First-party developer
A first party developer makes the game specifically for a console or manufacturer. The manufacturer usually pays a sum of money to the company to produce the game exclusively for the console. A big example of this is development companies inside bigger companies for example Forza for the Xbox or Gran Turismo for the PlayStation. Forza is a racing game that is exclusive to Xbox consoles and does not see any funding to the PS4 due to the game being developed by Microsoft Studios. There will be a set budget given and this means that a lot more capital can be invested into the development and smooth running of the game on the Xbox console.
Second-party developer
Second party developers are companies who take money from the platform holders to have that game better on their console. They are usually partly owned by the platform and they will have certain publishing agreements but whilst maintaining independence. An example of this would be Insomniac games who are currently working on an underwater Metroidvania game called Song of the Deep that is planned to be released on the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Headset.
Third-party developers
Third party developers publish games on multiple platforms but both the publisher and platform has a say in what is produced. These third party developers are usually the bigger companies within the industry and can put forward a lot bigger investments to their development range as they can gain revenue from multiple sources and multiple consoles. They can market and develop for all different consoles where there is a market for example a few years ago EA Sports were still releasing the FIFA series on the PlayStation 2 as there was still demand for the series on this console.
Independent developers
Independents are software developers which are not owned by a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo.
No comments:
Post a Comment