Also for everyone stating, "why wasn't this company on the list?" I went through and considered all of the ones you all suggested but I couldn't include them all for time (I feel like more than 20 minutes it might have felt repetitive). So sorry about that! Also I said Bethesda developed Doom Eternal and they didn't... my bad!
To understand how bad this has gotten, The most downloaded game of all time is Minecraft which was made by one person, One of the biggest if not the biggest Steam game is Terraria which was a indie game… Five nights at Freddy’s was what made Modern Horror basically Most of the iconic mobile games were orinigally indie games… I could list more and more examples but you get the point…. Money is Corruption and that’s human nature
If more slots were open, I’d say you could include Nintendo or Rockstar, as both create and publish great games still, but have zero idea on how to actually work with them
@@KraylebStudios there is a fuck ton of people still insisting on calling the guy McCree and they are probably the same crowd that spams "you mean he" on any post related to catalyst from apex.
@@xman9354 I once had a guy on a post reply to me going "who cares if a woman killed herself from something that happened to her one time, it's still a bad name" or something like that
@@JNJNRobin1337 Company that made Plants vs. Zombies. EA bought the game company because it was dying and people blame EA for making the games have microtransactions even though PopCap still makes the games
I love how EA thought comparing lootboxes to Kinder eggs was remotely clever when the very aforementioned were recalled at one point for having choking hazard toys in them. GG, EA.
Loot boxes might be like kinder eggs… in a free to play game You still have to pay $60 for the average EA game, so it’s like having to pay an entry fee to go into Walmart just to spend more money on Kinder eggs
Kinder Eggs have cool toys and aren't that expensive. I think they should have compared them to modern Crackerjack Boxes. A gooey mess that's overpriced and leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Yeah, you get a prize, but most of the time it's some idiotic sticker or something you really didn't ever want.
EA: forces Maxis to make online games Maxis: releases SimCity 2013 and TS4 (that was supposed to an online game) EA: closes Maxis (the Simcity one) due to Simcity's failure
@@idobadjokes2830 Nah there was some shit that came out recently about them and how they treat their workers. So basically what to expect now from these companies
@@sopadumacacoumadelicia5 some devs conspire with the publishers for bad practices, and I’m convinced sometimes rockstar does things to piss off the player base intentionally rather be forced by T2 to do something
So much fun playing those in middle school, they need to bring the toys-to-game concept back because that was one of the funnest things. What was even better was when you traded your figurines with your friends.
I wish game companies focussed more on making good games without worrying about how much they're going to force players to pay. I also wish people didn't try and defend the predatory actions of bad people
As someone else put it, it was never really that companies focused solely on making a good game. All companies want to make money and they always have, that never changed (I'm sure plenty of devs are passionate about games and stuff, but as a business, most companies just want money, always have, always will). What DID change was HOW to get money. It used to be that good game = lots of money. But when stuff like Microtransactions or whatever other predatory bullsquash we get now in games exists... turns out you can make MORE money with LOWER quality games! That's practically music to their ears! Max revenue, less costs! MORE PROFIT! *Why didn't we think of this earlier?!?!?!!?* Long Story short, companies always wanted money, they just figured out that making money machines is better than quality games at getting money.
@@TheEpicGalaxy21 Making a good game doesn't always translate to lots of money though. Acclaimed flops exist in the video game industry as well. The problems are also more complex than you lead onto. One of the biggest reasons why CoD and Battlefield keep chugging along is because people want to play the same games that their favorite streamers are playing.
@@SirBlackReeds Yes, obviously there’s a lot more to this issue than I could put in a single comment. Especially if I want to keep it short… ish. And obviously not every quality game is going to succeed, that’s a given. Though I do think that a good game would probably be more likely to succeed and be popular and sell more amidst a bunch of bad games for example. Hence why it was in companies best interests to make good games. But now that things like micro transactions and other predatory practices exist. It shows that you can make boatloads of money without having to go through the bother of making a good game. Even if it’s still not guaranteed to succeed, it’s probably much easier to make a bad micro transaction filled game than a normal good one…
@@xoThreezus look how much EA cares about plants vs zombies garden warfare but alot of people still play and enjoy it what i was saying is that valve is the only triple A company that their whole line up of old and new games is just pure quality (except for artifact we never talk about that)
@@SinAster_19 I think valve is objectively better in terms of caring but they still use some of the shady tactics these villainous companies use. Let's not forget that tf2 and csgo both have the same crate and key system where you have a 1% chance at getting a cool item that's worth a lot.
@@xoThreezus Now that's a point i can reaosn with, While yes it is quite the same as stuff EA does atleast its only in like those games not in every game they release. Plus I don't think people in todays age really care about getting rare items in CS:GO
@@SinAster_19 Yes I agree with you on that, and I think they are significantly better than EA or 2K. However I disagree when you say no one wants CSGO items. There is still a vast economy for all of those big Valve games (Dota, Tf2, Csgo, etc) and hundreds of thousands of items get traded and sold each day. Not to mention there are market sites, gambling sites, and things like that. Just cause me and you don't play it or anyone you know doesn't mean it's dead, the game is shockingly popular and active in European countries, it's like COD there essentially.
Agree with most of these aside from CD project Red while the Cyberpunk debacle was a complete and utter failure on their part that's really the only thing they've done and while it was bad i don't think it puts them anywhere near the level of EA, Konami, Ubisoft or especially Activision Blizzard
Also The Witcher 3 had a lot of problems on launch, but was patched with a time. Same happened with Cyberpunk 2077, now it's a decent game in my opinion.
fallout 76 was ESPECIALY over hyped in west virginia. im not joking, around the time when it was about to release, everywhere sold fallout 76 merch. the moth man museum had some mothman related merch from fallout (i think it still exists...idk) , gas stations have merch, you just couldnt go anywhere without seeing anything with the number 76 on it
The problem with those people who say "gaming is dying" or some shit is the same people play nothing but AAA games from these devs. Now im not gonna shame you for playen AAA but my brother in christ you keep playing these games
@@histhoryk2648 just look at games like splitgate, phasmophobia, project zomboid, payday2. none of these are AAA games and theyre so much more than 2d pixel art.
"You neve hear about Nintentdo or Microsoft laying off studios they've aquired" *Raises hand* Excuse me sir, this milk you've served me? Yes. It's cheese now
@@dragonslayer7724 You'd be surprised the outright despicable things Nintendo has done recently. It definitely deserves to be considered one of the most evil, greedy and scummy game companies in the world!
Many people see Nintendo on their good side on games despite the fact that they’re badly known for their strict copyright claims, slightly atrocious online services, and excessive fan project takedowns.
The weird thing for me is at the end of the day i still have to put up with these companies because the own some my all time favorite games. Bethesda owns DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Wolfenstein, and Dishonored; EA owns Dead Space, Mass Effect, and Battlefield; Activision owns Call of Duty; CDPR owns The Witcher game rights. I absolutely loath these companies but at the end of the day if i wanna see more of the franchises that built me and hopefully stuff that is new and, more importantly good, I have no choice but to play ball with them
Actually, ghost ship's deep rock galactic has executed "battle pass" the best, when season ends, the cosmetics are put into loot pool so you still can get stuff from earlier seasons, nothing goes away.
@@Fredfazbear1983 all companies have rises and falls, even the best of companies… there is always good leadership and bad leadership… that’s just the duality of life….
I feel like the biggest downgrade with AAA games has been the graphics. I don't mean this as them not being realistic enough -quite the opposite- they're so realistic you can barely tell them apart. 3d, realistic, featuring humans/humanoid characters, with dark lightning and barely any saturation If you look at indie games like Celeste, Stray, Cave Story, Pizza tower, Gris, Hollow Knight... You don't even need to fully process the setting, to see if the character is a cowboy or a cyborg or if the world is in an ancient setting or in space, just by the thick pixel artstyle or the colorful watercolor backgrounds or the dark sketchy lineart you could tell that those games are different from each other Nowadays, big companies are afraid to innovate because of the risk of failure, so they play it safe year after year. And year after year AAA only gamers buy those games again and again and think that when the studios do something remotely out of their formula they're being groundbreaking and shaking up the game industry while indie games are being more diverse and innovative than ever
Stray was an awesome game. Nice graphics, good story, and a vibe that I think could only be accomplished by an indy company. It wasn't perfect, but it was fun. If it had been done by a bigger company, it would have been loud, crowded and generic.
The indie scene is oversatured with pixelated titles, and I wouldn't touch Celeste with a 10ft pole if I were you. I guarantee you that the "woman" behind it has vouched for transitioning minors including toddlers.
@@SirBlackReeds yeah, I agree about the pixel art oversaturation. Every game is either pixel art or cheap 3D. It's quite difficult to find a game with its own non pixel artstyle. Don't starve is one that comes to mind.
As someone with over 1300 hours on Fallout 76, I can say that the game has improved a lot within it's limitations as an MMO-RPG. It's by no means good but it's decent and it's fun. I understand people not liking it and I'll be the first one to admit it used to be wack but these days? While not perfect, it's in a much better state. You don't need Fallout 1st and Bethesda has given f2p players a lot of great options to help with resource management.
Top 5 worst in my opinion: 5. Ubisoft - While having great games, it was flooded by a lot of mediocre to bad games 4. Konami - The way they treat employees is toxic and very damaging 3. Bethesda - Bugs for days are very not fun to play 2. EA - known by people to be the most hated, especially the way they handled stuff like micro transactions; but the worst one in my opinion is 1. Activision/Blizzard - As someone who used to be a fan, their reputation has caused one of favorite companies to down right my least. Ruining my favorite game is Warcraft 3, mistreated the employees, made a scummy mobile that made EA micro transactions look like a saint, and just made so many bad decisions that I can't even list some of them
There are two things that I would like to add: 1. Nobody's talking about it, yet its actually important. EA openly STOLE American McGee's game. Idk how to explain, but basically Spicy Horse was working at the new Alice game, which is Alice: Asylum. Project took them like 8 years and out of nowhere, EA told them that "hey, stop. Its our game now and you can't work at it". McGee want to buy the rights for the game and go to VIrtuos company, as they told them that they really would like to help them with game. Yet, copyrights to Alice costs about 50 mln USD, so they can try to get this money, or they need to wait for EA to give them rights back 2. As a Polish person by myself, I feel like I can openly talk about CDPRed. As a small group, CDPRed are cool. We can see how chill and cool people they are. Yet as a company, they suck. I actually wanted to apply to CDPR when I was younger, so I searched up some opinions. People that know this company from the inside told others, that they need to work more hours than they are allowed to by law and they're not getting payed back for those hours. Pression is big, people are spending nights here, working on games and every single detail. They're using their workers like slaves. If you want to know it better, there are many reviews on internet. Unfortunately, they're in polish, yet u can easly translate it though. I think that these two thngs are srsly imporant, cuz 1. EA SUCKS ASF, 2. CDPRed are treating their people like macihnes with no empathy (as company)... Thats all, have a good day :>!
What’s scary is that I can compare these companies rather damningly to the Seven Deadly Sins… EA: Greed. And you know well why with their lootboxes and microtransactions. Konami: Wrath. The Hideo Kojima story was all that was needed to light the match on that tinderbox. Activision: Pride. They’re absolutely scummy, yes. But they’re living purely by their games alone and not by the workplace stuff that’s going on, because, heck, they know damn well you’re gonna buy Diablo, lean into Overwatch, and return to World of Warcraft… Bethesda: Sloth. It just works. What can I say? It just works. Ubisoft: Envy. Most of this I’ve seen is from other sources, but Ubisoft just doesn’t wanna perfect the formula and gameplay of their games and disses the competition whenever they can because they think belittling the competition makes them feel better. 2K: Gluttony. Sports games after sports games after sports games, year after year after year. Gluttony is fitting in that sense. CD Projekt Red: Lust. The Witcher trilogy generated an endless amount of hype for Cyberpunk. Look where that lust and hype for a Witcher-style game got everyone. Into hot water…
Technically, you could place EA, Activision-Blizzard, Ubisoft, and CDPR under Pride. Also, Kojima isn't blameless, and you have to remember that Japanese workplace culture is a different beast to American workplace culture.
If you became or sell your job to corporate overlords, you either get on knees to suck or leave the project 'n enjoy the money, cuz once you have investors on you back theres no going back
18:46 i would honestly replace cdpr with rockstar as cdpr has done their best at fixing cp2077 and making it playable to the point that many people can’t stop playing it
I'm kinda surprised that EA releasing almost ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS of dlc for the Sims 4 wasn't mentioned. And they aren't even stopping any time soon! Like, what the actual hell.
Cyberpunk has been improved, but it should have been playable to begin with. One poor discussion a lot of gamers makes, which sorts of contributes to poor business practices, is that they buy pre orders, and when it ends up buggy, they say, "they will patch it." And then the company either does or doesn't. Cyberpunk got lucky because it was saved by anime.
This does make me think of one particularly unwarranted complaint I have of players. Too often, players will buy and play the prerelease version of a game, knowing it is still being worked on, or even still in beta testing. Then they find the glitches and complain that the gale is unplayable, immediately giving crap reviews for unplayable games months before final release. This ends up given horrible positive/ negative percentage ratings, killing many small press games before final release. I have no problem with complaints for final products, but prerelease and Beta version mean you get to play and possibly help develop the final product. If you don't want to do that, wait until final release. Of course, a game that never leaves prerelease status can also warrant negative feedback, so there are limits to trashing betas.
@@doctorofskillz2932 It's not like the indie scene is much better. In some respects, it's worse. For all the crap that the AAA scene gets about saturating the market, the indie scene is so much worse because it keeps churning out MegaMan-inspired titles, Metroidvania titles, visual novels, RPGMaker crap, and more.
Just because they made some games you didn’t like doesn’t make them evil bro. If Bungie had it their way then Halo would have ended in 2007 so if you really don’t like it then just pretend it doesn’t exist in your own head canon. I do that with the story of Halo 5
Ubisoft only knows how to release one game with a different skin. You start in an open world, climb a structure to uncover the map bit by bit, jump down from said structure, raid enemy bases, earn upgrades for your character by doing so, travel the map collecting trinkets with some being upgrades but the rest are basically there for padding, complete the side quests, complete the main quest, and that's it. Guess which game I'm talking about.
To this day I will despise EA, Activision-Blizzard, and 2K. They have the most horrible business practices ever known imo, to the point where it could take a chunk of this comment to list out, including their irony. Ubisoft took the L and abandoned their flagship franchise Rayman again, and Konami continued to treat their employees and Kojima like shit even after the same company focused on the properties they abandoned again after the Pachinko arc.
I'm shocked you didn't mention other companies such as Nintendo or Valve. While arguably better than the ones you mentioned here, they undoubtedly still have their faults (albiet mostly hidden behind fans willing to protect them). Nintendo has been notoriously unfriendly toward fan created content, games, mods, ETC, while providing services that cost more for less. Valve on the otherhand is a curious case. While they've undoubtedly been doing a fair job at creating new games (E.g. Half-life Alyx, The upcoming CS2, etc.) and maintaining/updating Steam and their other IPs to fit with future systems, at times they have had a tendency to neglect other games in dire condition (TF2 Still seeing massive botting issues while having subpar and unfitting content churned out by community creators year after year just to milk the cow dry). Nothing more I can say regarding these two candidates unlisted in this video; they have a great catalog of games under their belt, but they nonetheless have prominent issues that have been discussed by other content creators.
They dont qualify as most evil at all, as greedy as nintendo is they still make great games to balance that fact. As for valve... theyre essentiall just lazy and take their sweet ass time before getting motivated to do something.
You can built on top of older games like halo to 2 to 3 but if you don’t build on top of it with more things then you can’t improve Cd project red also had a buggy witched 3 releases but they also made up with free content and good story Same exact thing is happing with cyberpunk
EA didn't do anything bad with it. In fact in an interview with the devs it was their idea to put Microtransactions in PvZ 2 and not EA's idea so you can't blame EA for that. The awful balancing decissions in BFN and awful decissions in general on both BFN and PvZ 3 were also from PopCap not EA. The only thing EA really did with PvZ was helping PopCap with money, publishing the games and allowing the shooter games to use their servers (basically those couldn't exist without EA and their servers.) PvZ would've stayed as a indie game rather than becoming a whole series if it weren't for EA because PopCap was literally about to bankrupt before EA bought them. So when talking about PvZ and PopCap, EA helped in those instances. Also the microtransactions in PvZ 2 aren't even that bad. The main game is adventure mode and that is easily beatable without mirotransactions. The extension level packs are also completely doable without microtransactions (though most levels suck but that's an issue with level design, not microtransactions)
EA: just bad. Actovison: idiots. Valve: forgot they have games. Blizzard:once good now becoming bad as Actovison. Nitendo: put your games on other compani consols. Playstation: nothing to say. Mincrosoft: By every company that you think of. Badesta: ok company. 2k: back in the they they were. legends(Bioshock) and now SPORTS. Scottgames:FNAF Joe drew studios:Bendy and ink mashin.
I don’t like when people refer to video game companies as “evil” because it obscures the reasons why they are so anti-consumer. Before around the mid-2010s, the general philosophy for making games was to just make them good, and they’ll sell because they’re good. It was a smaller market back then, with more grounded companies sporting fewer members teams with better treatment. It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, and some companies were definitely exceptions to this general rule, but at the very least these companies still had corporate interests aligneded with what consumers wanted. Then Pandora’s box was opened in the 2010s alongside the growth of the industry, and the unusually pro-consumer companies of years past have transformed into what is now the standard for all other industries, that being a money-making machine which only cares about growth and nothing else. This change in attitude came about quickly with the introduction of higher-ups from the business world due to countless buy-outs and buy-ins, as well as changes in stockholders, and this has resulted in an insane whiplash for those of us who have been following the video game industry for more than a decade. The difference between games a decade ago and now are night and day, in a bad way; there are so many factors that result in large-scale production games nowadays all feeling the same, with such a fast release schedule, and all with the same exploitative systems and mechanics designed to addict rather than be enjoyable. This isn’t them being evil, this is them being logical under capitalism, and we see this same logic all throughout society; it’s just that they’re only now catching up to that mentality. There’s a reason that the Indie scene only got big in the mid-2010s, and no earlier. Indie studios are basically exactly what these AAA companies used to be 20-40 years ago, when their outlooks were less money-focused and more on creating cool games. Honestly, it seems like people are starting to catch on to this more and more, and I’m really glad this is starting to get a lot of attention, because unless companies are HEAVILY restricted or we no longer live in a capitalistic society, I think this will continue to be the general state of the video game ad infinitum, as sad as it is to say. Things won’t change if we don’t do anything about them, so the more that know means the more likely things will actually get better. Either way, I think we’ve hit the end of the road in terms of large-scale video game innovations for now, and we are well and truly in a stagnant era when it comes to the major publishers. At least there are Indie games to tide us over (their growing popularity makes me hopeful for the future. Maybe they might become more successful than all these lifeless open world or life service games built around a business model and convince them to actually fund the production of a good game for once? Nah who am I kidding, it’s a large short-term sacrifice in money and time to make a great game and companies do not think or care about the long-term at all)
why nobody mentioning valve? i think that company is most greedy if compare with all company in this video mention. Valve is introducing loot box system, implement pay 2 win game in artifact, milking indie game developer, introduce gambling mechanic in game, and much more. why everyone not recognize that?
Also what's funny about NBA 2k is that since they release a new game every year they just make the previous $60 game from last year 5 bucks. 💀 Imagine paying $60 for a game you can basically already get for $5.
You don’t play 2k so you don’t know what you’re talking about I stopped playing 2K23 I got bored but it’s not the same as 22 they have new modes my nba era a new city and gameplay fixes
@@Blankslatefilms1 not a patch once again you don’t play 2k they changed the whole shooting mechanics for example and they changed some defensive stuff with online games youre a white nerd who doesn’t know what they’re taking about
@@phatmartyplays332 imagine paying $60 for what is basically a minor bug fix and a small content add on. Terraria has been getting big, free updates since 2013. Minecraft has been getting big, free updates just as long. Fortnite is free to play and they STILL get big, game changing updates. My point is, you shouldn’t have to buy the game again for a glorified minor update.
*Summary* EA: the Legacy Worst ATVI: the Recent Predatory Konami: the Gacha Hell Ubisoft: the Mediocrity Bethesda: the Buggy Relationship 2K: the Same Game CD Project Red: the Failing Expectation
You can also argue for both valve and sega to be here. Valve hadn't updated tf2 until the community caused an uproar and they haven't released the 3rd half life game yet. Sega hasn't care about sonic game quality since 2005 when they got bought out and merged with a company called Sammy because sega had a good reputation, however sammy may have started caring due to how high much money sonic frontiers made but that doesn't mean sonic boom, and sonic forces weren't made
I want Sony to either buy Konami's franchises or buy the whole company, because then Kobami's great franchises might not rot away forever. Many of their biggest games were playstation exclusives in the past, so it wouldn't feel too out of place.
Konami forgot that 99.9% of their revenue comes from kojimas mastermind in game design from metal gear solid 2 to Metal Gear 5 or the sadly unreleased game of the new silent hill.
Sometimes what I want in a video game is for it to have all those lively moments, effects, and scenes that you'd see in cinematic trailers as if they were destined to be random events taking place wherever you were, only to get disappointed with the realization that they're all just scripted moments in the story and you'll never see anything like it again if you're just exploring.
Oh hey, I saw a Danerade video youtube didn't give me the notification for, but I should probably sleep. That means I can watch this in the morning instead of spending 20 minutes finding the best video to watch with breakfast.
What's interesting is how this list has publishers who are now part of Microsoft and you mentioned how Microsoft doesn't shut studios down like Activision when they have now shut multiple studios down.
A lot of these companies have created timeless gems or had a part in making them. 2K made freaking Bioshock one of my favorite games of all time, EA was convinced with making the OG Dead Space and it’s remake too.
Me prescriptions: EA: They should not kill PopCap, and stop giving Star Wars games micro-transactions. Activision-Blizzard: Give Crash B and Spyro tD to PlayStation, and just kill Call of Duty. Konami: Just bring back Castlevania and PT/Silent Hills, and Metal Gear Solid Remakes/6. Ubisoft: Delete the Srcpition Service and Tom Clancy, and New Rayman. Bethesda: Microsoft should just shut them down. It just works! 2K: Stop I guess CD Projekt Red: Cyberpunk
Ironically enough, for the crap that EA gets for its developer graveyard, Razorfist alleged that Sony's own dev graveyard is even worse because their exclusivity contracts are poison. I say "alleged" because he's not always correct and he's a goober. For all the praise indie games get, the real gems are few and far between. The truth is that the indie (and AA) scene share many of the same problems as the AAA scene, plus problems of its own, one of which is the how saturated the market is with the same few genres. It's like the devs meet up in a Discord chat, talk about the kind of games they want to make, settle on Metroidvania or what have you, and then you end up with multiple titles that are essentially the same game.
My little brother literally bought nba2k23 yesterday and the first thing i saw while he was playing was a major graffical bug and he told me „yea its always like this when i start a match“ ☠️
From the very first time i heard about cyberpunk, my brain went "Fallout 76, cyberpunk 2077, this will be a sequel od disappointment." The promises, the "Quadruple A" speeches. That's all i nedded to see how much of a failure this was going to be.
Gonna be honest the only good thing of Ubisoft I’ve played was just dance (oh also mario rabbits I forgot that was Ubisoft when I originally wrote my comment. First one is good. Second is kinda boring) Their version of monopoly makes me wish the switch eshop had a refund systems