The 14 Best First-Party Video Game Studios

Behind every exclusive is a building full of people. The reputations in here swing much wider than the review scores of the games they made.

1

Nintendo EPD

Nintendo's in-house division behind Mario, Zelda, Splatoon and Animal Crossing.

2

Naughty Dog

The PlayStation studio behind Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted and The Last of Us.

3

343 Industries

The Microsoft studio created to take over Halo from Bungie in 2007.

4

Santa Monica Studio

Sony's Los Angeles studio and the home of the God of War series.

5

Insomniac Games

The Spyro and Ratchet & Clank studio, now Sony-owned and making Spider-Man.

6

Rockstar North

The Edinburgh studio behind Grand Theft Auto, first-party to Take-Two rather than a platform.

7

Game Freak

The independent studio that has developed every mainline Pokémon game since 1996.

8

Sucker Punch Productions

The Sly Cooper and Infamous studio, later the makers of Ghost of Tsushima.

9

Playground Games

The British studio that turned Forza Horizon into Xbox's most reliable series.

10

Retro Studios

The Texas studio Nintendo trusted with Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns.

11

Team Asobi

The Tokyo studio behind Astro Bot, PlayStation's most acclaimed recent platformer.

12

Obsidian Entertainment

The role-playing studio behind Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, Xbox-owned since 2018.

13

Turn 10 Studios

Microsoft's Seattle studio and the developer of the Forza Motorsport simulators.

14

Monolith Soft

The Nintendo-owned studio behind the Xenoblade Chronicles series.