Who Is Your Favorite First-Party Game Company?

[burningdoom]

Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Neo-Geo, NEC, Sony, Microsoft. They all made successful consoles. Who is your favorite?

BTW, it would be GREAT if we could post polls on the message boards.

[burningdoom]

Personally, I've got to go with Nintendo. I grew up with an NES controller in my hand. Fell in love with gaming on that machine. So many hours spend rescuing princesses and blowing up robot-masters. Then the SNES came out and perfected everything the NES did by making it all better: Better graphics, better sound, bigger games, better controller, and more reliable hardware.

Got to say, I wasn't a big fan of the N64, though. I just can't stand that controller. But when the GameCube came out, they fixed the controller problem, and I experienced a lot of what I missed. In fact, I appreciate the GameCube a lot more today, than I did then. There really are some gems on that system that a lot of gamers overlooked.

Fast-forward to today, and the I still play my Wii. A lot of hidden gems to discover and fall-in love with, and when done right, motion-controls really are a fresh way to play games. Unfortunately, to find those gems, you do have to dig through a lot of crap; but in Nintendo's defense, most of that crap was not produced by them.

And the Wii U is looking more and more like my first choice for a console when I get a next-gen console. I'm pretty excited for the new Zelda, New Super Mario Bros. U, New Super Luigi, Rayman Legends, and others.

Let's also not forget that Nintendo absolutely rules the handheld scene, and always has.

[soera]

While I have respect for Nintendo and Sega, I have to give my shout to Sony. They took a chance at coming into a market totally controlled by the previous mentioned pair and not only competed, they won. It marked the end of the Sega as a console and showed Nintendo that they are going to have to change their design to continue making systems. The controller was made perfect from the start. The 3rd party support was fantastic and it gave them the upper hand in RPGs (which is all that matters on a system).

2 systems later (almost 3 now) and they still continue to own the console market.

[turf]

Wait... What's the question?  Is it the favorite for games or for the system?

If it's the best first party games, I'm going to say Nintendo. Donkey Kong, Mario, Kirby, Metroid, Smash Bros... Do I need to keep going?  The have the absolute best 1st party games.
*Honorable Mention goes to Sega and Sony. Both have great games.

If it's favorite game company, it's still Nintendo. The NES and SNES are my 2 favorite systems; and I don't see that changing... ever

[burningdoom]

Wait... What's the question?  Is it the favorite for games or for the system?

I considered both, in my decision. If you were buying a system, you'd do the same. So I say, both.

And good decision on Nintendo. 

[sin2beta]

Obviously Nintendo... Duh!

 

[insektmute]

I'm going to say none of them, per se, but Sony, Sega, SNK, and Nintendo have all had their share of absolutely fantastic and sometimes iconic stuff. If pressed, I'd probably say Nintendo, mostly for Metroid and Zelda, but then I think about stuff like King of Fighters or Panzer Dragoon and... yeah, just can't narrow it down beyond "I LURVES THEM AWL" or something.

Microsoft is the one I'll make a negative example of though, because by and large, their internal efforts have come about almost exclusively after buying an existing company, and more often than not, their ownership has represented a downturn in quality or the outright dissolution of the studio. FASA, Ensemble, Lionhead, Rare... all almost squandered and made to serve the demands of trend-hopping marketing goons.

To be fair, Lionhead's mistakes are probably more to do with Peter Molyneaux having become one of those trend-hopping marketing goons himself, and I never thought Rare was all that great to begin with... but whatever.

[sin2beta]

Could we call Microsoft or Sony first party game companies. They certainly are publishers. And they certainly have second parties. But honestly, is there a first party Sony or Microsoft game?

[burningdoom]

Could we call Microsoft or Sony first party game companies. They certainly are publishers. And they certainly have second parties. But honestly, is there a first party Sony or Microsoft game?

Isn't that what Sony Computer Entertainment America is? Games like Legend of Legaia, Legend of Dragoon, the original Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games?

[sin2beta]

Could we call Microsoft or Sony first party game companies. They certainly are publishers. And they certainly have second parties. But honestly, is there a first party Sony or Microsoft game?

Isn't that what Sony Computer Entertainment America is? Games like Legend of Legaia, Legend of Dragoon, the original Crash Bandicoot and Spyro games?

From my understanding that is publishing. For example Crash is by Naughty Dog, which Sony in turn publishes. Much like "Nintendo and Rare" or "Sega and Platinum" games. These are different than Sonic Team or AM2. From my understanding Sony and Microsoft have no in house game development for their consoles. Now, PC games had some first party MS and Sony stuff.

Naughty Dog, Lionhead, Platinum, Rare, and the like are second parties.

[insektmute]

Sony actually has quite a number of first-party studios, most notably SCE Japan Studio and Santa Monica, though groups like Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog would fall under the second-party banner.

Microsoft, to my knowledge, doesn't have any first-party dev teams, though.

[burningdoom]

Sony actually has quite a number of first-party studios, most notably SCE Tokyo and Santa Monica, though groups like Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog would fall under the second-party banner.

Microsoft, to my knowledge, doesn't have any first-party dev teams, though.

Wasn't Bungie a part of Microsoft until recently? And the MechAssault games were Microsoft Studios. Before that, there was the Microsoft Flight Simulators on PC and Hellbender.

[insektmute]

Bungie were independently producing stuff like Marathon prior to being acquired by MS, and were mainly an Apple developer, if I recall.
MechAssault was done by FASA and Day 1 Studios and published by MS. FASA were mainly known for doing MechWarrior prior to that, and iirc, most of those were published by Activision.
Flight Simulator was independent at least at first, but got picked up somewhere along the way and rebranded, too.

[scott]

I'm going to say none of them, per se, but Sony, Sega, SNK, and Nintendo have all had their share of absolutely fantastic and sometimes iconic stuff. If pressed, I'd probably say Nintendo, mostly for Metroid and Zelda, but then I think about stuff like King of Fighters or Panzer Dragoon and... yeah, just can't narrow it down beyond "I LURVES THEM AWL" or something.

Microsoft is the one I'll make a negative example of though, because by and large, their internal efforts have come about almost exclusively after buying an existing company, and more often than not, their ownership has represented a downturn in quality or the outright dissolution of the studio. FASA, Ensemble, Lionhead, Rare... all almost squandered and made to serve the demands of trend-hopping marketing goons.

To be fair, Lionhead's mistakes are probably more to do with Peter Molyneaux having become one of those trend-hopping marketing goons himself, and I never thought Rare was all that great to begin with... but whatever.

I'll have to agree with Insektmute on this one. I can't really pick, based on 1st party games, but if I had to I would prolly choose Nintendo. Mostly for the fact that They started my addiction to gaming in the first place. But I'm not so sure if the reason is because of Mario, Link and Samus. Or if it's because of the Mega Mans, Belmont's and Final Fantasies. While I did get into a lot of the 1st party stuff, I was never focused on them alone (except for the Genesis, it was pretty much all Sonic all the time over there).  The NES, SNES and N64 were all a big deal with me and my cousins. But so where the Genesis, PS1 and PS2. Nintendo did make the Game Boy though, which was my trusty sidekick on many a family road trip growing up. And I absolutely love the GBA and DS as well, but again I don't think it really has to do with the first party games... But, since they made Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country and they all spent months in my SNES, Nintendo wins for me if I were to base it purely off of first party games...

But if I were to base my decision solely on the overall library of a console. It would be a tight race between the 360 and the PS2. The 360 might inch out the PS2 in overall playtime and I do really like the 360's controller. But Sony would snag the win barely. The PS2 was my go to machine of it's generation and it is the system for which I own the most games. I'm a single player mode kinda guy and the Single player experience is alive and well on the PS2. Even a game like Socom US Navy SEALs had a pretty solid single player mode, where now-a-days a game like that would be all about the Online game and the campaign is something you do "for the achievements". Sure there are games that use the modem attachment for online play, but most games didn't revolve around a multiplayer mode. And the developers didn't feel the need to tack on a multiplayer section just to get more life out of a title (I'm looking at you Assassin's Creed).  Plus, unlike 99% of the PS1's games, the PS2's games still look really good today! And I'm still discovering new games for that system that I overlooked all those years ago and loving every minute of it. If I were to stop buying next gen consoles and only stick to retro gaming, I think I'd have a pretty comfy home on the PS2, no problem.

TL:DR
Nintendo based on First Party Releases.
Sony's PS2 based on the console's overall library.

[sin2beta]

Bungie is second party as well. Mech Assault I'm not sure on. I'd have to look it up. But Flight Simulator was the first party I referred to on PC. Sony might have had Everquest as first party PC. But is there first party PC? But obviously the spirit of the question is first and second party games...

I will put my honest answer down as SEGA. Let me count the reasons.

Star Jacker (favorite early 80s game)
Turbo
Wonder Boy
Alex Kidd
Phantasy Star
Flicky
Sonic
Toe Jam and Earl
Golden Axe
Streets of Rage
E Swat
Shinobi
Ristar
Comix Zone
Ecco
Eternal Champions
Shining Force
Gunstar Heroes
tempo
Panzer Dragoon
Guardian Heroes
Burning Rangers
Clockwork Knight
House of the Dead
Virtua Cop
Virtua Fighter
Virtua Racing/Daytona USA
Shenmue
Chu Chu Rocket
Dynamite Cop
Space Channel 5
Seaman
Skies of Arcadia
Crazy Taxi
Super Monkey Ball
Billy Hatcher
Yakuza
Valkyria Chronicles
Anarchy Reigns
Ghost Squad
Mad World
Bayonetta

These are the IPs I can think of off the top of my head. I dare to say SEGA has the most IPs of any company.