Does the best development team fall under Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, or a Third Party Studio? And Why?

[learning]

As the title states: Does the best development team fall under Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, or a Third Party Studio? And please explain, in a few sentences or paragraphs, why?

Note that the question is not your favorite development team, but rather the best development team. What "best" means--well, that's up for debate. You can consider second-party developers as first-party developers.

Again, best, not favorite. Definitions for both below:

Best: "of the highest quality, excellence, or standing"

Favorite: "regarded with particular favor or preference"

Interested to hear all of your opinions!

 

[Angst]

Best is subjective to your personal tastes. The best would be your favorite.

 

[Deleted member 63305]

All based on the individuals taste is video games.

 

[defaltoption]

Best development team probably falls under Nintendo, even with Sony who has my favorite teams you can always find clear agreed upon issues even from fans. Nintendo literally puts out 10/10 like every year. Plus doesn't Nintendo have the highest rated games average in the industry.

 

[Sanka]

From Software and Platinum Games are third party, so that would be my answer. Though there are so many great studios and games that it's impossible to choose the best.

 

[Servbot24]

IMO the best studio is Naughty Dog. That's purely in terms of talent on staff + history of quality output.

My favorite would be FROM, Retro, or an indie studio.

 

[Corine]

Easily third party. I wouldn't even say it's close. Just more innovation happening with third parties than any of the first party games. First party can have more polish and stuff but that's just time and money. The best skilled developers are all third party.

 

[JimJamJones]

Nintendo - top quality stuff without crunch.

 

[Deleted member 59109]

Right now Nintendo, because of Retro Studios (the DK games) and Smash Ultimate. Those are the 3 best games of the decade imo. There isn't really a "best", it's just what your favorite is.

 

[Browser]

Best is subjective to your personal tastes. The best would be your favorite.

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This. what Sony came out with in this gen was by miles my favorite games and helped me keep interested in video games, as I get older with more things to do, if it wasn't for most of Sonys exclusives this gen I think I would not be playing games as much anymore.

Does not mean Nintendo didn't come out with awesome stuff also. But for me personally the sony stuff is better, so I give it to them.

 

[Bard]

In terms of quality and consistency it's easily Nintendo.

 

[Bundy]

Clearly Sony. Their mix between their 1st party studios and their XDev teams worldwide in NA, Japan and Europe is simply amazing and unparalleled.

 

[Deleted member 5491]

Best based on metascore?
On innovation in games?
On the work conditions?

There are many metrics

 

[Jachaos]

Easily third party. I wouldn't even say it's close. Just more innovation happening with third parties than any of the first party games. First party can have more polish and stuff but that's just time and money. The best skilled developers are all third party.

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I took the question to mean all of Nintendo vs all of Sony vs all of Microsoft vs say all of EA vs say all of Ubisoft, etc., but right, if it's all third-party developers combined, indies even not just big 3rd party publishers, then yes, I'd have voted that.

 

[Damn Silly]

I imagine somebody like Ubisoft probably has the best mix of quality work mixed with quality of life for the developers which I suppose is how I would specifically choose the best over my personal favourites.

 

[Rodelero]

Comfortably Sony.

Giving Nintendo the nod seems to ignore some pretty major problems: they have never not made a mess of online features in their games, and their games don't push the medium technically. Their overall cadence is also pretty weak these days. As impressive as their launch year was, they haven't followed It up at all.

 

[NaDannMaGoGo]

To me, From Software is currently one of the most impressive AAA studios that deliver high quality games frequently. So, Third Party Studio it is for me.

 

[Secretofmateria]

Why my favorite console maker of course? Why you may ask? Because they make my favorite plastic box, the games that are made don't appear on your box therefore they make me feel secure in my buying decisions. Plus i can add that game to my list when its time for list warz!

 

[cowbanana]

In terms of tech + gameplay it's Sony without a doubt.

 

[banter]

Comfortably Sony.

Giving Nintendo the nod seems to ignore some pretty major problems: they have never not made a mess of online features in their games, and their games don't push the medium technically at all. They are ALWAYS pushing the medium. Their overall cadence is also pretty weak.

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While your point holds for online, not pushing the medium is a joke. The had the first analog sticks, the first rumble, the first motion controls, and the first 3D. Regardless, this is referring to game development, not the things you've listed.

 

[Ricky_R]

My favorites are definitely under Sony right now. ND is first on that list for me by a healthy margin.

 

[MrS]

From Software is the best development studio. Outside of them, I'd take games by Santa Monica Studio, Sony Bend and ND over games made by any studio under MS and Nintendo.

 

[Castor Archer]

Capcom and Fromsoft have been my favorite these past few years.

 

[Raylan]

Sony for me. Better games and studios.

 

[Windu]

I'll take every other publisher in existence. I'm sure you could find one in there that is better.

 

[Domcorleone]

Sony is my favorite but I'd say Nintendo. Almost all of their exclusives are great and have great devs behind them. Sony is super close second imo.

 

[Rogote]

Nintendo - top quality stuff without crunch.

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Joke post or do you actually believe this?

 

[Deleted member 4067]

Nintendo. Unless you really like films then Sony

 

[Deleted member 3017]

1. Nintendo EPD Tokyo
2. From Software
3. Nintendo EPD (Aonuma's team)
4. Naughty Dog

Nintendo would be my answer.

 

[Iron Eddie]

It's clearly Nintendo, they have proven to be able to survive on 1st party alone. Give them all the same hardware, the same price, no third party deals and let's see who sells best.

 

[Homura]

Monolith Soft.
They made one of the best and biggest JRPGs of the generation under 3 years with only 40 people.

 

[Sub Boss]

for me its Nintendo and Capcom (including Platinum), FROM software is also very awesome

 

[Rogote]

But yeah it's quite easily Sony.

 

[AzorAhai]

Quality: Nintendo.

But Sony is getting more interesting as a publisher and quality-wise their top studios are now reaching Nintendo-quality. So in the long run Sony might get my vote.

One thing is sure: for now these twe are far beyond the rest. Microsoft still has a lot to prove for instance, they are nowhere in the same league.

 

[stat84]

FROM Software by far my favorite.They have made 6 amazing games in 10 years nobody can top that

 

[Kingpin722]

Nintendo. Their software output is the only one's who I believe could, at minimum, replicate its success regardless of the hardware it's released on. The fact that they've found a way, especially in this era where graphics help drive appeal of games, to attract consumers with the mechanics of their games speaks volumes to the quality of their releases.

Sony is close but I don't feel that their gameplay is at a level that would separate them. Most of there recent praise is from a technical standpoint, and any dev (1st, 2nd, or 3rd) can make a great game technically given the proper hardware+budget.

I mean Nintendo has the world hooked on Animal Crossing currently, despite FF7 Remake and Doom Eternal being out.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

nintendo, ez

edit: as for what team, i'd have to go with the tokyo mario team or the zelda team. they've made so many timeless, game changing games over the past 4 decades, and they keep innovating and pushing the boundaries of game design.

 

[learning]

Best is subjective to your personal tastes. The best would be your favorite.

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I disagree. For instance, my favorite game may match my likes perfectly.

I would not mark that as the 'best game' if I knew another title, which I also thoroughly enjoyed, had better level design, more masterful controls, and beautiful visuals.

Put more simply, check the definitions of Best and Favorite:

Best: "of the highest quality, excellence, or standing"

Favorite: "regarded with particular favor or preference"

Anyways, I don't mean for this topic to be a semantic debate, so carry on.

 

[JimJamJones]

Joke post or do you actually believe this?

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Well...

 

[Lyre]

Comfortably Sony.

Giving Nintendo the nod seems to ignore some pretty major problems: they have never not made a mess of online features in their games, and their games don't push the medium technically. Their overall cadence is also pretty weak these days. As impressive as their launch year was, they haven't followed It up at all.

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- Odyssey 2 and BotW are the best reviewed games of the generation.
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the best reviewed exclusive last year; Super Mario Maker, Link's Awakening and Luigi's Mansion 3 were the second-, third- and fifth-best rated exclusives of last year (Astral Chain was fourth, which was published by...you guessed it, Nintendo).
- Animal Crossing is the best-rated exclusive of this year.
- BotW2 will be the best-rated exclusive of whatever year it releases.
- There are only two Sony-published games rated better than Smash Ultimate
- lol

 

[Spazerbeam]

Capcom or Platinum for sure. Not really impressed with what any first party studio is doing except Guerrilla.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Their overall cadence is also pretty weak these days.

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Cadence...as in frequency of releases?

 

[Fadewise]

There's no such thing as "best development team", and thinking about it in such reductive terms serves no purpose other than to fan the flames of fanboyism and console warring. Every single software development team in existence has both strengths and weaknesses, and it's not a zero sum race-to-the-top.

 

[XVerdena]

From Software is third party

 

[AndyVirus]

Nintendo. Unless you really like films then Sony

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Everyone likes films.

 

[tusk]

Nintendo. They focus on gameplay, Sony focuses on Hollywood.

 

[silva1991]

Capcom and Fromsoft have been my favorite these past few years.

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Came to say exactly this. These two are on fire this gen.

 

[DestroyerOfWorlds]

I think in many ways you have to say that a studio is best at what they do, while accepting that other studios are better in other genres or aspects of game making.

For example, I would say that Playground Games is the best racing game developer in the world, but they're probably not a very good RTS developer (and we'll see how they fare with RPGs).

 

[aevanhoe]

Easily third party. I wouldn't even say it's close. Just more innovation happening with third parties than any of the first party games. First party can have more polish and stuff but that's just time and money. The best skilled developers are all third party.

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So you're grouping all third party studios vs first party ones? There are so many more third party studios, of course there would be more innovation. More junk also. More everything.

But when it comes to consistency of quality, I'd say Sony and Nintendo win. (Not that there's no innovation, either: Dreams, Zelda BOTW, etc.)

 

[John Bender]

Sony. They have the better games, tools, engines. Overall the better game development teams.