There are developers, that no matter how many times we try to get on with them, there's just no point where their work manages to click with us.

Sonic Team after Sonic 3 & Knuckles, is my example. How exactly they've managed to mismanage a franchise for over 20 years, kill the Sega Saturn over one developer throwing a fit, and never once even fluke into a working formula is something which has thrown them into a special basket case where they're best at making games that explicitly don't have their titular character involved.

Naughty Dog after Jak. What's with this string of miserable games that are nothing but thinly veiled social commentaries? Who left or joined the company to cause it transform from the creators of Crash Bandicoot into that?

Rockstar after GTA San Andreas: So let me get this right. Rather than making the games flow faster and feel better, this is still the developer of "Tap X to Run" and "watch a realistic animal skinning". Who is this annoyingly droll cowboy simulator for? And similarly to the Naughty Dog example; why are the stories about misery?

Game Freak after Generation V of Pokemon: The series peaked and now it's clear the current development pipeline isn't gong to work. A multibillion dollar media franchise and the franchise is still treated like it's on the Game Boy with 15 people. And then their best attempt to spin off was Little Town Hero; a resounding failure. How does this studio manage to not get reprimanded more? And don't get me started on the absolute drivel the anime is.

Eidos after the Square buyout: The death of a legacy. Deus Ex, Gex, Tomb Raider, Thief and more. From the former sires of Looking Glass Studios and other legends, how is this studio managing to do squat with such a large legacy? Prequelitis is such a shame of a disease to have caught.

Tamsoft, Marvelous, Meteorise, Honey Parade Games (Anyone who has had a hand in making Senran Kagura games.)
I admit to being a pervert; I once made a post on this very forum that was nothing but an excuse to namedrop the titles of furry porn comics.
But the Senran Kagura games are well beyond taking the piss, taking the concept of ecchi well beyond when porn's free.

To be fair, I don't mind miserable games. Should be more of them to be honest.

Sega during the Sonic 06 era and beyond, of course. If given more time, 06 could've been much better and bigger, and it is already showing ambition and passion if you look beyond the jank. Then they peaked in this era with Unleashed, and ever since then all games that carried the Sonic label felt lackluster. Yes, even Mania with its constant dependence on using zones we've been through a thousand times, the only good thing Mania did is bring back Blue Spheres.

Bethesda. Their reliance on modders to fix their every game breaking issue is already hideous, but they also have big, world-changing mods taken down for the heck of it. Rockstar goes into this pile too, but the bugs aren't as bad (usually) and the legal is what really stinks.

Speaking of legal, Nintendo.

Idea Factory. They release a game every once in a blue moon here, deeply integrate their other games with random integrations, and still consistently manage to not release new DLCs, updates for the games they already released here until years after the fact.


"But Pook, what devs CLICKED with you?"

Nihon Falcom. For one, their games are always quality experiences for once. For the other, they're very consistent about updates and releases on GOG. Also they use pretty badass music in their games, especially the Ys series.

This. 100% this. I had loved playing through their Crash Bandicoot and Jack & Daxter games. And then the magic stopped. So disappointing.

I can never get away with the Life is Strange Devs, I get the appeal but the approach is just kinda...off-putting? Tried but no cigar.

343 studios is another, Halo just does not bang since they've been in the driving seat

IOI of Hitman GOTY "fame". I had read these new Hitman games are supposed to be "the Netflix of assassination videogames" or something to that effect. I buy to own not to rent; and don't want anything to do with the Netflix model of things. By contrast, I love the classic Hitman games and they are complete without any such nonsense.

CDPR of Cyberpunk 2077 "fame" and GWENT "fame". I understand that most people accept bad design, so companies merrily continue locking content behind online connection (see above). However, when a company is associated with DRM-free, it is particularly appalling to have any online requirements for content or to have online-only games.

Ubisoft. Aside from DRM-ing everything up to the eyeballs, a lot of their "Tower Climbing Simulators" look ultra-repetitive, ie, "you played Far Cry 3, you played them all". Likewise having read many of his books in the past, I don't see any resemblance whatsoever in the new "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Splinter Cell Siege Ghost Recon Future Shadow Conviction Phantom Blacklist, Cash Cow Variation #347") wall of spam vs the man's actual work, especially since he died 7 years ago and everything "Tom Clancy" post 2013 obviously isn't his work at all. Way past time to come up with some new ideas and let the man rest in peace...

The death of Looking Glass Studios was a damn tragedy. As for why Square Enix put out so little after "inheriting" them, I think it's the Bioware Syndrome, ie, all the real talent simply moved onto other studios and what's left is a husk. Eg, Ken Levine (Lead SS2 designer), Sara Verrilli (Thief Designer), Ian Vogel, Nate Wells and Dorian Hart (SS2 level designers) all worked on the Bioshocks, Terri Brosius (voice of Shodan & Thief designer) worked on Dishonored (hence the huge Thief Easter Egg in it). Rafael Jabulani Brown (Thief designer) worked on Mass Effect, Karen Wolff (Thief artist) worked on GTA V, Alex Duran (Thief programmer) worked on Deus Ex, Doom (2016) and Prey (2017), Emil Pagliarulo (Thief 2 designer) worked on Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 3-4, etc. The serious concentration of talent that LGS once had just moved onto other studios that wanted the talent that Square Enix bought and never used...

So you're just going to single out the whole company for the hubris of a single studio? But also, their reliance on an ass old engine that has been functionally broken since they first made it while having a gameplay loop so formulaic that you can clap to the beat. Speaking of archaic, Nintendo is my top contender for "You should actually listen to fans every once in a while", with Animal Crossing being my top pick for this. There are blindingly obvious quality of life features the latest entry could use. Idea factory of Bad Apple Wars fame? Cause I just tried to look them up on Moby and my eyes glazed over looking at that massive wall of shovelware. Neat! Yeah, I'm glad they at least realized there was room for more than misery porn. (Sorry Pooka) Wasn't this a studio literally created to continue the Halo series? I thought about mentioning them, but then I realized I haven't played a game involving their uh, "Handiwork". Ah, a studio husk. A shame indeed.

SEGA owns the franchise and decides when things release and what they should do with it. I consider "Sonic Team" to be no more than "the part of SEGA that works on Sonic," or in other words, they're just SEGA.

Maybe if they stop using Denuvo on their other franchises as well... Of Agarest and Mary Skelter fame. Oh, and how could I forget Hyperdimension Neptune fame.

Yup. The name is a reference to the franchise as well.

For me, off the top of my head:

1) Ubisoft. I got so fed up with UPlay back in the day that I stopped buying their games, and since they're churning out the same games over and over again year after year now, there's no reason for me to play them outside of home either.

2) Bethesda. They haven't made a new game since Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

3) BioWare. Thanks for the original Mass Effect, good riddance for everything afterwards.

1) Whereabouts would you say that Ubisoft fell into this profitable funk?

2) One could argue they never made a good game, just good flukes.

3) Isn't Bioware the posterchild for "EA Graveyard Studio"?

From Soft: It's the same boring game in a somewhat different setting every time, with one or two smaller differences.

I started playing different titles, but at sone point boredom kicks in. The combat is slow, not even deliberate. You roll through an attack, hit a few times, then roll a couple times again. Rinse and repeat.

I like the world building and the design, but the gameplay is just too dull for me. Your mileage may vary. :P

no.... I can not think of a single one. There are games that I don't like, sure, but I can't think of a single developer that I don't like. For example I don't like racing games, and then you have Codemasters who only make racing games, but that again they have for example the Overlord games and Dizzy, which I quite like.

So while there are many games that don't click with me, I always go by a game to game basis more than developers.

(if there is any developers I don't click with, it would be something like National Alliance....)

1) It's been too long for me to remember - I never got round to playing Assassin's Creed because of this.

2) Fair point. I did enjoy Morrowind, but lord knows it's filled with issues of its own - that game really set the course for the community fixing problems that shouldn't have been there in the first place. And creating many more on the side.

3) Definitely. The unacceptable piece of shit that is Mass Effect 2 really hammered that point home for me; it was probably one of the key experiences that turned me away from AAA games as well, although it would be hugely unfair to blame of game or one studio for that disillusionment.

Amanita Design.

They seem to "click" perfectly well with lots of people, but I always found their games dull and their art-style completely off-putting.