Welcome to the Companies wing of the Shacknews 2024 Hall of Fame class. This category celebrates the publishers, developers, and other entities that have influenced the direction of the industry and brought joy to millions of players.
When you're finished, use the Table of Contents at the bottom of the page to visit other areas of the Shacknews Hall of Fame Class of 2024.
Netflix
Netflix’s pivot from loaning DVDs to digital streaming in the late 2000s will go down as one of the greatest business moves in the history of the entertainment industry. With programs like Stranger Things, Squid Game, and The Witcher, Netflix has not only penetrated pop culture, but birthed an entire subgenre of it.
The streaming juggernaut has also had a profound impact on Hollywood at large, shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars so that legendary filmmakers like Martin Scorcese can make their passion projects. It’s a service that’s available everywhere and on every platform. It’s hard to find someone who’s never watched a movie or show on Netflix.
Netflix has irreversibly changed the way we watch movies and TV. The last decade of entertainment has been defined by streaming, with every major studio following Netflix’s model, in hopes of replicating the company’s success.
Insomniac Games
Insomniac Games is currently known for its work on the Marvel’s Spider-Man series, which has become synonymous with the PlayStation brand. These titles deliver hard-hitting action, memorable characters, and jaw-dropping visuals.
However, even before the studio made some of the greatest superhero games of all-time, they set an example for platforming excellence. Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank were childhood-defining franchises for kids growing up in the late 90s and 2000s. Before being acquired by Sony, Insomniac Games developed one of the best Xbox exclusives of the past decade with Sunset Overdrive.
With Insomniac Games, there’s something for everyone. The studio has set the bar for quality across multiple generations, and always manages to outdo itself with every new title.
GameWorks
Arcades were a fixture of the 80s and 90s in the United States, but in 1996, Sega and DreamWorks imagined something greater. The two parties collaborated on GameWorks, a massive arcade venue that would also offer full bar and restaurant service. They were the best place to find the hit arcade titles of the mid-90s like Marvel vs. Capcom, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, and Crazy Taxi.
GameWorks would ultimately fall victim to arcades going out of style over the turn of the century. Multiple bankrupcies would be declared in the ensuing decades and nearly every location would eventually shut down for good. Only one location remains in Seattle, having successfully reopened in 2022 following the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
While GameWorks' success was brief, its influence was unquestionable. Franchises, like Round 1 and modern-day Dave & Busters, would follow the GameWorks blueprint and remain in business today.
Camelot Software Planning
Sports games can either function as a simulation or work as a lighthearted, less serious alternative. Camelot Software Planning specialized in the latter, introducing the fun of golf games to PlayStation owners with 1997's Everybody's Golf (a.k.a. Hot Shots Golf).
Camelot would continue to build on the Hot Shots Golf formula in the ensuing years and would soon find a home with Nintendo. Not only would Camelot put out the full Mario Golf series over the following decades, the team would expand its horizons to tennis and become the primary developer of the Mario Tennis series.
However, Camelot is more than sports. The studio can also make an excellent RPG as evidenced by 2001's Golden Sun, a Game Boy Advance title that has become a cult classic. Sega was also familiar with Camelot's RPG talents. Camelot was the team behind Shining Force, a tactical RPG series that would span from the Sega Genesis to the Sega Saturn.
Gearbox Software
Founded in 1999 by five developers, Gearbox Software has solidified its reputation as one of the most well-known development studios of triple-A video games and memorable characters. The studio got its start by developing Half-Life: Opposing Force, the first official expansion pack for Valve’s bestselling Half-Life FPS. When the expansion proved successful, they continued their partnership with Valve by porting the original game to consoles such as the PlayStation 2—which included an exclusive co-op mode—and creating Blue Shift, another expansion.
Early on, Gearbox was a sort of steward of franchises made by other studios. Besides Half-Life, it ported Halo: Combat Evolved and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, to the PC. It also finished and released 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever in 2011. The first entry in Gearbox’s Brothers in Arms, a slate of titles set during World War II and the studio’s first original IP, was released in 2005.
Gearbox is arguably most well-known for the Borderlands series of “shooter looters” that debuted in 2009. The property has spawned several sequels and a feature film.
