# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published August 5, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-14-best-first-party-video-game-studios*

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## Current results (0 votes)

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.

Tags: brands, games, studios