Yancy_Farnesworth t1_ja9fyc0 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 8:40 PM

Publishers basically do whatever it is the developers need them to do. Most of the time it's funding because making games is expensive. They will offer other services to developers depending on the situation.

Some games are completely developed independently by the developers and the publisher only deals with distribution and marketing. This extends from simply listing games on Steam to all the legal paperwork and lawyers needed to negotiate contracts with distributors like Steam. The publisher also tends to have a lot of existing relationships that they've built over years for marketing/selling. Something that is very expensive/time consuming for a small developer to invest in, especially if they have never done so before. This is fairly common with indie games.

In other cases publishers will advise developers on games. For example, highlighting that some gameplay features might not work in the general public. Companies like Paradox, given their general focus on strategy games, could provide a lot of useful insight to developers. Whether or not the developer takes the advice depends on the nature of the relationship. Sometimes publishers can dictate what the dev does, seeing as the publisher usually funds the game. Other times they take a more hands-off approach.

Publishers also have access to a lot of other resources beyond financial/legal/etc. For example, they might have access to a really powerful game engine that a developer could use if they decide to build a game on it. Or maybe they have a large artistic group that a developer could leverage. You can see this in EA where they publish games and the publisher itself owns a number of dev studios around the world. They tend to share employees and tools like the Frostbite engine.

This is all to say that there's a lot work aside from writing code/making art that goes into making a game. Publishers offer developers a way to navigate that with someone that has experience doing that a lot.

Judge_T OP t1_ja9trg8 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 10:07 PM

Thanks! A couple more questions for you and anyone else who'd like to chip in:

1.) What sort of deals do publishers get for the games they publish? e.g. a literary publisher will get the right to sell and distribute an individual book, but the author largely retains control of the "franchise", in the sense that the publisher couldn't just override them one morning and commission a sequel to someone else or change the ending to the novel. How does it work for game developers? Do they also retain some form of artistic control, or do they surrender everything related to the game?

2.) In the literary world, it's always the authors who go courting the publishing houses. Is it the same in the gaming world, or do publishers actively seek out smaller game studios? And how do the parties communicate? Is there the equivalent of literary agents doing the intermediation?

3.) I'm having a hard time imagining a large publishing house giving a small developer access to resources like game engines and even employees for a game that evidently doesn't have anything to show for itself yet. How does that process work? Does the developer team need to prove itself first by creating one or two successful games before they can hope for the endorsement of a publisher, or can a pitch be so strong that they get these resources even with little more than a game concept to go on?

Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far for helping lift the veil of my ignorance!

Yancy_Farnesworth t1_ja9yiz5 wrote on February 27, 2023 at 10:39 PM

There's no fixed standard. Publishers usually do things their own way and it will depend on the situation. For example, Microsoft approached acquiring Bungie for Halo to launch the XBox. Sometimes studios are running low on funds, so they seek a publisher to support them until the game launches. They can reach out to each other directly, there are usually entire teams whose job is to manage these relationships. Alternatively, they could have networking events in industry conventions like the GDC (Game Developers Conference).

For 3 specifically they don't do this randomly. They will negotiate terms for a contract that both parties will have to sign. It's a contract where the publisher is selling their services for a price. In the software world, outright IP theft of things like game engines is rare because it's really easy to get caught. The publisher really only has to look at the distributed game to spot clear markers of it being based on Frostbite. Having a past record of good projects will definitely give the developers an easier time negotiating a contract over someone that doesn't. A publisher could definitely opt to publish a game with only a pitch from a studio with no experience if they wanted to. It's just not likely and more often than not they're going to ask for at least some evidence that they're not wasting their time.