Remember , I'm basing this list on which developers or publishers are important to the industry TODAY, not 10, 20 - 30 years ago.
5. Blizzard - WoW, SC2, that's all. That's why they're 5. These games are enough to get into fifth, but I don't really think it deserves this spot. I'd LIKE to put EA above Blizzard, but because Blizzard ARE PC-exclusive, I'll keep 'em here.
4. Deep Silver - A publisher. They're keeping the small PC developers alive, they're allowing for classic roleplaying action which is something the afforementioned developer doesn't really seem to give a shit about anymore. I genuinely believe Deep Silver are being clever in the studios they publish for and they're offering support in the right areas. Risen is argueably a classic RPG already and they have a rather vast collection of these niche RPGs : Sacred 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky and Age of Conan. EVEN better : Independant Projects such as The Whispered World, upcoming Lost Horizon, etc. Also X3.
3. Bioware - I'm keeping to my rule : TODAY. But Bioware haven't stopped giving. Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age (with PC specific and exclusive control schemes, editors etc) and the upcoming The Old Republic which in my eyes is the most important MMORPG ever. It's fully voiced, it's Bioware, it has all the BioWare staples. Imagine KOTOR, but imagine it was never-ending and multiplayer. It's the most intriuging thing possibly EVER and it's exclusive to PC. So they clearly deserve their spot in number 3.
2. THQ - A publsiher. They have given PC gamers not just a VAST array of games -- AAA ones, but they seem to understand how to get the PC gaming market on their side. They have a sale at every opportunity, their THQ mega pack has grown and grown and it's still the same price. Currently it's about £55 and it's got more value than pretty much anything. THQ have studios such as Relic which are producing the AAA PC strategy games which are quite innovative to say the least. THQ also gave us the original STALKER argueably the best post-apocalyptic game since the original Fallout games and recently from those same developers (or SOME of them) Metro 2033 -- utilizing DX11 technology, ask a PC gamer what the third or fourth best looking game of all-time is they'll likely say Metro 2033. THQ are promising Metro 2034 too. On top of all this they're commited to PC ports offering Red Faction, Saint's Row, and the upcoming Darksiders.
1. Valve - Well that was f**cking obvious right? :p Let's just say there is no one person more important than Valve when it comes to PC gaming.
Valve own Steam -- I buy all my games on Steam now. I have a whole 500GB which is nearly full JUST using games I've downloaded from Steam. Amazing sales, and you can tell Valve probably have a say in them too. They're always important games, fun games, AAA games and sometimes even brand-new games. Incredible service which is UNBEATABLE. Seriously, XBLA and PSN having nothing on Steam. And there is not another service better on PC!
Valve make f**cking amazing games. I won't go into this any further.
Valve LISTEN. Send a message to any of the Valve employees, they'll email back. That's f**cking commitment there. You could argue that Bungie, or Naughty Dog do this... But how many messages must Valve employees get every day?! And they answer them!? Take on board these questions when the make the games and respond to them through developer commentaries etc... Yeah, Valve clearly are the most community heavy developers today.
Valve just released a FREE, FULL game. Which is pretty awesome of them.
Valve support mods like nothing else! You buy ANY Source engine game 2007+ and you've basically purchased a few hundred days of gameplay. HL2 has total conversions, TF2 has new maps and skins, Counter Strike Source has amazingly good modes, L4D has some unqiue maps too. Speaking of this, Valve also supports their games STILL, they're CONSTANTLY being updated (especially TF2) for FREE. Activision would LOVE to have made TF2, charging for every single bit of new content, probably for £10 each, but Valve... Nope. It'll always be free.
Valve clearly are the most important, whatever Valve announces is buzzed by the community for days and days. I mean you can knock Valve for not giving us HL(e)3 but who cares THAT much?! They're trying to actually do some innovative stuff in their games which is commendable, obviously they can't just release ANY HL3. It needs to be perfect!
_____________________________ ___________________________
Feel free to do your own top 5 in the comments. :)
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
Gabe also gave away 2 FREE copies of Left 4 Dead 2 to all of the 12,000 people on Steam that was accidentally banned by a glitch in the VAC system. if that doesn't earn respect for a developer, what will?
I'm also digging the work of Crytek.They came in 2007 to bring the challenge of best graphics of all time.To this day I have not seen any game surpass or even match the graphical fidelity of Crysis.
I agree with 4 of them.....but deep silver. They might have made a few PC exclusives, but the games the develop or publish are ob dubious quality. The stalker series and sacred 2 are hands down. The most unoptimized games i've ever seen. I always like to hear about different PC games that I hadn't heard of before, and there is an RPG drought on PC right now...so I'll keep an eye out for those other deep silver games, because i'm willing to give them another chance.
It's also good to see another PC gamer on here, when I saw your username I thought it might be based on HOMM...good for someone to barrack for the underdog ( no one liked HOMMIV....except me )
Firaxis and Stardock are both worth mentioning too.
and CD Projekt of course.