-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Are there any genuinely good companies (other than indies) in the game industry at this point?
- Thread starter JB2448
- Start date
Unfortunately if the benchmark for consuming things is that it was produced in a morally upstanding way at every step of the process, you aren't going to have much.
I can't imagine getting this mad at a post and then doing nothing to actually correct it or make actual counterpoints.
If anything, I feel like indie devs are as susceptible, if not more so than big studios to workplace toxicity. Running on lower budgets with less people enables less accountability for toxic behavior. It's not uncommon for the studio heads to inflict their power fantasy more directly to a team that receives much more face time with leadership by virtue of being a smaller studio. It's a big mistake to view indies as these cute, cuddly and wholesome do-gooders by default.
There are thousands of companies and hundreds of game releases per month...you picked Larian because it's a popular single player offline dev that is popular now HERE.Virtue signaling is a waste of time. I'm not trying to impress anyone. I'm just genuinely curious.
Also, Larian is over 470 people across 6 studios. Does that not count as a company?
Careers - Larian Studios
Larian Studios is a game developer studio located in Gent, Belgium. Proud to be independent for 19 years, we create games for multiple genres and platforms. Thanks to our players, we get to spend our days making the games we love to play. We have a passion for role playing games.larian.com
LARIAN STUDIOS - Arrakis NV Trademark Registration
Trademark registration by Arrakis NV for the trademark LARIAN STUDIOS.uspto.report
LARIAN STUDIOS Trademark of Arrakis NV - Registration Number 5024910 - Serial Number 86488907 :: Justia Trademarks
(Based on 44(e)) (Based on Use in Commerce) Computer game programs; video game software; (Based on 44(e)) Computer game software and video game software for use on wireless devices; downloadable electronic publications, namely, comic books, graphic novels, strategy guides and manuals for...trademarks.justia.com
It's disingenuous to feign naivete to make believe that "good" and "bad" company is somehow dramatically changed from some invisible change in gaming over the past few months/past year? I'm sorry you didn't notice the people leaving here, or the people that used to get banned here (that are suddenly not getting banned for saying the same things), predicting all the things that have happened to make people make these threads. There has been a big difference on criticism of certain large and popular brands/companies that were flatout being banned before...but now there are layoffs to that company someone here likes..so now we act like this is the first day on Earth and that only gaming companies we like are on some other planet...keep letting these people, regardless of if they are a person/company/corporations....tell you THAT WE NEED TO LAYOFF PEOPLE OR NOT GIVE RAISES BECAUSE OF INFLATION! Even though they are wildly profitable!
Last edited:
Nintendo. They've not laid off a single dev and the despite laying off some contractors recently, they brought in a number in full-time (swore 50% was brought up but not certain if it's a fact or guess). Nintendo also prioritize quality and employee well-being. They don't have a 98% employee retention for nothing. If any big company deserves to be called good, it's Nintendo by a mile easily.
Also I never believed the whole "companies aren't people" thing, as if companies aren't ran and built by, you know, people.
Also I never believed the whole "companies aren't people" thing, as if companies aren't ran and built by, you know, people.
This is more thanks to Japanese employment law than anything. Without it, they would absolutely be on par with industry norms re: layoffs.
Iron Galaxy despite not being the best paying studio out there has stood firm to avoid laying off its staff.
this lmao
they are all seeking profits
role model company
I feel like if you get a group of people together you're going to get flaws. Big corporations have anonymity in numbers but the large corporate structure leads to harsh, impersonal decisions. Indies are less likely to have that structure but the lower number of employees + digital footprints inherent to our current way of life means it's pretty easy to find dirty laundry.
Didn't they just get out from under trying to create their own crypto coin?
Indies? For the fact that gamers trash talk big publishers and studios all the time and begin brand warring, they pay at least comparable wages to other tech companies these days.
Only for their own employees. We had semi big outrage about Nintendo of Americas contractors and we also recently got insight how hard it is of defacto Nintendo teams in Japan like Game Freak, Hal or Camelot.
Okay? Larian and Remedy don't make my favorite games, but that's not the criteria here. They're of good quality, but they're not my favorite.
I don't want people to tell me we need layoffs or can't keep wages up alongside inflation. I know it's bullshit and our framework is busted to shit.
I'm also not trying to feign naïveté. I don't keep track of who leaves and who is banned. I don't have the time nor am I that perceptive.
I want people to discuss all of them, inform people that might look to this thread to see if there are any companies that espouse values that run counter to the typical capitalist narrative, and hopefully learn something myself. I'm sorry if this causes you duress or if I'm demonstrating unacceptable amounts of naïveté or what you perceive to be virtue signaling. All I can give you is my word that I didn't ask this question or make this thread in bad faith.
Didn't you know that the only companies that people layoffs are bad, and only when they are announced? Because everyone in the world announces when they layoff or fire people via press release, and it's Resetera...so the "good" companies are the same 5-7 single player offline-only dev companies that are immune to the "unionize everything"...while that "bad" companies are actually the ones that need unions are are ruining gaming but also tend to be multiplayer or mobile devs that Resetera hates?
Just remember that rich people that run businesses...they are only bad when they become public and big!! Small businesses and devs that make single player games really don't care about money like that. But Insomniac...because of inflation...they really needed to charge $70 for Spiderman 2 just to break even!!!
/s
Sorry about that I thought my original post didn't fit the OP prompt very well so I changed it. That being said, yeah, SE still gets up to all sorts of crap like their recent musings on NFTs. I just think it's really evened out on the developer side of things.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. Big mobile publishers and developers like King and Rovio belong to groups that are massive and perform some egregious shit across multiple fronts, but that doesn't mean there aren't good mobile publishers or development companies. Just because I'm not aware of them doesn't mean they don't exist.
Since this is relative anyway, why don't you give some examples from any part of gaming that you find least reprehensible?
In private, they all act extremely similarly and sometimes that just so happens to leak out?
That's depressing as hell.
Off the top of my head, Remedy, Double Fine and Obsidian come to mind, but none of them are huge AAA 100 million dollar budget studios, I'd love to know if there's any of those that are "good"
No. But that doesn't matter. Worker and consumer rights are protected through regulation and enforcement, not by wishing that any particular group of people act good.
Nope. Same with the film, tv and music industry. It seems like things have gotten worse over time for the game industry but just imagine the stuff you don't hear about.
I've said this before, but I'd much rather spend $70 worth a variety of indie games than pluck down $70 to a soulless AAA game that's designed for CEO's.
These suits have been sucking the fun out of gaming since the end of the PS2 era.
These suits have been sucking the fun out of gaming since the end of the PS2 era.
IDK about that. I'd pay good money to be a fly on the wall during the 1980s startup days. I bet the screaming matches were epic.
It's very difficult to be a publicly owned company and not do most of the stuff you're complaining about, because often you're very much forced to do half that shit to make shareholders (that is, the actual owners of the company) happy. The system is very much stacked against not being either a growth business or a steady dividend paying machine, because most of the world's economy relies on it (hence the Capitalist distaste for regulation—when shit like keeping pensions inline with inflation is tied to the stock market, reducing corporate profit becomes a bitter pill for a government to swallow) and a CEO will just get replaced by the board if they think there are avenues to take that the CEO is refusing to go down (the board are, essentially, legally required to protect the interests of shareholders to the best of their ability).
Privately owned companies are beholden to no one except their much more limited number of owners, who may or may not actually care about perpetual growth so long as they're happy. This allows them more room to take a profit hit and spend a bit more on the employees.
Privately owned companies are beholden to no one except their much more limited number of owners, who may or may not actually care about perpetual growth so long as they're happy. This allows them more room to take a profit hit and spend a bit more on the employees.
A public company's role is to expand profits quarter over quarter. Anything they can do to meet their projections is deemed necessary, and video games are an incredibly unregulated industry in the US.
There is no reason to think there is significant daylight between groups whose primary role is to accrue capital.
In case you try to put some above others because of their nice public image.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPzZkx0cPs
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDPzZkx0cPs
As far as I know, there's Supergiant. But they're also an indie company, so perhaps this doesn't count?
View: https://x.com/jasonschreier/status/1335953629514256386
View: https://x.com/jasonschreier/status/1335953629514256386
Once something gets too big and people start to hedge bets on its success for their livelihood (reasonable or not), some shittiness is always going to come along with it. If number doesn't go up, people lose jobs - every company will make that choice the second they get above about 5 people, or the second they get outside aid of any kind and are beholden to a donor. Personally, I see my buddies who opened a business behaving very differently after they accepted aid from a rich family member and all of sudden had a fire lit under them.
That being said, game studio wise, I have very much liked the personalities and leadership at the top of Iron Galaxy. Their work probably isn't the most publicized kind (mostly support, porting games, and the occasional release), but they seem to be a name I keep hearing over and over again of studios that are nice to work at and try to retain employees. Obviously, this is the PR they want, but idk, if I was going into games that's probably where I'd want to work.
That being said, game studio wise, I have very much liked the personalities and leadership at the top of Iron Galaxy. Their work probably isn't the most publicized kind (mostly support, porting games, and the occasional release), but they seem to be a name I keep hearing over and over again of studios that are nice to work at and try to retain employees. Obviously, this is the PR they want, but idk, if I was going into games that's probably where I'd want to work.
Even the favorite games of most of us included lots of crunch during the development. So I am not gonna praise a company. But..
I don't know anyone who works at Bungie but they can hire top talent for director/lead positions quicker than any other AAA studio I've ever seen. Plus, when I see a dev from Bungie from X, they send tweets like "BUNGIE". It looks like the devs really love working at there.
I don't know anyone who works at Bungie but they can hire top talent for director/lead positions quicker than any other AAA studio I've ever seen. Plus, when I see a dev from Bungie from X, they send tweets like "BUNGIE". It looks like the devs really love working at there.
No, they're companies in the end.
At this point, I just decide whether or not it's a good idea to invest some money in their games and call it a day. I somewhat hate myself for wanting to play The Final Shape because of Bungie's bullshit, but unless something shitty shows up about Arrowhead Studios, I don't mind spending money on Helldivers 2 just yet.
At this point, I just decide whether or not it's a good idea to invest some money in their games and call it a day. I somewhat hate myself for wanting to play The Final Shape because of Bungie's bullshit, but unless something shitty shows up about Arrowhead Studios, I don't mind spending money on Helldivers 2 just yet.
I might just have a problem living, honestly. Lots of things seem to be completely irrevocably fucked systematically with no way to effect change on an individual level. It's very hopeless.
Only 20 days leave? How's that a good thing? Everywhere I've worked in the last 20 years has had at least 25 days in addition to public holidays.
I mean we're talking mandatory holidays not holidays total. I maintain my stance, but that seems like an odd reaction.