Your Top 5 Developers

So these were just the first 5 that popped into my head. Here is my subsidary list of some other good developers in my opinion:

1. Rare
2. Lionhead Studios
3. LucasArts
4. Crytek
5. Infinity Ward
6. Epic Games

Infinity Ward
Harmonix
Valve Software
EA (DICE and Redwood studios)
Rockstar* North

Ever?

Origin
Sierra Online
Bethesda
LucasArts
Ubisoft

Naughty Dog
Insomniac
Studio Liverpool
2K Games
Rockstar/Ubisoft tie, perhaps.

Rockstar
Turn10
Ubisoft
Dice
Criterion

Insomniac
Sony San Monica
Naughty Dog
Konami (Kojima Productions)
Valve and Criterion tie Love the post release support

So many great ones to mention but let's see..

Capcom - Created my favorite game series of all time, Disney titles, D&D brawlers, my favorite shooter (Mars Matrix) and an amazing present day line-up. They're simply the best.

Bungie: Marathon was a huge influence on me growing up. In fact, everything they've ever done has been great with the Halo series being no exception.

Cave: Guwange, DonPachi, DoDonPachi, Mushihimesama, Ibara, Death Smiles ... They're quite simply perfect at what they do.

Harmonix: They took my favorite genre of games and pulled it back from the brink of forever being a niche subject. Rock Band 2 being the best rhythm game of all time (that is, until The Beatles: Rock Band is out!) doesn't hurt either.

Bioware: When I was ready to give up on Japanese RPGs (this was in High School, mind you), Bioware was there to pick me up.

Honorable mentions: Remedy, Pentavision, ArtDink, Starbreeze, Naughty Dog, Bethesda Softworks

Ubisoft
Valve
The Creative Assembly
Luxoflux
DreamWorks

Crap, I forgot Capcom!

Dang me too. Megaman, Devil may cry, Resident Evil and Onimusha. Not to mention Bionic commando and Street fighter. How could I forget the company that has take the most of my gaming money?

Blizzard
Cryptic
EA
Squaresoft
Hasbro

Bungie
Bethesda
Ubisoft
Blizzard
Square

Blizzard
Valve
Relic
Bioware
Bethesda

Close Calls:
Bungie
LucasArts
Id
Westwood
Cornered Rat Software (Made WWIIOnline.. and any game that can have me that enthralled every night for 2 years plus deserves credit)

Harmonix
Bioware
Blizzard
Bungie
Bethesda

Not necessarily in this order but...

Infinity Ward
Valve
Codemasters
K2
Bethesda

Remember, this isn't about the best. It's about the biggest. That's not usually the same thing.

Bethesda, Valve, BioWare, LucasArts, and UbiSoft in that order.

@LordXenophon Actually, it's posted as "Your Top 5 Developers", so it's open to interpretation. If you want it to be the "biggest' instead of the "best", than I suppose that's your choice, but it wouldn't make sense to ask for your "biggest" top 5 developers.

Nintendo R&D
Bioware
Bethesda,
Kojima Productions
Vanillaware (I'm the only one to mention the developer that is almost single-handedly keeping 2D Adventure games going? These guys, along with the guys that make the Guilty Gear series, and the Konami Team headed by IGA are keeping a dying artform at the forefront.)

lol nintendo R&D lmao... they rereleased the power glove with hand-helds... and now they are re-releasing the POWER PAD lmao... boo nintendo...

Oh man this is terrible, so many from my entire gaming history, but I'd have to go with this (in order of awesomeness).

5. Lucasarts (X-Wing, Tie Fighter, Adventure Games, oh my!)
4. Rockstar North (GTA, duh)
3. Valve
2. EA DICE
1. id Software

Close calls:

Remedy (Max Payne era)
3DRealms (I really dug Prey and Duke Nukem)
Bethesda (Oblivion)
Bioware
Naughty Dog
Bungie

I would say in no particular order.

1. Valve
2. Blizzard
3. Double Fine
4. Bungie
5 Infinity Ward

I'm gonna have to go with

1. Lucasarts
2. Valve
3. Double Fine
4. Harmonix
5. Bioware

1. Bioware (the best RPGs ever)
2. Blizzard
3. Bethesda
4. Valve
5. Ubisoft

1. Infinity Ward
2. Harmonix
3. Valve Software
4. DICE
5. Criterion

1. Blizzard
2. Valve
3. Rare
4. Bioware
5. Pandemic

1. Infinity Ward
2. Bethesda
3. Change Agent & Fatty Chubbs (3.a Squidpunch)
4. PopCap Games (yeah believe it or not)
5. Epic

@andyg8180 Way to brown nose! =P

Infinity Ward
Ubisoft
Valve
Atlas
Bethesda

I'm glad a lot of you decided to reply to this. I'm seeing a lot of developers that have some mettle, some that I didn't even think about. Relic, Capcom, Rockstar, and Square Enix are some examples of these. Keep em coming ;-)

I forgot about DICE. I love the battlefield series.

1 BioWare
2 Bethesda
3 Rockstar
4 Epic
5 Valve

1. S2Games
2. Epic
3. ID-Software
4. BioWare
5. Frictional Games

1. S2games
2. Taleworlds
3. Bioware
4. Relic
5. Bethesda

S2games
Blizzard entertainment
ea
sega
capcom

1. s2games
2. s2games
3. s2games
4. s2games
5. s2games

did I miss a company that does quality linux games? no? go figure.

1. BioWare
2. BioWare
3. BioWare
4. BioWare
5. BioWare

s2games
frictional games
bethesda
rebel act studios (dead)
interplay

interplay
2dboy
valve
s2games
codemasters

Gosh, there are so many. I'll post my five which are clearly a cut above the rest, and then list a bunch of others that, if I didn't play so many games, would probably be able to fit into the top five anyway. Yes, I play a lot of games, and yes I like game companies ;)

Ranked from most-liked to least, with the most important game they produced (imo) listed after:

1. S2Games, creators of Savage 2
2. Stardock, creators of Galactic Civilizations I & II
3. Bioware, creators of Mass Effect
4. Bethesda Softworks, creators of Fallout 3
5. Atomic Blue, creators of PlaneShift

Honorable Mention, for creating one or more games that I enjoyed:

Blizzard Entertainment for Warcraft III;
Interplay for Starfleet Command II;
Valve for Steam and Team Fortress 2;
Westwood Studios (pre-EA) for the C&C Franchise;
id Software for Wolfenstein 3d (seriously!);
Apogee for Major Stryker (seriously!);
Ion Storm for Deus Ex 1;
Epic Games for Unreal Tournament franchise;
Sony Online Entertainment for Everquest 1.

Did I miss any? ;)

Blizzard, Valve, Epic, ID, S2. Order doesn't matter

In order from most favorite to least favorite.

Criterion Games
Lionhead studios
Pandemic Studios
Epic Games
Valve

Honorable Mention, for creating one or more games that I enjoyed:

Criterion Games: for Burnout Paradise
Lionhead Studios: For Fable 1 & 2
Pandemic Studious: For Lord of the Rings: Conquest / starwars battlefront 1 & 2.
Epic Games: For Gears of War 1 & 2
Valve: For Half Life 2: ep 1 & 2/ Portal/ Team Fortress 2/Left 4 Dead.

Valve
Camelot
Bethesda
Lucasarts
Harmonix

1. Bungie
2. Bioware
3. Bethesda
4. Valve
5. Insomniac

1. Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft)
2. Bullfrog (Syndicate, Dungeon Keeper) / Lionhead (Fable)
3. Rockstar North (GTA)
4. Valve (Half Life, L4D, TF1+2, Portal)
5. Origin Systems (Ultima Online)

Hmm.... surprised I didn't see this one sooner ^.^

(not in any particular order)

1. Capcom. He is a super fighting robot! MEGAMAN! A super fighting robot! MEGAMAN! (I am certain many of you will now harbinge a desire to destroy me)
2. Hal Labs. We need more Mother games! Or atleast something just as good in the same way. Also Kirby is awesome too... as is the Meta Knight.
3. LucasArts + Telltale Games. I loved the various puzzle games of yesteryear. LucasArts started them, and Telltale Games is starting to get decent at continuing them.
4. Ionic Storm. This has got to be on the list. Mostly because of how fail they are. These guys made a game so bad, crippled a company, destroyed several people's careers and made gaming history. This during a time that games were doing wonderfully. I still hug my copy of Diakatana whenever I can. I mean, it takes effort to fail that badly. Only one game has failed worse in the history of games, and it was released during the game crash of 1983. This company provided jokes for geeks for years to come, as well as the best guide on "what not to make for a game" (and I can only think of one game they've actually made).
5. Sierra. Most of the games on Mom and Dad's 80286 I played as a little girl were by Sierra. Such wonderful games they made. My favourite was Goblins Quest 3. Which I cannot find listed on this site >.>. I mean Gobliiins and Gobliins 2 are both on here... but not the third game in the series... or at least not that I can find.

Some ones that should be also mentioned:

6. Shiny. Made so many good games when they were still around. I am still a huge fan of EWJ. Despite the fact that EWJ3D proved that RockStar games cannot make something decent unless it involve hookers, pimps and stealing cars. Though I didn't mind Menace 2 The Galaxy, it could have been better done. However both EWJ3D and M2tG were exampless of EWJ _not_ made by Shiny. Shiny also released some decent game for the PSX.
7. Interplay. Another classic set of games made.
8. Alex Something... cannot remember his name. This was the Russian guy who brought us Tetris. Which is one game, that they could release a thousand times over, and people would _still_ buy it.
9. Ol' Shiggy. Shigeru Miyamoto has released some wonderful games. I am more partial to the Star Fox series, however others love the Legend of Zelda series. This was also the guy that made a short fat carpenter turned plumber into an icon recognised as much (if not more) than Mickey Mouse. I mean, many people only remember Captain Lou Albino from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. I think he may have also appeared in a few Cindi Lauper videos though >.>
10. Sonic Team. Well, before the Sonic games started to suck, that is. My first system was a Sega Game Gear (I mean apart from my parents C=80 (aka a 80286) and 80486), and I loved the Sonic games on it. Sonic Chaos and Sonic Triple Trouble were fun things to play for me. Also the Game Gear was in colour... that obviously meant it was better than the GameBoy, right? (it should be noted that the Game Gear was dreadful on Batteries though, your best bet was to get a rechargable battery pack)
11. Square. Many people remember them for Fail Fantasy. I remember them for Geno and Mallow (from SMRPG, awesome game btw) as well as the Mana series (which has a tendancy to out shine a lot of other games released at similar times).

-=-

I am noting however, my list of favourite companies doesn't quite match the rest >.>

Oh and forgot iD/Apogee... wonderful games made by them. They were the standard in games at one point too IMO ^.^