchmaking/ranking system that many developers use today.

If you don't want to put a company that has changed online multiplayer in the top 5 then I dont know what games you've played. I agree with the first 2 (Nintendo doesn't have any online and if you want to include offline than I'll add Halo CE which truly changed multiplayer) but putting Dice and Infinty Ward over Bungie is nonsense.

Virus2015299d ago

My first comment was for ATi_Elite.

+ Show (4) more repliesLast reply 5299d ago
13lackDeath5299d ago

Valve and DICE would be tied I would say, great post launch support.

Criminal5299d ago (Edited 5299d ago )

DICE does have a great record, but Valve, in my opinion, is in a different league, just see how many Counter Strikes there are vs. Battlefields.

qzp5299d ago

to bad CS GO looks like garbage.

Drake1175298d ago (Edited 5298d ago )

uh how about bungie they support the living sh*t out of there games post launch. Im not saying valve isn't good but the amount of support they give there games after launch is amazing. Ever changing playlists, forge integration (taking players forge made maps and adding them in to main playlists), Sweet video support, balance tweaks, new game modes, new maps, bungie.net. Honestly if u look at almost any innovative feature that u see in most mp games today Bungie prob made it popular with h2 or h3. The match making system u see in every mp game today Halo 2, The leveling system you see in every shooters mp mode today halo 2, the game recording/video sharing system in CoD and other mp games Bungie did with Halo 3, and now there's that CoD elite thing that is pretty much a paid version of Bungie.net. Plus they have made cheating almost impossible since Halo 3 and if u ever do manage to cheat in a halo game u will most likely be banned b4 you are able to turn your xbox on again.

humbleopinion5298d ago (Edited 5298d ago )

Bungie and Blizzard also do quite a lot of post lunch support. Blizzard still supports 10 year old games and Bungie is probably more involved in their community then any other developer. Not to mention all of them make top notch and well balanced multiplayer games.

Overall good list, except for Nintendo. They never really care too much about the competitive aspects of multiplayer and the longevity, plus their online agenda this generation just fell behind. IW (at least post Activision dispute) would be a much better pick, and the same goes for Epic.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 5298d ago
Nitrowolf25299d ago

I like all of them. Kind of was surprised with Nintendo though, but then I thought they kicked ass back in the days when it came to at home multiplayer

Mister_V5299d ago

Yeah, I'd consider them a "classic" MP dev :)

Grizzl35299d ago

Hmph. Somebody doesn't play Smash Bros or Mario Kart.

TXIDarkAvenger5299d ago

By saying "The 5 Greatest Multiplayer Game Developers" I'm considering that also includes local multiplayer.

So no surprise there. Nintendo has great multiplayer games.

Drake1175298d ago (Edited 5298d ago )

I would of taken IW or Epic over Nintendo in a second. I mean u might not like CoD but its the most played mp in the world for a reason. Also Epics Unreal tournament games were so badass back in the day plus gears has a pretty big mp following.

SH0CKW4VE5299d ago (Edited 5299d ago )

DICE pre Bad Company series

Valve & Blizzard take the cake otherwise.

Personal favourite is High Moon Studios.

Thats so far, personally dont believe BF3 will be as good as BF2 and wont have the same longevity.

Criminal5299d ago (Edited 5299d ago )

Well, let's see how the final version of BF3 will be.

2fk5299d ago

you'll be in for a surprise if you do buy BF3....a good 1 at that

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Michiel198926d ago

i mean thats a problem of their own design to begin with, but because it makes them so much money they won't change it. It's something that they at least ban a bunch but it's the absolute minimum that they're doing.

Azurite25d ago (Edited 25d ago )

Must be a lot of inactive accounts, there's no discernible difference in the active player count on the Steam charts.

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