Who is the highest quality independent developer remaining?

Who is the highest quality independent developer remaining? Activision's CEO, Bobby Kottick, proclaims that would be Bungie. The CVG article quoting Kottick mentions Valve, Epic, Ninja Theory, Level-5, Insomniac, Foundation 9, Gearbox, Sucker Punch, Rebellion and Terminal Reality as possible exceptions to the word of Bob.
 
Who do you think is King of the Indies? My money is on Valve, but bless Bungie for their multi-player innovations.
 
Source:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=265559

Valve hands down, but fanboy love for Double Fine as well.

Zynga...obviously.  
 
Sorry, if I'm being blunt but this is a rhetorical question. Valve has a better track record than even publisher owned studios like Blizzard and BioWare. Gabe and Co. scrap more projects than what other studios release in a decade. They are ruthless about quality control.

I think Bungie and Valve are at the top. Certainly my favourites at least.

Gotta hand it to Kotick, dude knows hows to troll.

I would say Valve, but the $=€ thing disappointed me to such a degree I lost a lot of respect for them.

Valve. Blizzard too a couple of years ago before the whole merger (though to be honest, they were under another publisher before).

I'll go with Valve. They've gone from unknown to releasing the best games of all time and creating a PC platform that has no equals. All at the same time they trolls their fans with BBS mysteries and write comic books about TF2 while updating it for years after release for free to keep the community very much alive. Valve hands down.

" Access Games "

Valve
 
I like Splash Damages style though so a mention for them too. (ET:QW / Brink)

Valve is great for Steam, but I've never liked the "feel" of their games. I mean they're good and fun and all, but something doesn't rub well. 
 
I'm a big Bungie fan but Kotick's waay too invested in his own deal to state that objectively. 
 
With all the stuff they've been doing lately, and the potential to actually FINISH Duke, I'm going with Gearbox. Borderlands came outta nowhere for me, but totally swept me off my feet. Plus Randy Pitchford's office beats the SHIT out of any of those other execs. 

I'm going with Bungie, Valve, and Gearbox. All amazing developers.

" Valve. Blizzard too a couple of years ago before the whole merger (though to be honest, they were under another publisher before). "

" The Behemoth "

Create Studios/thatgamecompany 
 
(sorry if those aren't indie devs. I don't really know what makes a indie dev)

" @Meteora said:

" Valve. Blizzard too a couple of years ago before the whole merger (though to be honest, they were under another publisher before). "

Vivendi still controls Activision-Blizzard. But I agree, the merger should never have occurred. "

I'd have to say Valve because of the insane amount of support that they give their titles and the fact that I haven't been disappointed with a Valve game....well, ever. Steam's a great platform too and has introduced me to a ton of smaller games that I wouldn't have found otherwise (STALKER, Amnesia, etc.)

" I would say Valve, but the $=€ thing disappointed me to such a degree I lost a lot of respect for them. "

Although Valve might be independent I think more of small companies when I think indie.  Q whatever, the pixeljunk guys have been pretty consistently good.

The whole quality thing is largely BS. How can you say that a critically acclaimed flight simulator is better than a first person shooter? Apples and oranges.
 
Halo surely is not my coup of tea.

Bungie and Valve for me.