Worst Company in Gaming

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**BlapBlapBlap**

Hey,

Following on from the Worst Company in America thread, I began to wonder which company was the worst in the Gaming industry. This could be publishers, developers, indies, whatever.

For me, personally, Excalibur Publishing. You know all of those abysmal simulators? Farming Sim, Airport Firefighter Sim, Garbage Truck Sim *shudder*? Yeah. That company.

And... begin.

**Melissia**

Blizzard.

They're lazy and unimaginative, the Microsoft of the industry who, at best, steals ideas from other companies, rather than trying to come up with their own unique spin on things. They barely even release any games, actually, and mostly survive off of WoW subscriptions.

**MrDwhitey**

I will admit I'm not a fan of Blizzard, but I want to put Spiral Games out there for Dino Beatdown and its rebranding, Dino Horde.

**LordofHats**

Ubisoft by far. I hate EA and Acti-Blizz but in all honestly I've seen few companies hold as much contempt for its costumers as Ubisoft. Sure EA and Acti-Blizz are trying to get my money with as little effort as possible, but at least they try to pretend their not.

Ubisoft just takes my money and then calls me a pirate. While counting my money. Releases the most absurd DRM ever devised (which gets cracked in a week) and then calls me a pirate for not buying their game or even having a copy at all. And of course there's that whole From Dust fiasco. Now when they make a game they don't even really try to make it look like a quality product. Between Splinter Cell Conviction and Future Soldier I think they just hire a bunch of random guys to code the thing and then ship it out six months later.

**Rotgut**

Activision.

Throws out the same game every couple months.

**Avatar 720**

BlapBlapBlap wrote:
Hey,

Following on from the Worst Company in America thread, I began to wonder which company was the worst in the Gaming industry. This could be publishers, developers, indies, whatever.

For me, personally, Excalibur Publishing. You know all of those abysmal simulators? Farming Sim, Airport Firefighter Sim, [i]Garbage Truck Sim *shudder*? Yeah. That company[/i].

And... begin.

You watch Nerd³ as well? (If not, then he has videos of playing most of the various simulators like that out there, including all of the above.)

Although in all fairness, I did watch his Euro Truck Simulator 2 video, and it didn't seem to be as bad as the others by far, but I guess that if you keep opening oysters you may eventually find a pearl...

...then again, sim games like that are usually the breed of oyster that doesn't create pearls...

...but then again, positivity!

**poda_t**

Melissia wrote:
Blizzard.

They're lazy and unimaginative, the Microsoft of the industry who, at best, steals ideas from other companies, rather than trying to come up with their own unique spin on things. They barely even release any games, actually, and mostly survive off of WoW subscriptions.

Seconded. Since world of turdcraft, their capacity for development has taken a nosedive. Diablo 3 is a disaster, Starcraft 2 is garbage, and mmorpg's don't do it for me. People can rant about lazivision, but seriously, people wait years for blizzard to finally get the next chapter out, or, you know, show some novelty, but after the years garbage comes out.

As a point of fact, I'd like to accuse most of the gaming industry of being terrible companies. This pertains to the fact that for some reason, every game needs a sequel. If the creative material is exhausted, shelf it, or let it go peacefully into the annals of history. There is no need to hip out the axe and systematically butcher the genuinely outstanding narrative, sticking to the same old characters.

When they pulled deckard Cain out in D3, I was furious. That old bastard should have been dead, and the story just continued to plummet from there. ....[ranting continues until 3 am]

**Sigvatr**

EA by a long shot, train-wrecking every franchise they encounter.

**Trondheim**

EA and Blizzard gets my votes! May they forever burn in hell

**Tannhauser42**

EA.
All they do is buy up talented developers, bleed the life out of them and their IP to make as much quick cash as they can, then throw their desiccated husks on the heap with the others, and then move on to the next target.

Sure, EA makes a few good games, but that seems to be more in spite of their corporate management rather than because of it.

**Seaward**

Obsidian. They (in their Black Isle incarnation, and right up until Alpha Protocol) were a far better but less acknowledged RPG maker than Bioware, allowing you to make a given character your own rather than having to lead Drew Karypyshyshyshyshyshyshyshyn's latest author-insertion fantasy persona through a script. Then they decided they wanted some of that Bioware money and crapped out Alpha Protocol. Now they're making a South Park game.

Way to kill my dreams, guys.

**CthuluIsSpy**

Obsidian isn't that bad...they did make FNV.

**Galdos**

Melissia wrote:
Blizzard.

They're lazy and unimaginative, the Microsoft of the industry who, at best, steals ideas from other companies, rather than trying to come up with their own unique spin on things. They barely even release any games, actually, and mostly survive off of WoW subscriptions.

Starcraft and Warcraft 3 are some of the best game I ever played. For that reason alone I can not vote Blizzard.

However I do hate WoW

**Sigvatr**

Galdos wrote:

Starcraft and Warcraft 3 are some of the best game I ever played. For that reason alone I can not vote Blizzard.

Pretty much, WCIII and Starcraft are considered true gems in gaming history and rightfully so, both among press and your average gamer.

**poda_t**

Galdos wrote:

Starcraft and Warcraft 3 are some of the best game I ever played. For that reason alone I can not vote Blizzard.

i agree. SC1 and WC3 were brilliant games. Everything else thereafter was utter garbage.

**Satan's Little Helper**

EA. They sell you 1/10 of a game and make you buy the rest in DLC. They also allow people to pay to be admins in BF3 which really annoys me, especially when they set up ridiculous rules like "no sniping" and "no grenades" They should've just put a Halo style custom game option.

Second choice Ubisoft, online passes irritate me.

**Melissia**

Galdos wrote:
Starcraft and Warcraft 3 are some of the best game I ever played

Then you probably haven't played very many games to begin with. They weren't even the best games when they were released, never mind now, more than a decade after Starcraft.

They don't even begin to approach best games in their genre, never mind best games of all time. Games were released BEFORE starcraft that are better than either SC or WCIII, despite their age, and many, many games have been release since then that are better in almost every way.

edit: Before you inevitably say it, yes, I know this is "just my opinion". That doesn't mean I can't strongly disagree with yours and say you're wrong

**Fafnir**

Zynga. Bam.

Although EA, Ubisoft, and Activision are pretty damn awful, and Capcom and Square Enix aren't very far behind. Considering how those big publishers are cannibalizing themselves and the industry, I don't think it's going to be very long before the triple A game industry crashes itself. But the very worst part of it all is that a crash would probably be a good thing in the long run right now.

**Tannhauser42**

Seaward wrote:
Obsidian. They (in their Black Isle incarnation, and right up until Alpha Protocol) were a far better but less acknowledged RPG maker than Bioware, allowing you to make a given character your own rather than having to lead Drew Karypyshyshyshyshyshyshyshyn's latest author-insertion fantasy persona through a script. Then they decided they wanted some of that Bioware money and crapped out Alpha Protocol. Now they're making a South Park game.

Way to kill my dreams, guys.

Sorry, but making one bad game (haven't played it myself, just going by your judgement) doesn't turn an otherwise good company into the "Worst Company in Gaming." If making one (or possibly two) bad games after making several other great games is the only qualification for that dubious honer, then dozens of other game companies have already beaten their way down that path.

Besides, they're also making Project Eternity.

**Shredsmore**

Melissia wrote:
Galdos wrote:
Starcraft and Warcraft 3 are some of the best game I ever played
Then you probably haven't played very many games to begin with. They weren't even the best games when they were released, never mind now, more than a decade after Starcraft.

They don't even begin to approach best games in their genre, never mind best games of all time. Games were released BEFORE starcraft that are better than either SC or WCIII, despite their age, and many, many games have been release since then that are better in almost every way.

I disagree wholeheartedly, Starcraft and Warcraft III are two of the greatest games of all time in my opinion, I've played a lot of strategy games, but those 2 and AoE II take the cake for my favorites.

Worst company in gaming? Hmmmm..... maybe Splash Damage with the trainwreck that was Brink.

**RatBot**

From my own experience, that is to say, companies who have made games I've played extensively, I'd say Activision-Blizzard, but I'm sure there are other companies out there putting out crappier titles.

I also have a personal axe to grind with NCSoft, but I also am capable of recognizing that it's just that (personal) and they're probably not actually the worst gaming company out there.

**Melissia**

At best, SC and WCIII are generic and mediocre. None of them really introduced anything new in to the genre and WCIII, especially, just treaded the same old ground in the same predictable ways-- even its hero system was a ripoff of earlier games. SC's gameplay was very unrefined even by the standards of a 1997 game.

They were an enjoyable playthrough, mind you-- one single playthrough. Then delete off my harddrive to make room for something better, like total annihilation, dawn of war, etc.

**poda_t**

Melissia wrote:
At best, SC and WCIII are generic and mediocre. None of them really introduced anything new in to the genre and WCIII, especially, just treaded the same old ground in the same predictable ways-- even its hero system was a ripoff of earlier games. SC's gameplay was very unrefined even by the standards of a 1997 game.

They were an enjoyable playthrough, mind you-- one single playthrough. Then delete off my harddrive to make room for something better, like total annihilation, dawn of war, etc.

dawn of war..... the first one, and the first expansion were decent. The community patch for steel legion was brilliant. The rest of the franchise was terrible. DoW 2 was great. The first expansion was okay, a bloody pissing ripoff, but it was okay. Retribution was trash.

I'm not sure where you are pulling your bile for WC3 from, but I'm not familiar with any other game that used a hero system, or in the same way as WC3. I was incredibly suspicious of WC3 because I was expecting it to be a carbon copy of starcraft--with swords--and was surprised that it really wasn't.

**Melissia**

poda_t wrote:
The first expansion was okay, a bloody pissing ripoff, but it was okay. Retribution was trash.

Retribution was the best DoW game to be released by far, in terms of gameplay. In terms of story, probably DoW2 + Chaos Rising.

poda_t wrote:
I'm not sure where you are pulling your bile for WC3 from, but I'm not familiar with any other game that used a hero system

The Warlords: Battlecry series is one example, off the top of my head.

Actually its hero system was better than WC3's-- you created your own hero with name, race, class, and its advancement and statistics were persistent throughout the campaign. Very rare to see that in an RTS setting.

Mind you, these days Enlight is a bit of a boring company, making mostly business sims like "Restaurant Empire 2", "Capitalism 2", or "Marine Park Empire".

**SneakyMek**

I'd say Blizzard,EA and Zynga are some of the worst ones in my opinion.

**Cave_Dweller**

I'd have to say Blizzard. I Don't understand the love for them. Many seem to think they're just the darlings of computer gaming, who can do no wrong.

Diablo was enjoyable in the mid 90s, Diablo 2 was mediocre. Starcraft 2 was good, better than the first IMO, but meh all around, and warcraft games were also very meh, except for the first one, which was good in the early 90s, for those of us around during those dark, dim days of computer gaming. All their other games have been good for one, maybe two play throughs, then its over.

Boring, ripped-off content from games workshop, at least in my opinion. Seems like their devs and art team were huge fans of warhammer in the 90s, stole the art style, expanded upon it and made it less wierd and ugly (and therefore less unique and interesting) and ran with it.

I especially despise WoW. The graphics are utter garbage, and just make me want to vomit any time I see them. The game is just awful, I can't comprehend how 7 million Chinese bots can stomach this game.

So yeah, chalk me up as another Blizzard H8R!

**The Foot**

I enjoyed blizzard games when they at least tried to do something new* like warcraft 3. Now I feel like I could stare at a fat guy eating a sandwich and see more innovative thinking than the past couple of blizzard games. EA gets a mention because they are EA, and Square-Enix hasn't even tried to do something new for well over a decade.

*I'm pretty sure there isn't anything really original there, but i had fun with the story and the online portion was also enjoyable

**LordofHats**

And if anyone needed a more reasons to hate Capcom:

Capcom has warned that profits for this year will be about half of their initial prediction, and is taking some drastic measures to correct that.

Capcom isn't doing too well this year. Profits for the current financial year will be about half of what was initially forecast, the company has warned. It was quick to point the finger at Western developers, under performing projects, and "not taking advantage of digital markets." Their solution for this is to cut ties with Western developers, and produce more DLC, a move that is sure to rustle a few jimmies, considering Capcom's "questionable" DLC policy.

Also to blame for the profit loss were recent restructuring efforts at the company, an effort to keep up with "drastic changes in the industry's market environment." They also cited the "concentration of AAA titles in the hands of few foreign competitors" and its "delayed response to the shift to digital media in the home videogames business," as problems to be addressed.

The most worrying thing that came out of this press release was the fact that Capcom asserted that "decline in quality of titles outsourced to overseas developers" has forced it to alter its business strategy: it wants to shift Western developers to internal R&D and "increase post-release DLC." Earlier this year, Capcom rebooted its Devil May Cry franchise with DMC: Devil may Cry, which was developed by UK studio Ninja Theory. While getting generally favorable reviews, the game ultimately failed to reach sales expectations.

Lastly, Capcom stated that "work in progress in game software" has been "strictly re-evaluated for business restructuring". This is business speak for "games that we think won't sell well, or don't have the potential for post-release DLC, we are going to cancel."

Capcom recently tapped American developer WayForward to develop its DuckTales remake. Let's hope that this one manages to avoid the chopping block!

I might change my vote. This shows a level of stupidity beyond even Ubisoft's capacity.

**The Foot**

LordofHats wrote:
And if anyone needed a more reasons to hate Capcom:

Capcom has warned that profits for this year will be about half of their initial prediction, and is taking some drastic measures to correct that.

Capcom isn't doing too well this year. Profits for the current financial year will be about half of what was initially forecast, the company has warned. It was quick to point the finger at Western developers, under performing projects, and "not taking advantage of digital markets." Their solution for this is to cut ties with Western developers, and produce more DLC, a move that is sure to rustle a few jimmies, considering Capcom's "questionable" DLC policy.

Also to blame for the profit loss were recent restructuring efforts at the company, an effort to keep up with "drastic changes in the industry's market environment." They also cited the "concentration of AAA titles in the hands of few foreign competitors" and its "delayed response to the shift to digital media in the home videogames business," as problems to be addressed.

The most worrying thing that came out of this press release was the fact that Capcom asserted that "decline in quality of titles outsourced to overseas developers" has forced it to alter its business strategy: it wants to shift Western developers to internal R&D and "increase post-release DLC." Earlier this year, Capcom rebooted its Devil May Cry franchise with DMC: Devil may Cry, which was developed by UK studio Ninja Theory. While getting generally favorable reviews, the game ultimately failed to reach sales expectations.

Lastly, Capcom stated that "work in progress in game software" has been "strictly re-evaluated for business restructuring". This is business speak for "games that we think won't sell well, or don't have the potential for post-release DLC, we are going to cancel."

Capcom recently tapped American developer WayForward to develop its DuckTales remake. Let's hope that this one manages to avoid the chopping block!

I might change my vote. This shows a level of stupidity beyond even Ubisoft's capacity.

I wish I could drink then go to work like those Capcom guys...

**daedalus-templarius**

Is this thread really necessary?

Maybe instead of listing out how much you hate company xyz, and hate game abc, you should all contribute to a thread about games you... I don't know, like?

I just finished Dishonored, fething brilliant game with a great story and excellent gameplay mechanics.