Infinity Ward, Fromsoftware, and Insomniac are just a few of the hundreds of development teams out there but they and plenty of other top developers regularly take input from publishers like Activision, Bandai Namco, and Sony during the process to help their games reach the finish line.
While some franchises and developers tend to be exclusive to specific publishers, there are a number of them that work across the industry with many different publishers. Call of Duty regularly cycles its developers yearly while FromSoftware has partnered with Sony and Bandai Namco for big successful titles like Bloodborne and Elden Ring.
Even Insomniac worked with Xbox Game Studios on Sunset Overdrive before Sony put a ring on it and officially made them part of their first-party family.
Let’s use Call of Duty as an example. The series regularly cycles development teams between installments but is owned and published by Activision. Some fans will only buy CoD when developed by their preferred developer. Would you still buy a new Call of Duty if it was suddenly published by EA or Take-Two?
Would you take a chance on a Call of Duty developed by a new studio that’s never done it if Activision published it? How about if one of your other favorites like Assassin’s Creed, Final Fantasy, or Mario were developed by someone else?
That brings us to the topic of game developers vs. publishers: Are developers or publishers more important in how you choose games?
How do you feel about developers and publishers? Which has a more significant effect on your decision to buy a game? Are there any games you consider an automatic purchase based on the developer or publisher?
Who deserves more credit for a game’s success or failure? Are there any developers or publishers that give you concern when considering buying their game? If the next installment of your favorite franchise were to change to a developer or publisher you didn’t care for, would you still purchase it? Let us know in the comments.
Jada Griffin is IGN’s Community Lead. If she’s not engaging with users here, chances are she’s developing her own games, maxing the Luck stat in her favorite games, or challenging her D&D players with Intense combat or masterful puzzles. You can follow her on Twitter @Jada_Rina.