Is there any large game publisher that we don't hate?

Medium to large sized game publishers seem to be hated by almost everyone. Companies like EA, Ubisoft, 2K, Activision, Vivendi, Nintendo & Eidos they all seem to be nearly universally hated for one reason or another. Paradox seem to be generally well liked, but that might be due to their more niche focus.

I don't have much hate for Ubisoft so far. The rest of your list, well...

Oddly enough, I don't hate any of those companies. Although I wouldn't say I'm particularly fond of them either.

Hate is too strong a word. I might hate what they represent, but that goes for most companies of any kind in the world

Ubisoft was good for me - until they did this "always online" - DRM.
Until then, Ubi Soft was of the biggest publishers the one I had the most respect for.
And I till respect them for some things.
But not for their DRM.
Which wasn't even removed in the "Gold" version of The Settlers 7 …
… Those were the times …

I'm in the same boat as Alrik, I thought Ubisoft was quite good up until the point where they introduced the "always online" DRM. I flat out refuse to buy a game with an overly intrusive DRM.

Compared to EA I have to say the others are quite nice.

I have no strong opinions about any publisher beyond EA and perhaps Activision.

Electronic Arts is the only publisher I know of that have an extensive wall of text under "Criticism" on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts#Criticism.

But what has EA really done (in the last 5 or so years) that makes it worse than say Ubisoft with its "always on" DRM? Killing Origin, Westwood & Bullfrog were horrible crimes, but that was a relatively long time ago. Their own "Origin" DRM/service is silly, but not a whole lot worse than forcing people to use Steam (still, I'm against it, but I'm not a huge fan of games that forces me to use steam either, and usually try to avoid those, unless they are really cheap). They have done some stupid marketing in recent years (the game your mother don't want you to play thing (Dead space 2), and the fake christian protesters springs to mind).

dteowner said:

I don't have much hate for Ubisoft so far. The rest of your list, well…

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Ubisoft is the only one I have that I won't buy a PC/Mac game from since Settlers VII.

Fnord said:

Killing Origin, Westwood & Bullfrog were horrible crimes, but that was a relatively long time ago.

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EA still have many signs of the classic corporation that absorbs creative producers, shape them according to what the corporation believe sells, then move on.

It's this process that makes the market to eventually look like a planned economy, where those with the power try to guess what the market wants rather than to support new ideas. What they have to go on are the last years successes, so each product more and more take the shape of what you just saw. Is there anything in Mass Effect 3 that looks new to you? What have Sims 3 added? Are the numerous sportgames released every year actually adding anything to the last years version?

What you won't see from EA is anything new. What you will see is the absorption of creators who produce something new, and then the next product from the same creator will look more like everything else, with the unique features scaled down or streamlined away.

EA is not as devoid of innovation as they are getting credit for. They were responsible for releasing spore, a game that was very innovative (but sadly not very good, but at least they were trying). They also released Mirror's edge (which did not sell very well, but we might still see a sequel). EA own DICE & Maxis, so it was they who had the final say in what those companies could do. EA still deserve their reputation as a company that loves pointless sequels though.

The only publisher that I really dislike is Square Enix (who own Eidos), and this is because they cost a friend of mine his job. You might have heard about the shenanigans they pulled on GRIN?

I hate none of them. There's better targets for my passion.

Fnord said:

But what has EA really done (in the last 5 or so years) that makes it worse than say Ubisoft with its "always on" DRM? Killing Origin, Westwood & Bullfrog were horrible crimes, but that was a relatively long time ago. Their own "Origin" DRM/service is silly, but not a whole lot worse than forcing people to use Steam (still, I'm against it, but I'm not a huge fan of games that forces me to use steam either, and usually try to avoid those, unless they are really cheap). They have done some stupid marketing in recent years (the game your mother don't want you to play thing (Dead space 2), and the fake christian protesters springs to mind).

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Dragon Age 2 to me is the modern day Ultima 8. EA is doing the same shit, different day.

Also, the EA shenanigans with DLC has been getting more obnoxious of late. They are intentionally carving out portions of their basegame and releasing day 1 DLC, the amount of pre-order from store X/Facebook/buy a mousepad from Razor etc etc bonuses for Dragon Age 2 was really ridiculous, and they force you to buy DLC only from them and you have to buy 'Bioware points' first to do it.

Most Steamworks games I have encountered you can buy the DLC elsewhere (ie New Vegas, Civilization V, some of Paradox's stuff etc) but EA is increasingly forcing you to come only to them for the DLC.

Fnord said:

EA is not as devoid of innovation as they are getting credit for. They were responsible for releasing spore, a game that was very innovative (but sadly not very good, but at least they were trying). They also released Mirror's edge (which did not sell very well, but we might still see a sequel).

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I agree.

Plus, EA was the only company that accepted The SIMs. All others simply refused.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I agree.

Plus, EA was the only company that accepted The SIMs. All others simply refused.

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They have milked The Sims to death though. It's a microtransaction hell now and there are Sims on Facebook and cell phones and pretty much every system known to man. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a Sims for a calculator.

I don't think EA is that bad anymore when compared to the rise of Activison, who are leading the charge in money-grabbing and general thuggery. See Call of Duty with assorted DLCs and its forced 1-year release cycle, Blizzard's games — splitting SC2, paying for both subscription and vanity items in WoW and the recently announced stuff for Diablo 3 — and Guitar Hero's "death-of-a-thousand-meaningless-releases". My perception of their behavior over time kind of remind me of my perception of Microsoft's and Apple's, respectively.

When looking at BioWare I think they're as much to blame as EA for the changes we in the RPG community don't like. I'm sure the fast development and release of Dragon Age 2 was the result of EA demands, but I also think the "new" direction and gameplay style of DA2 and the Mass Effects are what BioWare themselves want to do.

I also think EA is doing a good job supporting Digital Illusions (DICE), who are Swedish. They let them make Mirror's Edge, they're not outsourcing Battlefield to other developers (*cough* CoD *cough* Treyarch) and they let Battlefield take its time. It's shaping up to be one hell of the game (I played in the Alpha, it's really responsive and the guys who knows such stuff say it all feels really authentic) backed by a real monster marketing effort by EA. For those of you who do not venture outside the RPG gaming sphere on the Internet: the hype and anticipation really is enormous and the game is still two months out.

And I think THQ is doing okay. They (with Relic) are sure handling the Warhammer 40,000 license better than Games Workshop themselves (which is a whole other discussion, from the tabletop wargaming community).

To be blunt, I have some publishers to hate for.

1) Namco Bandai - They're to blame for not releasing Xenosaga I and III in EU, yet they did send the II in EU and was the worst part of the Xenosaga Saga. Fortunately, I did go to "crack" my PS2 in order to buy the other 2 games as well as to see the starting and the ending of this great saga game. I think everyone hate them, because of their stupid behaviour. Lately thanks to this experience, I'm very much holding small casket in whatever they say(including region localization).
2) Microsoft - They are NOT doing anything right. They only do care for money and aren't supporting their OWN customers. In regards of Greece, we just closed a year from the announcement of the rest of the countries being officially XBOX Lived, including Greece, yet they DIDN'T update the FUCKING Marketplace and the DLC contents being left as they are since November! We demand the Marketplace to be the same full, like UK and US do have, yet they only do care of changing and including some crappy shits, like Facebook, Zune etc.
3) Nintendo - It's obvious that America and Europe are still missing serious RPG titles, such as Xenoblade, and serious horror games, such as Project Zero IV(in your case, Fatal Frame IV), and we hate Nintendo for not bringing Fatal Frame IV over to the West, and now they do think to bring Fatal Frame V there. I want Fatal Frame IV, before playing V.

Tanno said:

3) Nintendo - It's obvious that America and Europe are still missing serious RPG titles, such as Xenoblade, and serious horror games, such as Project Zero IV(in your case, Fatal Frame IV), and we hate Nintendo for not bringing Fatal Frame IV over to the West, and now they do think to bring Fatal Frame V there. I want Fatal Frame IV, before playing V.

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I thought Fatal Frame was Tecmo?

Tanno said:

3) Nintendo - It's obvious that America and Europe are still missing serious RPG titles, such as Xenoblade, and serious horror games, such as Project Zero IV(in your case, Fatal Frame IV), and we hate Nintendo for not bringing Fatal Frame IV over to the West, and now they do think to bring Fatal Frame V there. I want Fatal Frame IV, before playing V.

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Also Xenoblade was already released in Europe this month and in Australia next week.