Best Modern/Current RPG Developer

Is this list supposed to be best current cRPG developer or best of all time? PB for example has fallen from their lofty highs of G1&2 to become a producer of mediocre same-same games. If it is current I would have to go with InXile or Larian, but if it is all time I would go for Black Isle (Tormentlanescape + Fallout 2) or perhaps Origin (Ultima 7's) or even Bioware (BG2). If it is the RPG developer with the most future potential it would have to go Obsidian(Pillars)/Larian or InXile (Torment looks amazing).

Best Modern/Current RRG Developer but due to limited front-page space I had to shorten the name. I expected Obsidian or Larian to win the new poll I made.

It's not over yet though as I will leave the poll up for another week, or two.

Just based on who's produced the most games I've enjoyed over the last few years I had to give it to Spiders. D:OS was great, but I wasn't a big fan of Divinity 2 or Dragon Commander. Obsidian was also a consideration, maybe capable of taking this vote after PoE releases.

This is a very tough call.

Piranha Bytes
I always end up enjoying PB games, but they haven't really nailed it in quite some time. Risen 3 was very good though.

Obsidian
They're somewhat similar to PB. I always enjoy their games, but F: NV is the only one that has blown me away in quite a few years.

BioWare
They have more highs and lows than the others - the best moments in Mass Effect were truly brilliant, yet DA2 was well below anything Obsidian or PB has delivered.

Bethesda, Larian, CDP etc
They've all developed some excellent games, but they tend to have 1-2 great games in 10+ years and that just doesn't cut it compared the ones mentioned above.

I haven't voted yet, because I honestly don't know which one to vote for (Obsidian, BioWare or PB).

Interesting to see that there is only one studio I haven't played at least one of their recent games on the list (Spiderweb Games).

I voted for Larian. Maybe I should have voted for CD Projekt, but they seems to want to emulate BioWare and might fall into "too mainstream" soon. Obsidian has the best writing out of all of them. Spiders has nice ideas, but not enough budget to really pull them off.

Interesting enough out of the list, BioWare is probably the dev I put the most hours into recently (not counting multiplayer)…but they are starting to become "too mainstream" for my taste, as in formulaic designs and too much "aww" over "depth". In other word, they make awesome Micheal Bay interactive movies. It's entertaining but you always feel like something is missing.

I can't vote here. It's not one on my side so would be unfair to pick one among others.

Example.
Obsidian made a never seen before RPG/adventure hybrid that made me laughing like crazy all the time.
Larian made a superb inventory TB spectacle with moveable objects.
How can I pick one over another? And that's just one example where I'm "stuck".

Currently, none of those above is a king of them all.

CD Projekt for sure, Not sure what Betheshda is doing on the list... I guess it is a mistake

GothicGothicness said:

CD Projekt for sure, Not sure what Betheshda is doing on the list… I guess it is a mistake

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Hah!

pibbur who admittedly has made several mistakes, but not on this one!!! Probably not. Maybe?..... No.

Maylander said:

...
Bethesda, Larian, CDP etc
They've all developed some excellent games, but they tend to have 1-2 great games in 10+ years and that just doesn't cut it compared the ones mentioned above.

I haven't voted yet, because I honestly don't know which one to vote for....

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That's ok. I've provided the Bergen vote for Bethesda.

pibbur who ... something

Obsidian for me. And wow, not a lot of love for Cutsceneoware here, unfortunately opinion not shared by 90% of the big game review sites out there.

It's a difficult poll. How can I pick just one when I love all of them!

(Still went with Spiderweb Software, but BioWare gets lots of bonus points for the BG and NWN series)

damn tough poll

my vote went to PB since gothic 1+2 are my two favorite rpgs

If it was favorite dev of all time, I would have voted New World Computing

I voted Bethesda, as their modern games appeal to me the most out of what all modern RPG developers are doing - and I love their approach to modding.

That said, if Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 turn out to be as good as I'm hoping for, CDPR will topple Beth - as I prefer their take on story telling and mechanics.

I would have voted PB if you'd asked me 5 years ago, though.

But no one does immersion, technical evolution and freeform open world gaming like Bethesda.

I'm also a little sad that Obsidian is in the lead, as I think their games are mostly derivative, ugly, clunky and awkward. They're great at C&C and mechanics, though.

To each his own, and I know many of our members have a fondness for old-school to the point where the strengths of the modern age are all but ignored.

Having to pick just one made me feel really unfair .
Anyway, as someone who values reactivity the most in cRPGs I´ve voted for Obsidian because the company managed to deliver three examples of how to do it well and did so in three quite different types of cRPGs to boot (Mask of the Betrayer, Fallout:New Vegas, Alpha Protocol).
Second would probably be BioWare due to the amount of games of theirs I´ve enjoyed.
Third place would be PB, CDPR, Larian and FromSoftware (not listed in the poll) - the reason why neither of these is higher is either because they haven´t managed to really impress me for quite some time (PB), or they´ve yet to deliver more than 2 games I´ve enjoyed (the rest).

These are all great developers…

Obsidian has been really open with their fans while developping PoE and they've produced many great rpgs. Fallout new vegas for example was just brilliant and I'm not even biggest fallout fan.

CD Projekt made witcher 1 & 2 and both of those games were some of the best rpgs i've played. And they have a really great attitude towards their fans. Heck i even got a free gog version of witcher 2 when I emailed them that I had already purchased a copy from steam. How often does something like that happen ?

Larian had the best kickstarter campaign I have been part of. It was a pure joy to see how much fun they had interacting with their fans. A live concert from Kiril @ youtube was a real treat! And then on top of all that Orginal sin actually became one of the most memorable rpgs in many years. Hats off!

Piranha Bytes. I've been fan of these german dudes since gothic 1 and every game they have developped has earned a place on my gaming collection. I admit thought that risen 2 and risen 3 were quite dissapointing compared to their earlier work (even if risen 3 was a step into right direction). Still i keep hoping them to deliver us an other rpg classic like gothics. They certainly have that potential, but they need to get their act together. fast. No more sidesteps please.

Benthesa made Morrowind and Skyrim for heavens sake! I have logged so many hours of my life on those games that they must be doing something right! And because Skyrim turned out so great, I can forgive them Oblivion's level scaling mess and horse armor dlc Plus they are the most mod friendly AAA developer i know. That has to count for something!

Inxile Entertainment. Thanks to them, we're living now an other golden era of roleplaying games. I wasn't that impressed about wasteland 2, but I can't wait to play Torment: Tides of Numenera!

Bioware hasn't been like it used to be for many years. I dislike their corporate policies and dlcs schmes, but dragon age orgins and mass effect games were quite outstanding rpgs. That being said definitely not my favourite developer.

DArtagnan said:

I'm also a little sad that Obsidian is in the lead, as I think their games are mostly derivative, ugly, clunky and awkward. They're great at C&C and mechanics, though.

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I agree. I never understood the love for Obsidian around here. They might be one of the better RPG makers overall, but I certainly wouldn't rate them the best.

Their recent games in particular have been disappointing to me. I haven't played Wasteland 2 yet (mostly developed by inXile anyways), but Dungeon Siege 3 was mediocre and South Park is just awful.

I get the feeling that some people are assuming Pillars of Eternity is going to be great and are already giving Obsidian credit for it.

Eh, isn't Wasteland 2 inXile title? I don't share the same love for Obsidian as most of others either. As Dart pointed out, their games are clunky and depressing.

I still hope PoE will be good though. I'm always hoping developers prove me wrong and surprise me with excellent games... Only about a month or two away till PoE!

Btw, I voted Bioware for the *best* developers. To be fair, I haven't played many of games developed by other companies but I don't think any of the companies have consistently produced high quality/excellent games. So I decided to go with the company that gave me best experience - BG2

purpleblob said:

Eh, isn't Wasteland 2 inXile title?

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Pretty much yeah. When you look up WL2 though you'll see both companies listed as the developer. I guess Obsidian helped them in a few areas, but I'm not certain to what extent.

Voted for CD Project.
Although all of them are great in their own way. They stand behind memorable games which we enjoyed playing.
My favorite devs.
1. CD Project & Larian
2. Basilisk
3. Spiderwebs
4. PB