Defunct developers

[Anarchist420]

Who are your favorite defunct developers? Two right off that I miss are Iguana and Blue Sky Software. The latter really knew how to push the Genesis to its limits and the former made many great classics (Aero the Acrobat 1 and 2, the original Turok, Pirates of Dark Water) and they did a good job of porting NBA Jam to the systems they ported it to. A few former Iguana employees worked on Metroid Prime, arguably the best game of 2002. Unfortunately, Acclaim drove itself into bankruptcy and I don't know why Blue Sky folded.

 

[Sheep]

Working Designs. The JRPGs they brought over to the U.S. market were the best in a time when other companies simply wouldn't bring them over or, when they did, produce a completely horrid translation.

To this day, Lunar I and II on the Sega CD remain two of my favorite video games ever.

 

[Anteaus]

Sierra, the original not the mutant it became after it was sold
Papyrus
Ion Storm....I want a sequel to Anachronox dammit! Grr Jon Romero
Westwood

 

[vshah]

Volition, for bringing us the glory that is freespace 2

although i suppose that's not applicable for the console section...oops!

 

[IGemini]

nm

 

[Sonikku]

Factor 5 before they gave Nintendo the middle finger and showed us the greatness of playstation.

 

[Sulaco]

Looking Glass
JANE'S
Microprose
Maxis (the REAL Maxis)
Ion Storm
Black Isle

 

[Monster_Munch]

Bizarre were pretty cool, I loved Project Gotham 4. It was probably my favourite xbox racing game before Forza 3 came out.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Black Isle
Factor5

 

[Anarchist420]

Thanks for kind replies I can't believe no one agreed with me about Iguana though. I guess they're not missed by many people?

 

[AstroManLuca]

Forgot one: LucasArts.

 

[IGemini]

Forgot one: LucasArts.

Lucasarts isn't defunct. They just haven't made anything good since the SW prequel movies.

 

[KaOTiK]

Looking Glass
Black Isle

Those two come to my mind immediately

 

[AstroManLuca]

Lucasarts isn't defunct. They just haven't made anything good since the SW prequel movies.

They may as well be. In a way it's worse because there's always hope that they might start making good games again, but deep down you know they never will.

 

[IGemini]

True enough. Haven't liked anything of theirs since they stopped with Jedi Academy. Force Unleashed was ridiculously dumbed-down from all that.

 

[Ross Ridge]

Can't say I miss Working Designs, companies like Atlus USA and Nippon Ichi America do a better job of bringing over Japanese games these days.

I do miss Microprose and Looking Glass / Ion Storm. Hmm... Ozark Softscape made some great games back in the day. It would be nice to a new Jagged Alliance or Wizardry game from Sir-Tech.

 

[exdeath]

Looking Glass

I long for another System Shock 2 experience.

Deadspace, Bioshock, Fallout 3, etc come close, but nothing has ever replicated the System Shock 2 experience. I've spent many a weekends playing it in one sitting in the dark with headphones on the highest difficulty, huddling in corners, holding my breath, and counting my AP bullets on one hand.

Square

When Square was Square and they made Final Fantasy, not when they became Squaresoft or Square Enix and their games became "bigger guns, more helicopters with lazzzzzers, and bouncing titties." They haven't made anything good since Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, and Xenogears.

 

[Oyeve]

Whoever made the Legend of Kyrandia games. Those were fun. Westwood I think.

 

[KlokWyze]

Origin

 

[Sulaco]

Spectrum Holobyte

 

[OptimumSlinky]

Psygnosis (Colony Wars...)

Origin (Wing Commander...)

Westwood (Command & Conquers that didn't suck...)

LucasArts circa TIE Fighter and X-Wing

And I can't remember who developed it but damn I miss proper MechWarrior...

 

[Spydermag68]

Origin - Ultima
Sir-Tech - Wizardry

 

[Schadenfreude]

Volition, for bringing us the glory that is freespace 2

although i suppose that's not applicable for the console section...oops!

Volition is alive and well

 

[I4AT]

Nazca Corp, In the Hunt and Metal Slug were in a league of their own back in the day. Pretty insane how many frames of animation they were able to squeeze out of Neo Geo hardware and their attention to detail, even though there was a shit ton of slowdown throughout all the games.

Even today's throwback HD sidescrollers don't compare, they may be higher resolution but definitely not higher quality. I'd love to see what Nazca could do with modern hardware, but I have no idea what happened to them after Metal Slug 3, they just kind of disappeared off the face of the earth.

 

[Rezist]

I know it's PC but Ensemble Studios was pretty damn good back in the AOE 1 and 2 days.