Who Was THE Developer/Publisher of the 90's?

[Pyro]

I just watched The Last Dance (it's really great) and was struck by a scene where Jordan & Seinfeld are talking in the locker room.

Interspersed with the locker room footage is an impromptu interview with Seinfeld where he says that the Bulls were the team of the 90s and Seinfeld was the show of the 90s. It got me wondering about what else some might consider to be representative of the decade and naturally my mind wandered to video games. Being born in '95, I know the biggest games and have an idea of their impact, and could hazard a guess, but I'm missing the proper context and tenor of what things were like in the medium/industry back then.

So Era, who was THE video game developer and/or publisher of the decade?

Was it id Software with Wolfenstein 3-D, DOOM 1/2, and Quake 1/2/3 Arena bringing the FPS to the forefront, with lots of shooters after Dec '93 simply being labelled "DOOM clones"?

Was it Capcom with Street Fighter 2/3 (and the way too many re-releases I won't put here), Marvel vs Capcom, the Mega Man X series, Dino Crisis, and Resident Evil 1-3 birthing the survival horror genre?

Was it Konami with Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night/Rondo of Blood, Suikoden 1/2, Silent Hill, Dance Dance Revolution, and The Simpsons/X-Men/TMNT arcade games?

Was it Squaresoft with Final Fantasy III-VIII, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Super Mario RPG, Romancing SaGa 1-3, Front Mission 1-3, Final Fantasy Tactics, Parasite Eve 1/2, and Xenogears?

Or was it one of the platform holders like Nintendo, SEGA, or and Sony? Or even one I didn't mention?

 

[Huskman]

hmmmm I'd wager it would either be Sony, Nintendo, or Squaresoft. Granted, my knowledge of 90's gaming is subpar.

 

[maximumzero]

I feel like it's gotta be Sega. They were making great games and pushing boundaries in the Arcade. Their arcade hardware was years ahead of practically everything on the market.

 

[HustleBun]

Saying Nintendo is cheating right? I'm assuming it's cheating because it would be too easy. Maybe Sony and SEGA shouldn't count either

I would give it to Capcom, Squaresoft and

Rare owned the 90's and we all know it. Donkey Kong Country trilogy, Goldeneye 007, Banjo-Kazooie. Let's also not forget Killer Instinct, Diddy Kong Racing, Blast Corps, Jet Force Gemini, Battletoads. That's not even including their early 2000's games like Conker, Tooie and Perfect Dark.

We didn't know how good we had it.

 

[eXistor]

So many greats: Konami and Capcom were both on a roll, Nintendo obviously. Sega (part of the 90's anyway for consoles and including arcades), Square could do no wrong at this point either.

 

[cowbanana]

Interplay published the best games.

 

[Ecks]

There wasn't really one. It would be easier to say "The system of the 90s" than a single developer, and even then, tough call. I'd say NIntendo, since their 90s output was among their best but that's just my take.

 

[Waxy]

I'd have to say Nintendo or Squaresoft, the amount of quality games they released in those years is staggering.

 

[Ferrio]

Square, everything they touched was gold.

 

[Xenosaga]

For me it was Square without a doubt. Their output on Playstation 1 was by far my favorite of any developer in any generation.
Final Fantasy VII ~ IX, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Saga Frontier 2, Front Mission, Chrono Cross, and list goes on.
I even enjoyed a lot of their smaller, niche titles from them like Einhander, Musashi, Chocobo Dungeons.

 

[bounchfx]

I mean I feel like it was Rare, or if you liked RPGs Square. Squrare

 

[Kelanflyter]

Late 90 it would be namco and Sony , but they were not that big prior the PlayStation

So I would say Nintendo capcom and konami

 

[Nazgûl]

Metal Gear Solid, Winning Eleven and Resident Evil were a big part of my childhood, so I go with Capcom and Konami.

 

[Skid 4]

 

[Strings]

It's hard to convey just how ridiculous the output of 90s Square was. For instance:

That's one year of output, and I couldn't include Vagrant Story in the screenshot (released Feb 10th), because they fucking kicked too much ass and released more than I could fit. Like, FF8, SaGa Frontier 2, Legend of Mana, Front Mission 3, Chrono Cross, Parasite Eve 2, Threads of Fate and Vagrant Story were all the same year. W T F.

 

[Mekanos]

Street Fighter dominated the early-mid 90s and Resident Evil dominated the late 90s. I think this goes to Capcom.

Nintendo might not count since they also do hardware.

 

[Pirate Bae]

Square, everything they touched was gold.

Click to shrink...

Bingo

Edit: Nintendo is up there too cause they made OoT, MM and ALTTP during those years.

 

[Strings]

Anyway, give us a poll so I can vote Square OP.

 

[Daysean]

Square went OMEGA hard back then, Capcom a hot 2nd personally

 

[Vault]

SNK

 

[mugurumakensei]

If we're talking full 90s, it'd be only Nintendo. If we want to segment, Square and EA ruled the late 90s/early 00s. Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom dominated the late 80s/early 90s.

 

[newmoneytrash]

if Diablo II came out six months earlier it would be Blizzard

 

[Brinbe]

rare and square

 

[RatskyWatsky]

The Bulls are irrelevant now and Seinfeld isn't on anymore so I think the best comparison here would be Sega.

 

[Zephy]

For me it was Squaresoft.

Side note, here in France nobody has heard of Seinfeld, I'd say Friends was the show of the 90s.

 

[PaulloDEC]

As someone who played primarily on PC and mostly played early 90s DOS games well into the late 90s, it'd probably be either Apogee/3DR, Epic or id for me personally.

 

[devon37]

During that time Nintendo Made : Super Mario world, Super Metroid, A link to The Past, Super Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time.

You could very reasonably make an argument that all of those games are in the top 10 of all time. Or even that they make up all of the top 5.

 

[Htown]

Nintendo, come on it's not even close

 

[Mekanos]

During that time Nintendo Made : Super Mario world, Super Metroid, A link to The Past, Super Mario 64, and Ocarina of Time.

You could very reasonably make an argument that all of those games are in the top 10 of all time.

Click to shrink...

Don't forget they published Pokemon.

 

[Pulp]

When I saw the thread title I immediately thought of Sierra. Real answer is probably Square or Nintendo

 

[MrNewVegas]

It's either Capcom or Konami.

Other devs such as Square excelled in one area but Capcom and Konami were covering so many genres with defining titles.

Capcom with their arcade output through the 90s was insane. Their console games as well. Capcom had premier beat em ups, fighters, shooters and even had the Breath of Fire series on SNES for the RPG base. They owned the Sega Dreamcast. In its final years they brought their arcade quality to the home.

People may say Nintendo but my answer to that is the billions SF cabs raked in throughout the decade. SF had an insane exposure than.

Capcom takes the cake for me.

 

[Grunty]

Rare. Their output of games from 1990-1999 alone was nothing short of phenomenal, especially when you consider how few people were employed. And it was a variety of a bunch of different IP, too: some old, some new, some licensed and they were all varied with different genres. Fighting, platformers, Racing, shooters (both first and third person), and so forth. Quite incredible.

 

[Devilgunman]

Capcom. While pulishers like Nintendo and Squaresoft had huge presence on console, their arcade output was really weak. Capcom was killing it on both ends. Their CPS2 and CPS3 output was legendary, combine with many huge console ip they've established on SNES and PS1, it's hard to beat the 90s Capcom.

 

[Jashobeam]

I'd say Nintendo for the first half of the 90s and Sony for the second half, basing this on them getting a cut from 3rd party game sales and having successful first party titles as well. If we are just talking exclusively about 3rd party publishers then for me it would be Squaresoft, followed very closely by Capcom.

 

[Haribokart]

Sega for me.

 

[HebrewHammer]

The Bulls are irrelevant now and Seinfeld isn't on anymore so I think the best comparison here would be Sega.

Click to shrink...

Lmfao I quite enjoyed this take.

 

[KamenSenshi]

It's hard to pick just one, pretty impossible I think. Early 90's Sega was rockin the home and throughout the decade the arcade. Nintendo was on fire with great games. Maybe console makers shouldn't count. The amount and diversity of the games that were created by all of the companies that were around really makes it challenging to find one company that would be the best overall throughout the entire decade. Capcom with all the Street Fighters and Resident Evils and Vs games is definitely top 5 for me though.

 

[kami_sama]

Nintendo and Square have the output, but I'd say Id, because they were rockstars that went beyond gaming.

 

[Horned Reaper]

Nintendo and Squaresoft. Followed by Konami and Capcom.

 

[Poimandres]

Square I'd say, but Japanese developers in general were red hot back then.

Nintendo doesn't work for me because outside of some landmark titles the N64 era was basically a huge downfall for them.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Nintendo and Square have the output, but I'd say Id, because they were rockstars that went beyond gaming.

Click to shrink...

It's hard to compare them on the same scale because id for most of the 90's was a single team of less than 20 people (I think it got to almost 40 on Quake 3, just before the turn of the millenium), while Nintendo and Square were big companies maintaining teams that developed many games in parallel.

 

[Hellfire]

Put me in the impossible to call camp.

If we're talking full 90s, it'd be only Nintendo. If we want to segment, Square and EA ruled the late 90s/early 00s. Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom dominated the late 80s/early 90s.

Click to shrink...

Square's pre-Playstation 90s output isn't too shabby either:
Final Fantasy I&II rereleased on SNES, Final Fantasy III-VI, Final Fantasy Legend II-III, Romancing Saga I-III, Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana, Trials of Mana, Front Mission, Front Mission: Gunhazard, Live a Live, Bahamut Lagoon and Treasure of the Rudras. They still managed to find time to make the Hanjuku Hero series, the odd racing game, and 4 Satellaview games.

Capcom. While pulishers like Nintendo and Squaresoft had huge presence on console, their arcade output was really weak. Capcom was killing it on both ends. Their CPS2 and CPS3 output was legendary, combine with many huge console ip they've established on SNES and PS1, it's hard to beat the 90s Capcom.

Click to shrink...

What about Sega doing the same thing?

 

[kami_sama]

It's hard to compare them on the same scale because id for most of the 90's was a single team of less than 20 people (I think it got to almost 40 on Quake 3, just before the turn of the millenium), while Nintendo and Square were big companies maintaining teams that developed many games in parallel.

Click to shrink...

And that's even more impressive, Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake are some of the most beloved franchises from that era, and took the PC-compatible (and maybe home micro) market by a storm.

 

[PhantomArtifice]

Square, their output was ridiculous.

Nintendo wasn't too far behind though.

 

[Pyro]

Click to shrink...

What else did they do besides Mortal Kombat?

 

[Pyro]

I'd say Friends was the show of the 90s.

Click to shrink...

 

[JaxJag]

hmmmm I'd wager it would either be Sony, Nintendo, or Squaresoft. Granted, my knowledge of 90's gaming is subpar.

Click to shrink...

Sony's first party output was not very good. I can't imagine they would be in anyone's top 10 list for the 90s, let alone one of the best.

 

[Aleh]

Square because Nintendo would be cheating. But Square would make a compelling case anyways so it's not that far either!

 

[Devilgunman]

What about Sega doing the same thing?

Click to shrink...

For me, Capcom and Sega are very close but I give the top place to Capcom since many of Capcom flagship ip in the 90s are genre-defined level. I meant, they owned the fighting genre with games like SF2, SF3, SF Alpha, MvC etc. Then they owned the survival horror genre with RE 1,2 and 3. Capcom actually "saved" the Saturn with their arcade-perfect ports. It's hard not to pick them as winner.

 

[SageShinigami]

Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, VII, and Tactics all came out in the 90's. Quit playing.