Video Game Developers and Publishers

In the simplest sense, a video game developer is the company that actually creates a video game. Sometimes a developer comes up with an original concept, story or character for the game; other times they work with licensed characters such as those from movies, comic books or toys. Game development firms can be as small as just a few people or large enough to support hundreds of employees working on multiple game titles.

Most video game developers have full-time teams of programmers, artists and designers. Others choose to outsource portions of the project, however this is more common on small-scale projects.

Developers are rarely household names. Gamers are more likely to know the name of a game's publisher than to know who created it. There are certainly exceptions to this (for example, many people know Rockstar Games made the Grand Theft Auto series -- Take Two was the publisher) rule, but publishers tend to have more name recognition, in part because of the sheer number of titles they brand with their logo.

By contrast, a video game publisher is responsible for the manufacture, distribution and marketing of a video game title. The publisher often provides the money for the cost of developing the game and has a larger stake in the profits of the title. In most instances, a publisher contracts with a development firm to create a specific game. However, some publishers purchase games that are in progress or even complete and agree to publish them. Occasionally they will rely on third party distributors and will out-source this portion of the video game publishing role.

Console hardware manufacturers often publish video games, in an effort to ensure there is a large amount of high quality software for their platforms. So, some of the biggest video game publishers today are Sony (PlayStation, PlayStation 2), Nintendo (GameCube, Game Boy, Nintendo DS) and Microsoft (Windows, Xbox & Xbox 360).

Most of the confusion about video game developers and publishers comes from the fact that there is a lot of role overlap in the video game industry. For example, many game publishers have their own in-house development teams as well as contracting with outside video game developers to provide games for them to publish. In addition, some video game developers either make the transition to publishing their own games as they become more successful. Other developers occasionally self-publish titles, but rely on larger publishers for the bulk of their development projects.

In recent years, the video game industry has seen substantial consolidation as several of the larger publishers have purchased multiple developers. In some instances those developers are fully integrated into the publisher; in other cases they are left as separate business units with a fair amount of autonomy.

The difference between video game publisher is of most interest to those who aspire to work in the video game industry. Those who want to be hands-on and have an active role in building and designing a video game should look for work with either a video game developer or in an in-house development group within a publishing company. Often, the budgets and resources are better for the in-house developers, but these roles may be harder to land straight out of school. Independent video game developers are often more willing to take a chance on a talented novice to the field.

Those who are more interesting in the business side of the video game industry, for example marketing, sales or licensing are best suited for a role at a publisher.

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