Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you miss?

Where to discuss topics about PS2 gaming not related to its online aspect.
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FreddY
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Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you miss?

Post by FreddY »

I thought it would be cool to take a look back at some of the game developers that were most prominent during the PS2 generation of gaming. What were some of your favorite developers from the last generation? Here are some of mine:

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Introduced in 2000, EA Sports BIG is most notable for being behind the development of series' like NBA Street, NFL Street, FIFA Street, Def Jam and SSX. They also developed a few less popular titles such as Freekstyle, Shox and Sled Storm, with their final release being FIFA Street 3 in 2008. Looking forward to EA Sports' reboots of both SSX and FIFA Street for 2012.



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Originally founded in 1986, Rainbow Studios is most well known for the MX vs. ATV franchise. They have also developed the Motocross Madness PC series, the first two installments of the ATV Offroad Fury series and the Splashdown series, among other games. Renamed to THQ Digital Studios Phoenix in 2010, the studio was shut down in August 2011 after THQ announced it would not continue the MX vs. ATV racing franchise as part of a strategic realignment of its internal studio development teams, effectively making this year's DLC-based MX vs. ATV Alive the final installment of the franchise. This company reorganization would move THQ's development focus away from licensed kids and movie-based titles in order to focus on "high-quality owned IP". This comes just after THQ's July 2011 announcement that they would no longer be making anymore Red Faction games moving forward.



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Founded in 1994, Neversoft is best recognized for the Tony Hawk franchise and the post-Harmonix Guitar Hero games. They also released the western adventure 3rd-person shooter, Gun. Following the release of Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, development of the Tony Hawk franchise fell into the hands of developer Robomodo, which has since released the peripheral-based Tony Hawk: Ride and Tony Hawk: Shred. On February 11, 2010, Activision announced that it had laid off 50 employees at Neversoft, as a decision to downsize and eventually close it's music-game business division, citing reasons of decline of the genre, plus the high cost of licensing music and producing the games. With Tony Hawk himself confirming earlier this year that there is a new game in the works for 2012, and the rumor that it may be a THPS and/or THPS2 HD remake, one can only hope that it can bring some positive recognition to the long running franchise.



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Also founded in 1994 was developer Z-Axis, which gained recognition for releasing such extreme sports titles as Thrasher presents Skate and Destroy, the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX series, Aggressive Inline and BMX XXX (which had originally been developed as part of the Dave Mirra series). In early 2008, the studio was renamed to Underground Development in response to changes in both direction and personnel. Activision officially closed the studio on February 11, 2010, the same day Activison announced that they had laid off 50 employees at fellow developer Neversoft. Z-Axis contributed some great extreme sports titles last generation, something that we haven't seen much of at all this generation.



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Pandemic Studios was founded as an independent developer in 1998, and became an Electronic Arts-owned developer from 2007 to 2009, when it was officially closed. They are best known for having developed the Star Wars: Battlefront series, the Full Spectrum Warrior series, the Destroy All Humans! series and the Mercenaries series. In response to being laid off by EA, a few former employees of Pandemic created this Office Space-style video where they are shown smashing their office printer. Over a dozen former Pandemic developers are now employed at 343 Industries working on Halo 4 and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary.



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Founded in 1999, Free Radical Design is without a doubt best known for the TimeSplitters series. They have also developed Second Sight, Haze and the multiplayer portion of Crysis 2. In 2009, it was announced that the studio had been acquired by German video game developer Crytek and would be renamed Crytek UK. It's too bad that they were unable to continue development on their version of Star Wars: Battlefront III, but with the rumor that Crytek UK may be announcing TimeSplitters 4 soon, from the August edition of Official PlayStation Magazine UK's "Rumor Machine" section, it will be interesting to see where the series will go from here.

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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by NoLimits »

EA Big was great, the SSX series is probably my favorite series of all time and the NBA/NFL Street games are a blast.

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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by thebadassdude »

Pandemic da best.
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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by noonotthat »

Free Radical obviously, I love old games by Rare and the fact that they had some former Rare employees and managed to make one of the best arcade fps games ever really makes them stand out for me.
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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by Viscosity »

Ive had way too many good memories with EA Sports BIG. Playing at friends house with arcade style NFL street just screwing around with random moves lol. Also spent way too many hours on SSX to count lol. I hope that the SSX reboot will be great but i have too many doubts.

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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by lazyhoboguy »

Hmm I didn't realize NFL Street was made my the SSX people. Just how arcadey is it? I am not into sports very much, but like stuff like NFL Blitz.

I of course miss Free Radical. What they have been forced to do as Crytek UK (make homefront 2) has been very sad to see.

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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by 21SkAt3r21 »

I miss the old Neversoft, the Tony Hawk Neversoft. When they started releasing games on newer consoles the studio went down-hill. Then they eventaully left Tony Hawk for Guitar Hero which also went down-hill eventually. As the for THPS HD remake, yes there will be one (go to thpsx.com for more information on that).
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Re: Which game developers from the PS2 Generation do you mis

Post by Nightcrawlerz »

Pandemic did a great job with Mercenaries.

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