What developers and/or publishers did you obsessively follow and then stopped for whatever reason?

[daTRUballin]

Previously, I had made a thread posing the same question except with video game franchises (https://www.resetera.com/threads/wh...hen-your-interest-faded-out-over-time.168117/), but I also wanted to ask the same thing about video game companies/publishers/developers and whatnot as this kind of discussion is always interesting.

I'm not sure if I have any noteworthy examples from myself for this one as I don't/didn't follow too many developers that closely and the ones that I do currently follow.........Well, I still currently follow lol. When I was younger, I would mostly be obsessed over certain franchises or IPs rather than any companies or individuals making the games. I guess I could extend my former obsessions with those franchises to the developers to some extent too (for example, I guess I paid more attention to studios like Infinity Ward and Treyarch back during my time as a teenage COD fanboy), but I was always more focused on the games themselves no matter who was making them.

I'm sure many of you probably have more interesting examples to give and experiences to share, so have at it! Have there been any game creators that your gaming life basically revolved around and then dropped off your radar either suddenly or slowly over time? And why? Maybe the quality of their games degraded over the years? Or maybe certain individuals you admire or respect left their respective companies? Or they have adopted certain business practices that don't sit well with you? Mismanagement of your favorite franchises? Etc. Etc.

My last thread basically turned out to be Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts the thread lol. I predict this one will be Konami, Bioware, and Square the thread. Maybe some Rare, Bungie, and Capcom thrown in for good measure. :p

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I imagine you will see a lot of Blizzard after both recent events and their game quality lately.

Mine is Konami and was Capcom but they back!

 

[Le Dude]

Retro, haha.

Hard to follow when they haven't really done anything in a while.

 

[Strings]

Intelligent Systems went from making three series I really love (Paper Mario, Advance Wars and Fire Emblem) to just one that isn't super focused on my tastes anymore (Fire Emblem). Still care about them, but yeah.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Thinking about it, Capcom has been the only company that I've ever cared to follow. Even during their weaker times, they're the only ones I made a note of to see what they were planning and how their fiscal plans were working out. I've never fell out on how much I follow what they're doing.

Though I guess Atlus would sort of fit with the thread title. I was ready to buy anything they made after I player Persona 3 Portable. But I definitely don't feel the same way about them now.

 

[GamerJM]

Intelligent Systems went from making three series I really love (Paper Mario, Advance Wars and Fire Emblem) to just one that isn't super focused on my tastes anymore (Fire Emblem). Still care about them, but yeah.

Click to shrink...

I remember when I was a kid if "Intelligent Systems" was on the box somewhere I knew I was going to be in for some good shit. I still love them but they're basically the Fire Emblem company now.

 

[Strings]

Thinking about it, Capcom has been the only company that I've ever cared to follow. Even during their weaker times, they're the only ones I made a note of to see what they were planning and how their fiscal plans were working out. I've never fell out on how much I follow what they're doing.

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Similarly, the main ones I follow have always had at least one thing that's consistently been good enough to keep being enthusiastic about them (SE: KH, handheld games, Atlus: ... Never really stopped makeing games I like).

 

[Twister]

Treyarch. I loved Black Ops 2 and 3 for the gameplay overall, but mainly the zombies storyline and gameplay. Black Ops 4 ruined the zombies mode so badly that I never want to touch anything they've made ever again because I don't trust their team. They responded to a huge fan outcry with basically "suck it up, this is what we've chosen and it's too bad for you" so I will vote with my wallet

 

[Jon God]

I generally continue to follow all my favorite developers until they aren't my favorite developers anymore.

Like, I played Bungie games since Myth 1 (1997), but Destiny showed me I don't really like their games anymore.

Reflections made the Driver series, which I loved through thick and thin, but they haven't really done anything worthy of note since Driver San Franscisco, eexcept the Grow ___ series. Which is good, but nothing I really care about in the long term.

LucasArts made a lot of classic games I grew up with, but for about a decade they didn't release anything good. By the time the closed, I didn't really care anymore, a lot of the people that made said iconic games were not there anymore, and nothing they had in the pipeline ever seemed like it would even release.

I am a little worried that DICE will be next. I loved Battlefield 1 and Battlefront 2015, but I really do not like Battlefront II or Battlefield V. :/

I know that Neversoft went from making the sublime Tony Hawk series into making the poor man's Guitar Hero series, and then making Call of Duty content. None of which made me care about them after THPS.

 

[Deleted member 35987]

Bungie. I still play their games, but I don't follow them as closely. Same with 343.

 

[Nessus]

Blizzard, because they stopped making games I cared about (everything from WarCraft 3 onwards, StarCraft 2 being the only thing I've been remotely interested in from them since Brood War, and SC2 was a bit of a disappointment).

Valve, because they stopped making games I cared about (everything after Portal 2, though of course Half-Life: Alyx has me interested again).

 

[Deleted member 27872]

Atlus when I was younger and didnt notice the homophobic and transphobic stuff. Now that im aware of it I kinda stopped following them completely

 

[jak153]

Naughty Dog. I grew up on and loved Jak and Daxter and a possible sequel was one of the main reasons I wanted a PS3 at the time. Of course that never happened but I still played UC and TLoU. I had fun with uncharted but didn't really care for TLoU nor am I excited for its sequel. They make fine games but they're definitely not my favorite developer anymore and I really hope they make a new IP with a more lighthearted tone

 

[daTRUballin]

Naughty Dog. I grew up on and loved Jak and Daxter and a possible sequel was one of the main reasons I wanted a PS3 at the time. Of course that never happened but I still played UC and TLoU. I had fun with uncharted but didn't really care for TLoU nor am I excited for its sequel. They make fine games but they're definitely not my favorite developer anymore and I really hope they make a new IP with a more lighthearted tone

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Didn't ND say that cartoony lighthearted games are beneath them these days or something like that? I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

 

[jak153]

Didn't ND say that cartoony lighthearted games are beneath them these days or something like that? I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you.

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I don't think they've ever said that I think you might be thinking of people just repeating "it would be a waste of talent for ND to make a game like Jak and Daxter after making TLoU". They have said that they carved out a niche of telling a gripping narrative but I think that they can do that with a light hearted tone like with uncharted

 

[Zukkoyaki]

Blizzard a little over a decade ago. I used to be obsessed with WoW and grew up on Starcraft and Diablo II but sometime around 07-08 I just kind of stopped caring about thier games. Shortly after that I went off to college with nothing but a mediocre laptop and fell off PC gaming entirely.

 

[Pyro]

Bungie throughout the Halo days and up until the release of Destiny. Glad they've got their independence, but I'm not interested in anything they're currently doing.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Bungie. Destiny 1 was that disappointing for me. Then I came back and tried Destiny 2 and it was even worse.

I don't know if I can ever trust them again after those games.

 

[Cecil]

I wouldn't say obsessively, but Bethesda Softworks releases used to be something special. Even when they released games with really rough edges, they did something few, if any, other developers did.

But after Fallout 4, and some hours with it, it's just become so apparent that they're not even trying to play to their strength anymore. They're not doing RPG's, or even streamlined RPG's. They're going after the looter shooter crowd.

And that's when I opt out from following them.

 

[Kernspalt-Kartoffel]

Gearbox... Borderlands 2 is one of my favorite games and I have played that nearly 400h with friends. We were super hyped for Borderlands 3... only to be super disappointed. First the Epic exclusivity, a bummer but no deal breaker for me, I preordered the ultimate edition for 100€. When the game came out it was nearly unplayable as the performance and the framepacing was completely shit. The game itself was a bugfest too and many QoL features were missing that happened to be in Borderlands 2. They promised to fix the game in future updates... the first update came 3 WEEKS after release and fixed like none of the problems we had with the game. And I had tried absolutely everything already to make the game run acceptable so we could play it (and its not because my computer is shit, 8700k@5ghz, 2080ti and 32gb ddr4@3200mhz should definetly be enough to handle the game without problems) but nothing helped. So we waited... after e few more weeks there came an update that improved perfomance a little bit and improved the framepacing. They said it was the first of many performance updates to come... it still is the only performance update they ever released. Instead of performance updates, they released balancing updates. Thats when we decided to not wait any longer and live with the barely acceptable perfomance. We played the game and realised that the gunplay is cool and all, but the story and quest design are not nearly as good as they were in Borderlands 2. The characters that we wanted more of were rare to be seen and even the maps you play on are not as exciting or diverse as in Borderlands 2. I have not finished Borderlands 3 and I am not sure that this is going to change. It has been my biggest gaming disappointment ever and teached me not to preorder anything. Prior to the Borderlands 3 release date I soaked up every tiny bit of news regarding it and red every tweet Gearbox posted... Now I could not care less what they post or what content is coming to the game.

 

[Clive]

Square Enix (Japan) was my world as a JRPG loving PS1 kid and I think they during that era was at the absolute top of the industry in terms of innovation and scope of their games. I saved all the money I could find and even modded my console so I could import their American releases to Europe.

Then came the PS2 and their output started becoming less important to me even if they still put out a few generational highlights like FFX and the KH series.

With the PS360 after that it was like all their magic had disappeared. There was a pretty surface but their games were no longer among the biggest and best in the industry. A Final Fantasy game was no longer the gaming highlight of the year.

Now I care more about Square Enix' western franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex than their Japanese games. Maybe it is because care less about JRPGs in general but I feel Square Enix (Japan) is no longer an industry leader or innovator regardless of how you look at it. They're just one dev among many.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

I don't know if you mean companies or full developers, but I'm pretty "obsessed" (not to an unhealthy degree) with Hugo Martin. He is, without a doubt, the new Todd Howard at Bethesda. It's really just a question if they give him more freedom within id/all of Bethesda or if he'll remain the Doomguy (had to do it lol).

 

[mrgoomba]

Rare, was a huge fan on SNes and N64 era, I don't follow them anymore cause they don't make games I'm interested lately.

 

[Deleted member 55311]

IDK about obsessed but the closest would be Bungie. They were one of the only game companies I would watch dev diaries/documentaries from. I followed everything they put out. They stopped working on Halo and I stopped caring about them.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

This is going to sound weird but EA. There was this sweet spot last gen when Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Dead Space, and Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning all had crossover DLC with each other in various combinations (Dead Space-inspired armor in Dragon Age, Reckoning-inspired weapons in Mass Effect, etc.). All of my favorite games/series were coming from EA and they all had crossover easter eggs with each other? I loved it! EA was riding high. Then they somehow turned a corner to a place where other than BioWare, who's not exactly in a great spot, they're not publishing anything I'm remotely interested in.

 

[Deleted member 3208]

I imagine you will see a lot of Blizzard after both recent events and their game quality lately.

Click to shrink...

Well, that was me; absolutely adored Blizzard when I was a kid. In fact, I wanted to become a game developer and work there.

That said, Blitzchung and Warcraft 3 Reforged didn't make me dislike Blizzard. Starcraft 2 and WoW after WotLK are some of the games that made me realize the Blizzard I love died.

 

[Deleted member 46948]

Blizzard. I used to religiously follow their games and related community websites, but in recent years, I honestly have zero interest in whatever they're doing.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

Well, that was me; absolutely adored Blizzard when I was a kid. In fact, I wanted to become a game developer and work there.

That said, Blitzchung and Warcraft 3 Reforged didn't make me dislike Blizzard. Starcraft 2 and WoW after WotLK are some of the games that made me realize the Blizzard I love died.

Click to shrink...

Oh for sure SC 2 was a mess and then Diablo 3 at launch also. Although WoW is a weird one, WoTLK was great, then Cata sucked, then Mists was back to being great again, then shit again with WoD, but hey then pretty good again with Legion and now back to shit lol. You can definitely tell the old Blizzard is gone though, pretty sad.

 

[daTRUballin]

I don't know if you mean companies or full developers, but I'm pretty "obsessed" (not to an unhealthy degree) with Hugo Martin. He is, without a doubt, the new Todd Howard at Bethesda. It's really just a question if they give him more freedom within id/all of Bethesda or if he'll remain the Doomguy (had to do it lol).

Click to shrink...

Anything counts in this thread. You can list certain individuals or directors like you did and you can also talk about entire companies (both publishers and developers).

 

[Deleted member 56752]

This is going to sound weird but EA. There was this sweet spot last gen when Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Dead Space, and Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning all had crossover DLC with each other in various combinations (Dead Space-inspired armor in Dragon Age, Reckoning-inspired weapons in Mass Effect, etc.). All of my favorite games/series were coming from EA and they all had crossover easter eggs with each other? I loved it! EA was riding high. Then they somehow turned a corner to a place where other than BioWare, who's not exactly in a great spot, they're not publishing anything I'm remotely interested in.

Click to shrink...

Problem is though they've got the casual market covered. If you are remotely interested in sports, they're the only option

 

[Thordawgg]

Blizzard up until Diablo 3, dabbled a bit from friends trying to entice me back with their various franchises but I just lost interest.

The series of blunders they've wandered through in the last couple of years has completely cooled me off them but that's pretty coincidental

 

[olag]

Bungie and Bioware . Both have stopped making games which endeared me to them and instead have shifted to making "shared expiriences".

 

[KiNolin]

Nintendo. Then Wii support died only halfway through its generation and was followed up by WiiU. Yeah.