Third party publisher with the least shameful practices

Mcjmetroid · Nov 30, 2018

I watch a bit of Jim Sterling and others and pick up on certain dodgy practices either consumer based, or working conditions or even horrible PR in general. I'm sure everyone has got their history of shameful practices.

Who do we give the award to though for best third party publisher in this regard.

EA are out for Battlefront 2 for causing the lootbox scandal
Rockstar are out for Crunch time
Konami are out for Hideo Kojima
Etc

I'm thinking Sega could take this, I'm drawing a blank to anything they've done wrong. Is there anything appalling Sega have done since going third party?

VoltySquirrel · Nov 30, 2018

Finji

Zukkoyaki · Nov 30, 2018

The indie publishers like Devolver, Annapurna and Adult Swim seem to do a great job of not angering anyone.

texhnolyze · Nov 30, 2018

Bandai Namco, Capcom, THQ Nordic, Paradox, most indie games.

VillagerMax · Nov 30, 2018

The developers behind Dead Cells enforcing a 'no boss' policy. Klei also focuses on avoiding crunch.

Deleted member 2793 · Nov 30, 2018

texhnolyze said:
Bandai Namco,

If OP considers lootboxes a shameful practice, then Bamco needs to be out immediately considering how much money they make through gacha.

juliamcardinals · Nov 30, 2018

Ubisoft also Jim Sterling is an idiot

QuiteSomething · Nov 30, 2018

juliamcardinals said:
Ubisoft also Jim Sterling is an idiot

Oh yes. Good guy Ubisoft
MTX, paid boosters, 5-7 editions of the same game, downgrades, unfinished products, censorship

Mcjmetroid · Nov 30, 2018

juliamcardinals said:
Ubisoft also Jim Sterling is an idiot

Lol fair enough

Trisc · Nov 30, 2018

Zukkoyaki said:
The indie publishers like Devolver, Annapurna and Adult Swim seem to do a great job of not angering anyone.

I feel like Devolver made a misstep by marketing Metal Wolf Chaos with the tagline "Mech America Great Again", but that's a misstep (albeit, an extremely tasteless one that normalizes the campaign slogan of a fascist), not a critical failure.

blackmass · Nov 30, 2018

texhnolyze said:
Bandai Namco, Capcom, THQ Nordic, Paradox, most indie games.

Paradox belongs in the list with shameful practices. They totally lost their god damn minds with their DLC politics.

texhnolyze · Nov 30, 2018

Heartskips said:
If OP considers lootboxes a shameful practice, then Bamco needs to be out immediately considering how much money they make through gacha.

Are you talking about mobile games? If so, then yeah they'd be out. But I wasn't thinking of mobile games when I mentioned them.

blackmass said:
Paradox belongs in the list with shameful practices. They totally lost their god damn minds with their DLC politics.

Well, at least they're still in the realms of DLC, not microtransactions and lootboxes.

OMEGALUL · Nov 30, 2018

Paradox makes EA look like saint with their Awful DLC practices.

jackal27 · Nov 30, 2018

THQ Nordic have been great so far.

xrnzaaas · Nov 30, 2018

THQ Nordic is not such a good company a lot of people seem to think. How about releasing multiple remasters with huge bugs and crashing problems (especially Darksiders 2 and Titan Quest for the current consoles)? Or re-releasing previous gen games for 30-60 dollars?

Deleted member 8784 · Nov 30, 2018

Mcjmetroid said:
I watch a bit of Jim Sterling

Why would you inflict that upon yourself?

Zacmortar · Nov 30, 2018

Devolver Digital, despite being like 8 people, are generally pretty amazing publishers.

Mcjmetroid said:
Konami are out for Hideo Kojima

Or, yknow, for the authoritarian workplace with extreme prejudice and spite towards any ex-employee effectively ruining dozens of lives but yknow JUST Kojima.

Zacmortar · Nov 30, 2018

juliamcardinals said:
Ubisoft also Jim Sterling is an idiot

This is an extremely telling post lmao

Nuclear Muffin · Nov 30, 2018

Devolver Digital and THQ Nordic are good people.

Ge0force · Nov 30, 2018

Devolver Digital
THQ Nordic
Sega
Daedelic

Mcjmetroid · Nov 30, 2018

Zacmortar said:
Devolver Digital, despite being like 8 people, are generally pretty amazing publishers.

Or, yknow, for the authoritarian workplace with extreme prejudice and spite towards any ex-employee effectively ruining dozens of lives but yknow JUST Kojima.

Would you like me to summarise the entire story and make the opening post about 1000 words?
I think you knew what I meant...

_zoipi · Nov 30, 2018

texhnolyze said:
Bandai Namco

THey're the kings of DLC andMTX in JRPGs, so i would get them out of this category.

casiopao · Nov 30, 2018

Bandai namco which scam player of Jojo fighting game with stamina bar?

Mcjmetroid · Nov 30, 2018

KS93 said:
Why would you inflict that upon yourself?

I casually watch him and I find that I agree with his opinions MOST of the time.
I find that he is genuine enough and he balances out the negativity by praising games he really likes.
It's how I keep up to date with the latest games to avoid basically.

Anyway this thread isn't about justifying what I watch on Youtube.
I do not take everything anyone says to me as gospel.

SinCityAssassin · Nov 30, 2018

Mcjmetroid said:
I'm thinking Sega could take this, I'm drawing a blank to anything they've done wrong. Is there anything appalling Sega have done since going third party?

I mean there's the whole legally banning segments of games from streaming thing.

AnnoyingSensei · Nov 30, 2018

Probably Devolver Digital (publisher) and CD Projekt RED.

Also people are mentioning Capcom, really. I love Capcom but does everyone just forget they are putting MTX in Devil May Cry?

Mcjmetroid · Nov 30, 2018

SinCItyAssassin said:
I mean there's the whole legally banning segments of games from streaming thing.

Didn't hear about that.

I also just remembered the DRM PC problems as well with games like Sonic Mania. I didn't experience this myself but I believe it caused quite a stir.

retroman · Nov 30, 2018

Yacht Club Games is pretty awesome so far. They went out of their way to provide Shovel Knight with free, high-quality DLC.

FiXalaS · Nov 30, 2018

Bandai Namco have the least amount of shit going on for em I think

Red Arremer · Nov 30, 2018

Out of the big to mid-sized publishers, Sega is probably one of the most benevolent ones. The developer studios they bought haven't dropped their quality, as they generally let the developers do their thing. Paradox, despite their horrid DLC practices, also are generally quite decent overall, and the games they publish usually end up being really good.

Team17, Devolver, and other more indie-styled publishers are the best though.

Laughing Banana · Nov 30, 2018

texhnolyze said:
Are you talking about mobile games? If so, then yeah they'd be out. But I wasn't thinking of mobile games when I mentioned them.

Well, at least they're still in the realms of DLC, not microtransactions and lootboxes.

Well, some of their Bandai Namco's games like Tales sell stuff like level boosters, money boosters, EXP boosters, as well as what I think ridiculous prices for costumes.

Plus they don't even allow you to take in-game screenshots with them, what the fuck.

Asbsand · Nov 30, 2018

Mcjmetroid said:
I'm thinking Sega could take this, I'm drawing a blank to anything they've done wrong. Is there anything appalling Sega have done since going third party?

They fucked Sonic UPPP.
That is shame, my friend.

I would say Nintendo. They sell high quality standalone products with high prices for high quality™.

Honestly I dunno. Indie publishers are bad because there are no good indie games unless it's Frictional Games. All AAA publishers are assholes but they also have to mitigate how much business is required to justify such big artful endeavours and balance making it too corporate vs making it too creatively challenging.

Mcjmetroid · Nov 30, 2018

Red Arremer said:
Out of the big to mid-sized publishers, Sega is probably one of the most benevolent ones. The developer studios they bought haven't dropped their quality, as they generally let the developers do their thing. Paradox, despite their horrid DLC practices, also are generally quite decent overall, and the games they publish usually end up being really good.

Team17, Devolver, and other more indie-styled publishers are the best though.

Also they don't take down fan made games of Sonic is a plus too.

texhnolyze · Nov 30, 2018

Takahashi said:
THey're the kings of DLC andMTX in JRPGs, so i would get them out of this category.

Laughing Banana said:
Well, some of their Bandai Namco's games like Tales sell stuff like level boosters, money boosters, EXP boosters, as well as what I think ridiculous prices for costumes.

Plus they don't even allow you to take in-game screenshots with them, what the fuck.

I'm fully aware of that, but seriously, that sounds much better than what many other third party publishers have become to nowadays, right?

The screenshot thing is bullshit though, yeah.

JetJaguar88 · Nov 30, 2018

Mcjmetroid said:
I'm thinking Sega could take this, I'm drawing a blank to anything they've done wrong. Is there anything appalling Sega have done since going third party?

I'd say no to Sega since they abused Youtubes copyright system to try to keep people from streaming Persona 5. Sure they just wanted to keep people from getting spoiled before buying the game but I don't think that was the best way to do it.

My vote goes to either Insomniac or Devolver Digital.

deftones r cool · Nov 30, 2018

I wanna say Square Enix, but I have a feeling that every single one of you is going to start yelling at me if I do.

Mcjmetroid said:
I casually watch him and I find that I agree with his opinions MOST of the time.
I find that he is genuine enough and he balances out the negativity by praising games he really likes.
It's how I keep up to date with the latest games to avoid basically.

Anyway this thread isn't about justifying what I watch on Youtube.
I do not take everything anyone says to me as gospel.

Sterling is legit. He sometimes goes out of his way to find things to complain about just to generate views, but more often than not he hits the nail on the head. He also has a natural knack for video content, as I find most video game channels insufferable apart from his and Giant Bomb.

Inuhanyou · Nov 30, 2018

what is the barometer for "shameful practices" OP?

Phellps · Nov 30, 2018

AnnoyingSensei said:
CD Projekt RED

Sure, if you're not one of their employees.

Jaibamon · Nov 30, 2018

Chucklefish counts? They have a wide amount of published games and it seems they're pretty cool bros, considering how Stardew Valley is going and how it has improved after launch.

nuchallenger · Nov 30, 2018

Sega?

Uh..

(Also Sega is known for fucking people over like crazy... when I was in talks to work with them years ago, and everyone kept telling me to be careful)

I know too much behind the scenes stuff on a lot of these folks, including some of your favorite Indie publishers and I won't go into too many details...

But just because you don't hear the issues, doesn't mean they aren't happening.

Red Arremer · Nov 30, 2018

Mr. Phellps said:
Sure, if you're not one of their employees.

Or trans!

Deleted member 46948 · Nov 30, 2018

Ruslnis said:
unfinished products

Citation needed

SageShinigami · Nov 30, 2018

The answer is something small if you want a company that keeps its nose completely clean. Otherwise the answer is Ubisoft. Little crunch. MTX exist but are unobtrusive and unnecessary. (Having now played Odyssey for 70 hours and not even using the free temp boost, I am vastly OVERLEVELED and have been for the last 20 or 30 hours.)

Thrill_house · Nov 30, 2018

CD projekt.

They gave me expansion packs. Not some 5 hour short 20$ bullshit but real expansion packs. Never tried getting me to buy mtx bullshit or costumes, hell in fact they gave out little things like that for free.

Edit: ok yeah they do have some questionable working conditions from reading a few things. I'll knock em a few points but I still stand by my comment

QuiteSomething · Nov 30, 2018

Claven said:
Citation needed

Siege, For Honor

Deleted member 3815 · Nov 30, 2018

Mcjmetroid said:
I'm thinking Sega could take this, I'm drawing a blank to anything they've done wrong. Is there anything appalling Sega have done since going third party?

They made Super Sonic paid DLC till the fanbase complained over how stupid it was as Super Sonic has always been a reward. Plus they were a bit misleading when it came to promoting Sonic Forces with the false tag line "from the same team that developed Sonic Colours and Generation" and the game cover giving a false impression that Metal Sonic actually plays a big role in the game when he isn't actually in the game.

Deleted member 5535 · Nov 30, 2018

Asbsand said:
They fucked Sonic UPPP.
That is shame, my friend.

I would say Nintendo. They sell high quality standalone products with high prices for high quality™.

Honestly I dunno. Indie publishers are bad because there are no good indie games unless it's Frictional Games. All AAA publishers are assholes but they also have to mitigate how much business is required to justify such big artful endeavours and balance making it too corporate vs making it too creatively challenging.

Nintendo is First Party

texhnolyze said:
Bandai Namco, Capcom, THQ Nordic, Paradox, most indie games.

I'm sure you can find some thing for Bandai Namco and Capcom

DaciaJC · Nov 30, 2018

Ruslnis said:
Siege, For Honor

How was For Honor an "unfinished product" at launch?

Alvis · Nov 30, 2018

Claven said:
Citation needed

Assassin's Creed: Unity

chandoog · Nov 30, 2018

Bethesda is the most obvious and current answer based on recent events.

Third party publisher with the least shameful practices

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