The Good, The Bad and the Developer

[Neon Ignition]

Nice and simple one, with this gen hitting its twilight, pick a developer (either a specific studio or a general body i.e, EA, Capcom, Square Enix etc) and say what you feel they have done right this gen and what they've done wrong in your eyes.

My first:

Sega
The Good:
From a pure gameplay point of view, they've been great in terms of the support they gave to Platinum with Bayonetta, Vanquish etc and despite it's continued niggles, they've shown that they listen to fans when it comes to Sonic with an upturn in quality from Sonic 2006 to Colors/Generations and the time spent working on Sonic 4 Ep2. AM2 hasn't done loads this gen but then again they haven't dropped the ball either. Their digital releases have been good as well with a great port of After Burner Climax, Virtua Fighter 4 and how they switched from standard ports for their DC games to the remaster quality of upcoming titles like Jet Set Radio.

The Bad:
The put a fair bit behind Platinums releases and they were never going to be the big hits Sega needs to stay afloat, they've also whittled away their market share that they're not really one of the big software publishers anymore. At their current rate I do kind of question how well they're going to fare next gen, struggling to stay current with what's popular.

[Brad]

From Software

Good:
Demon's Souls, Dark Souls.
An end to the hand-holding, catering for the casual market nonsense that proliferates our hobby. The result is two masterpieces of this generation. Most innovative use of online functionality bar none.

Chromehounds. Solid, fun mech gaming.

Bad:
Steel Battalion: Heavy Armour

[J0e Musashi]

Alvion

Good: MALICIOUS.

Bad: Not making anything else.

[teddymeow]

Konami

Good: Metal Gear Solid 4, Metal Gear Solid HD

Bad: Out-sourcing Silent Hill to crappy developers, PES consistently failing to live up to early previews.

[Daragon]

Nintendo

THE GOOD:
For taking possession of Monolithsoft and helping them to create the brilliant Xenoblade Chronicles

THE BAD:
Skyward Sword - So much hype for so little return. The origins of the series yes, but still imo very poorly executed. The entire game world felt incredibly barren outside of Skyloft, which was pitifully underused (many consider the opening couple of hours to be the least exciting in the game, I am of an opposite mind purely because it felt like classic Zelda). Incredibly linear with very little to no side activities or quests.

Lack of Wii Motion+ support - Nintendo MUST stop producing peripherals that developers aren't going to bother supporting. As bare as Sony's Move catalogue may be, Nintendo's has nothing on it.

Lack of Voice Chat - Why bother creating online gaming modes if you're not going to support voice chat? You may as well play with bots (less said about the quickly discontinued Wii Speak the better!) If you're honestly that worried about paedos using it to groom children then simply lock out online modes for kids, or at the very least make sure that parents are aware that online gaming can change a game's rating and then leave the responsibility at their feet, don't force everyone else to suffer.

NO ACCOUNT BASED PURCHASES - FFS, this should be commonplace. If I've paid money for a game, I don't want it locked to a system. Give us accounts for Wii-U or just stop making consoles.

[Neon Ignition]

Capcom
The Good
Opened well enough this gen, also had the MT Framework engine which has been very impressive. Very versatile, looks good most of the time and is great on handhelds.

The Bad
The almost blind faith in western developers in a poorly thought out attempt to appeal to western audiences which has seen the fall of several games. Their random approach to development and trend chasing has also seen the reputations of other series take a battering from Resi's action/co-op focus, Lost Planets player mash ups, Operation Raccoon City's generic clunky shooting and the microtransaction regurgitating that dominated the resurged fighting titles.

They don't get points for SF4 either as it was a fluke they've benefitted greatly from having even resisted it was made till the public became enamoured.