Some game developers tend to stick to their guns, likeNetherRealm Studioswith fighting games,Bloober Teamwith horror, orLarian Studioswith fantasy A-and-CRPGs. But it’s always refreshing to see something new come from a developer that’s never delved outside its standard genre, often in ways that will surprise you.
With the way the game industry is moving in the 2020s, it’s not only remarkable but a delight to see so many development studios still taking risks and branching out beyond what anyone thought possible of them. And here are but a few excellent examples of such studios.
10Epic Games
Gears Of War, Fortnite Battle Royale, Lego Fortnite, Rocket Racing, Fortnite Festival, Shadow Complex, Infinity Blade, Unreal Tournament
Besides developingUnreal Engineand hosting the Epic store,Epicis most well-known for innovating the Battle Royale genre and launchingthe unexpected video game phenomenonthat became Fortnite, a competitive crafting battle royale game with too many licensed characters to count. And now, there are new variations of Fortnite.
Epic expanded the world of Fortnite into a racing game, a Lego survival craft version, and came out with Fortnite Festival, aGuitar Hero-like rhythm game, in partnership with Harmonix (the original Guitar Hero developers). Epic also developed the early Gears of War gamesthat defined a third-person shooter cover system, the mobile game series Infinity Blade, the FPS arena shooter Unreal Tournament, and the metroidvania Shadow Complex.
Infinity Blade and Shadow Complex were also co-developed by Chair Entertainment, and Rocket Racing is from Psyonix (developer of Rocket League).
9Massive Entertainment
Ground Control, World In Conflict, The Division, Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora, Star Wars Outlaws
If back in 2007 you thought that Massive Entertainment, the studio that was only making RTS and real-time tactics war games like the Ground Control series and World in Conflict, would one day be responsible forFrontiers of Pandora, theTom Clancy’s The Divisionseries, and a newStar Warsgame, you’d probably pinch yourself (probably the studio too).
Massive has come a long way since being acquired by Ubisoft and is now one of its most diverse developers, creating the multiplayer third-person post-apocalyptic looter shooter The Division and an FPS stealth and survival game with aerial combat and mounts set in the Avatar film universe. The studio’s follow-up game is Star Wars Outlaws,said to be the series' “first-ever open world” experience.
8Eidos-Montréal
Thief, Deus Ex, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy
Eidos-Montréal is part of the larger Eidos Interactive company underSquare Enix, but the Montréal studio has one of the most interesting project libraries. Collectively, it helped revive and continue iconic series like Thief andDeus Exwhile taking over for the finalShadow of the Tomb Raiderfrom Crystal Dynamics and launching a MarvelGuardians of the Galaxygame.
These four are very different games with totally different gameplay mechanics, settings, and playstyles, yet the studio made each one seem masterful. Thief is all first-person Victorian Gothic stealth, Deus Ex is a combination of FPS, stealth, anddystopian cyberpunk RPG, Shadow is the most open-world Tomb Raider game, and GOTG is comedic, soundtrack-driven, squad-based with Soulslike boss fights, and has choice-based gameplay.
7Asobo Studio
Monopoly, Zoo Tycoon, ReCore, Disney, Microsoft Flight Sim, A Plague Tale
Asobo Studio has probably the most diverse range of games in its development library when wanting family-friendly options or something more disturbing. The studio is most acclaimed for its achievement in narrative and gameplay design for thePlague Talegames, but the masterful venture into horror and stealth wasn’t something you could’ve imagined from Asobo.
This developer partnered a lot withPixarandDisneyto help bring games like Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, and Toy Story 3 to older generation consoles and worked on the 2017 remaster of Disneyland Adventures. Asobo also developed theMonopolygames in the Family Fun Pack with Ubisoft, Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection,Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 for Xbox, and assisted with the robot platforming game ReCore.
6Insomniac Games
Ratchet & Clank, Resistance, Sunset Overdrive, Edge Of Nowhere VR, Song Of The Deep Metroidvania, Marvel’s Spider-Man
Insomniachas officially become PlayStation’s Marvel video game studio, building its SIE universe of Peter Parker’s and Miles Morales’Spider-Manstories and a Wolverine game. It’s also most famous for the hit Lombax action-adventure platformer series of the same name starringRatchet and Clank.
But what might now be considereda forgotten first-person shooterfrom Insomniac is the Resistance series, packed with thrilling alien invasion gameplay. Then, you also have aLovecraftian VR survival gamecalled Edge of Nowhere, the open-world apocalyptic rail-grinding Xbox gemSunset Overdrive, and an underwater metroidvania game where you control a submarine called Song of the Deep.
5Creative Assembly
Total War Games And Alien: Isolation
If you were to review the full list of games fromCreative Assemblyand skip over the year 2014, you might not notice any changes in the output from this studio. Creative Assembly is mainly associated with the development of its long-running real-time strategy video game seriesTotal War, including the historical titles and theWarhammerfantasy spin-off.
Well, it surprised everyone when it delivered a widely beloved, impressive first-person sci-fi survival horror game set in Ridley Scott’s Alien universe,Alien: Isolation, as though it’s a veteran horror developer.From mechanics to Xenomorph AI, environment design, characters, story, and UI, it’s hard to believe Creative Assembly pulled off this genre as well as it did.
4Naughty Dog
Crash Bandicoot, Jak And Daxter, Uncharted, The Last Of Us
Naughty Dog’s evolution as a studio and video game storyteller is one of the most remarkable to witness. Even before its series of cartoonyCrash Bandicootplatforming games that began in 1996, the studio was called JAM Software, releasing math games and obscure role-playing titles.
Now, Naughty Dog is recognized as having some of the most acclaimed award-winning story-driven cinematic masterpieces in gaming, with theUnchartedseries andThe Last of Us Part 1 and 2. The scripts and performancestranscend into Oscar-worthy ones, and The Last of Us Part 2 has also outdone itself with the stealth and survival horror aspects.
3Remedy Entertainment
Death Rally, Max Payne, Control, Alan Wake, Musicals
Sam Lake is one of the most creative and unpredictable writers in the industry. You can never know what idea will spawn from him next. He’s been building worlds forRemedysince its founding, and his work spans vehicular combat with Death Rally, gritty DC-style graphic novel detective noir withMax Payne,episodic Twin Peaks horror with Alan Wake, sci-fi metroidvania withControl, and jumps scare survival horror and live-action musical withAlan Wake 2.
What all the games share in common, however, is they may certainly not be every gamer’s cup of tea. Remedy has quite the mixed bag of launches, not to mention even its Xbox-exclusiveQuantum Break, which follows a similar pattern of mind-bending gameplay and story elements woven together with live-action sequences.
2Tango Gameworks
The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Hi-Fi Rush
Tango Gameworks started as a studio building a new brand of survival horror from one of the creators ofResident Evil, Shinji Mikami. After the success of the first two games inThe Evil Withinseries, you might’ve eagerly been anticipating the studio’s next horror game follow-up.
That turned out to beGhostwire: Tokyo, a paranormal FPS action-adventure where you can cast spells from your hands. And the title after that definitely wasn’t on your Tango Gameworks bingo card! It shook things up yet again withHi-Fi Rush, a unique third-person cyberpunk rhythm game with anime-style art direction and platforming mechanics.
1Capcom
Mega Man, DMC, Resident Evil, Ace Attorney, Street Fighter, Monster Hunter, Dragon’s Dogma
Capcomis unique in that it’s both a publisher and has its own internal game development divisions. The original multi-genre IPs it created during its multiple-decades-long stay in the gaming industry resulted insome of the most iconic video gamesthat are still stronger than ever today.
Your fighting game desires are covered withStreet Fighter, hack-and-slash withDevil May Cry, ARPG creature-hunting withMonster Hunter, legal drama visual novel withAce Attorney, and the studio set the benchmark for survival horror with Resident Evil. But wait, there’s more.Dragon’s Dogmaand 2D-action platformerMega Manare two other massive IPs from Capcom, and Ethan Winters' Resident Evil story even branched out into FPS.
