Best of 2021: The top game developers of the year
With 2022 officially underway, it's time to take one last look at the previous year and recognize the game developers who have left a lasting, positive impression on the community and the industry.
2021 was a year of evolution, maturation, and accomplishment amid an established pandemic that continues to disrupt the planet. The world is still in a difficult place but game developers, through their work, have continued to provide comfort for millions of people, all while enduring the same difficulties and hardships as their audiences.
The entries below, listed in alphabetical order and carefully selected by the Game Developer editorial staff, represent the individuals, groups, or organizations that made an exceptionally positive impact on the games industry last year. That may be through advocacy, technology, business practices, creativity, or sheer tenacity in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.
These are Game Developer's top 10...game developers...of 2021.
343 Industries has had a rough journey as steward of the Halo series. The fourth and fifth entries in the series landed with mixed reviews, and they had to watch as the once-dominant first-person shooter series lost steam and had to adapt to other changes in the multiplayer world. With Halo Infinite, could they turn that momentum around and make a stellar game?
That's already one mountain to have to climb in developing Halo Infinite. Now add a few more mountains. A tumultuous dev cycle. A global pandemic. The Craig phenomenon. Making games is always hard. Making Halo Infinite seems like it was almost impossible. A year-long delay seemed inevitable, and also necessary. Could the team recover from that?
Fast-forward to late 2021, and boy did they bring that
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