Top 5 Studios that are No Longer With Us @ The Armchair Empire

Black Isle is certainly the one I miss the most, though quite a few of the developers and designers now work at Obsidian. Maybe they will develop a "new PS:T" at Obsidian, but I doubt it - the market has changed too much.

Still, the people are obviously very skilled, so we will certainly get many good RPGs from them in the future (whether at Obsidian or other, new companies).

broderbund

epyx

Microprose

I think technically Black Isle still exists because so does Intperplay

this would make a great poll. its certainly a great discussion topic.

What was the name of that Atari development group that made all their hit games?

Wow, broderbund and epyx. There's a memory. Microzine from Scholastic. Semi-educational titles on the ol' Apple IIe. Great old fun.

Aye, I'd forgotten about Sierra. Shame on me. Like Origin, they were major factors in the evolution of gaming. Judging Origin based on Ultima IX is fairly ludicrous. And let's not forget they did much more than Ultima alone. They were in no way a one trick pony.

LucasArts still exists, but has been but a shadow of its former self (yes, there is some rekindled hope on that front recently).

Ion Storm is a tricky one. While they'd be in a top 5 favorite list for me (Deus Ex may be my all time favorite game), like Troika, I don't know if I'd put them in my top 5 dead studios. I guess it depends on how you define the meaning of this list. I was defining it on how the company impacted gaming. While I adore Ion Storm and Troika, I don't feel they made the same impact as Origin or Looking Glass or Sierra. But perhaps that's unfair. Those older companies existed in a more formative time in gaming history, so I suppose it was inevitable they'd be changing the landscape of gaming. There WERE the landscape of gaming.

(Woah, got a whole nostagic wave when Lucky and Bedwyr mentioned Microzine and broderbund. Must...resist...temptation...to...break...out...][e emulator.)

Anyways, fun topic indeed.

Edit: SSI is worthy of mention as well.

This list is bunk. You could do a top ten and 3 of those on this list shouldn't be on it.

I hate lists...lame.

Troika and Origin not here makes this list null and void.

Wow, to say that origin would be there if space operahs were popular....it looks like you got on late to the origin bandwagon....the last ultima was released by ea after they had bought origin....hence alot of the problems with the game(alot of the original team was no longer there)

bioforge, wing commander, renegade, strike force....I think origin was one of my favs back in the day...every release by them was a solid title.