Most Influential Companies in Gaming
6 years ago
Michigan, USA

My friends and I have been debating the top 5 most influential companies in all of gaming and here is our list, our honorable mentions, and a few we are trying to decide on (in order)

  1. Nintendo
  2. Valve
  3. Game Freak
  4. Square Enix
  5. Either Sony or Blizzard

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order) Microsoft, Sega, Atari, Infinity Ward, Rockstar, iD, Bethesda, From Software, Rare, and Capcom

Ones we're currently debating Mojang, Bioware, and Riot Games

what do you guys think?

Zachoholic and tuff_lover like this

Square invented jRPG (1st), Nintendo made console games actually feasable (2nd), Game Freak uh...Pokemon I guess (3rd), Valve killed console gaming (4th), Sony makes shitty games n consoles (cough PS4 cough), stuff like that (5th)

Riot Games eh, no real good or bad value... Mojang nothing special either, Bioware uh...X-Com (?)

...

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

"Square invented jRPG (1st), "

dragon quest was before final fantasy

Lol FF is more popular than DQ...just sayin

spells casted

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

you underestimate how popular dragon quest is in japan

just because it's not as "popular" (which is highly debatable, really) doesn't mean you shouldn't credit it as being the first (and even then you can argue that even DQ isn't the first)

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Granolant, ItzSweeney and 2 others like this
North Carolina, USA

I don't think that it's companies more so than certain games when we talk about trends in games themselves.

When you say influential what sort of metrics are you considering to determine that? You can judge companies by the amount of $ they've earned or you could judge them by # of games, trends they've influenced etc. I think that the best metric is how they affected game development and game design trends.

Nintendo, Atari, Valve, Microsoft, Sony, Blizzard have all had the most widespread influence in gaming, and I think the reasons are quite obvious behind all of them. One thing to note is I only put Blizzard on this list due to WoW, not Overwatch - Overwatch has had very little influence on the FPS genre as a whole. WoW began an era of oversaturation in the MMO market because of the developers that tried to follow its success but never managed to replicate well.

As far as the 3 you're debating: Mojang/Minecraft spawned a lot of copy cats but its influence on an entire genre is negligible (having a bunch of games attempting to copycat a game isn't something I'd call a genre), Bioware has had many good games but none that have been influential in defining, creating, or altering a genre, and Riot Games simply manages to dominate a genre without influencing many trends in the genre.

Not just popular...

but made it into "MAINSTREAM" material

forgot to mention that

sorry for overdue!

Edited by the author 6 years ago
United States

dragon quest is also mainstream in japan next you'll be saying the same things about shin megami tensei

tuff_lover likes this

¤edited a bit

Richmond, VA, USA
  1. Nintendo
  2. Nintendo
  3. Nintendo
  4. Nintendo
  5. Nintendo HM) Sega Kappa
United States

"Dragon Quest has become a cultural phenomenon in Japan.[141] According to Ryutaro Ichimura and Yuji Horii, Dragon Quest has become popular enough that it is used as a common topic for conversation in Japan,[142] and is considered by the Japanese gaming industry as Japan's national game.[111] William Cassidy of GameSpy claims that "the common wisdom is that if you ask someone from Japan to draw 'Slime,' he'll draw the onion-like shape of the weak enemies from the game."[102][143] With the Japanese release of Dragon Quest IX in January 2009, a new eatery inspired by the series called Luida's Bar was opened in Roppongi, a well-known nightlife hotspot in Minato, Tokyo. This was notable due to the usual center of Tokyo's gaming culture being Akihabara rather than Roppongi. The venue provides a meeting location for fans of the series: styled in the fashion of a Medieval public house like its virtual counterpart, its food is directly inspired by both items and monsters found in the games. It was described by a Western journalist as a cross between a Disneyland resort and a maid café[144][145] Dragon Quest also served as the inspiration for a live-action television drama. Yūsha Yoshihiko initially aired in July 2011, with a sequel series being produced and released the following year.[146] For its 2012 April Fool's Hoax, Google announced a "NES version" of its Google Maps service, which uses graphics and music licensed from Dragon Quest.[147]

There is an urban myth that the release of Dragon Quest III caused a law to be passed in Japan banning the sale of Dragon Quest games or video games in general except on certain days such as weekends or national holidays.[11][148][149] When III was released in Japan, over 300 schoolchildren were arrested for truancy while waiting in stores for the game to be released.[150] The rumor claims there was a measurable dip in productivity when a Dragon Quest game was released and although muggings of Dragon Quest titles became so widespread there were hearings in the Japanese Diet, no law was ever passed. However, the Japanese release of every Dragon Quest title continued to be on a Saturday until the release of Dragon Quest X, which was released on Thursday, August 2, 2012. Nevertheless, each new Dragon Quest launch is widely anticipated.[11][148][149]

Dragon Quest's music has been influential on various sectors of the performing arts. It is the first video game series to receive live-action ballet adaptations,[151] and musical concerts and audio CDs were produced based on the Dragon Quest universe.[96] Since 1987 the series' music is performed annually in concert halls throughout Japan.[11] Early Dragon Quest concerts inspired Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy compositions.[152]"

Crockey likes this
Michigan, USA

the main reason I had Riot Games on there isn't because of LoL itself per se, but the impact it had on bring eSports to the mainstream. I feel like Lol has severely impacted the eSports team and kind of the main reason it's getting as big as it is today

California, USA

I think that Bethesda should be on the top 5 because I feel like they revolutionized the RPG games with Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Maybe there was something before them though idk :p