6 Video Game Developers That Started 2019 off With a Bang

Square Enix

There’s no doubt that Square Enix has had a strong start to 2019, headlined by finally delivering a promise years in the making; Kingdom Hearts 3.

Despite ludicrous hype and expectations, Kingdom Hearts 3 managed to mostly live up to what fans wanted. Performing well both critically and commercially, Kingdom Hearts 3 remains one of the standout titles of the year.

The game almost flawlessly captures that Disney magic, and we gave Kingdom Hearts 3 high marks with a 4.5/5 in our review. The development team quickly managed to expand on the game too, with the release of a challenging new Critical Mode, and we know there’s a lot more DLC on the way.

While Kingdom Hearts 3 is certainly the standout for Square Enix, it’s not nearly all they’ve done.

The company is bringing the fantastic RPG Octopath Traveler to PC, continued to bring DLC to Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and released a plethora of classic Final Fantasy titles on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Square Enix has also provided plenty of great reveals including Dragon Quest XI S, Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers, and of course, the recently released Final Fantasy VII Remake trailer that set the internet on fire.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft has been on a hot streak the last few years, but their first half of 2019 shows that the company and its developers are doing better than ever.

Getting the small things out of the way first, Ubisoft has continued to provide stellar support for a ton of their different games.

Rainbow Six Siege got even more content, new Star Fox missions were added to Starlink, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey got a wealth of paid episodes and free add-ons.

Ubisoft could honestly make it here just on their follow-up content alone, but that’s not nearly all they’ve done. The company released The Division 2 this year, to wide critical acclaim, calling it one of the best looter-shooters we’ve seen yet.

On top of that we also got Trials Rising, Far Cry New Dawn, Assassin’s Creed III Remastered, and the fantastic real-time strategy game Anno 1800.

Past all that, we got a look at the future of the Ghost Recon franchise with Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, transporting players to a dangerous island setting with gameplay that seems to take the best of Ghost Recon Wildlands, and add on some interesting new wrinkles.

Respawn Entertainment

I think it’s safe to say Respawn Entertainment is having a good year, starting with the incredible release of Apex Legends. In just eight hours after launch, Apex Legends had already reached one million unique players.

Things exploded from there, and by the end of the first month, the game had reached 50 million unique players.

That’s for good reason too, as Apex Legends is easily one of the best battle royale games we’ve seen yet. As it turns out combining battle royale and hero shooters was a stroke of genius, letting players take a more specialized role that fits their play style.

However, the game is balanced well enough that it never feels unfair when putting characters against each other.

There are also some brilliant little design choices that Apex Legends makes, like a dynamic ping system that lets teams effectively communicate without using microphones.

The success and popularity of Apex Legends is clear, but Respawn had another notch in their belt this year with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

While we’ve yet to see a ton about the game, the reveal trailer and bits of information that came out of Star Wars Celebration were enough to get Star Wars fans very excited.

If anything, Respawn has shown they’re one of those developers that can switch gears on the fly.

Capcom

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Capcom is on fire.

The developer’s upward momentum just doesn’t seem to stop, as 2019 was kicked off with the utterly phenomenal remake of Resident Evil 2.

Blurring the lines between remake and full-blown new entry, Resident Evil 2 takes the franchise back to its survival horror ways, and it’s one of, if not the best game of the whole year so far.

Not content to stop there, however, Capcom redefined another major franchise with Devil May Cry 5, which, like Resident Evil 2, takes the franchise back to its roots. Devil May Cry 5 is easily one of the most frenetic and fun action games out there, even earning an impressive 5/5 in our own review.

While those two titles certainly take the cake, that’s not all Capcom was up to this year. There’s a number of re-releases and remasters from the company including Onimusha Warlords, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy, and Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen on Switch.

All that’s already fantastic, but Capcom has also managed to continuously bring updates and changes to Monster Hunter: World, including a crossover quest featuring Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher.

Talk about a good year so far, for one of the best developers.

FromSoftware

FromSoftware has become one of the premier developers in the last decade, and for good reason.

The Dark Souls series, as well as Bloodborne, has made a humongous impact, inspiring a brand new genre and countless design ideas. Now FromSoftware has iterated on that formula even more with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, bringing something entirely new to the table.

Undoubtedly one of the Game of the Year candidates so far, Sekiro is an immensely challenging title that puts a big emphasis on timing your attacks and learning how to properly block and parry each and every enemy.

The Feudal Japan setting is a far cry from Dark Souls, and it really lets FromSoftware flex their creative muscles.

Sekiro had much more of an impact than just being a good game, however, as it’s one of the rare games that really brings the industry to a halt and starts a discussion.

No matter what you think on the matter, Sekiro brewed up an important discussion about difficulty and accessibility in video games.

Sure things took a nasty turn after a while, but its conversations like these that we need in gaming, in order for anything to change.

Sega

Similarly to Capcom, Sega has been on an upward trend over the last couple of years that just doesn’t seem to be stopping. While the company hasn’t had a slew of new releases in 2019 yet, there’s a number of great re-releases.

Both Yakuza Kiwami and Yakuza Kiwami 2 made their way to Steam, and both are fantastic action games in their own right, as well as some of the best remakes of all time.

Catherine Classic also made its way to PC, while we know Catherine: Full Body is coming later this year. Of course, we have to talk about the huge news of Judgement getting a full English voice-over localization and the controversy that happened with the game’s actor Pierre Taki.

Sega did a fantastic job of dealing with the controversy, and an incredibly quick turnaround on replacing him in-game, which meant no delays whatsoever for the Western version of Judgement.

Going hand-in-hand with all of that are the stellar announcements Sega has had this year.

Persona 5: The Royal and Persona 5 Scramble made huge waves with their announcement, and Sega also delivered the ultimate crowd-pleaser when they announced the revival of the cult classic Sakura Wars.

Having a timeline for fans to look forward to is just as important as keeping up past releases, and Sega is nailing both aspects.