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First-party developer
In the video game industry, a first-party developer is a developer that is part of a company that actually manufactures a video game console. First-party developers may either use the name of the company itself, like Nintendo; have a specific division name like Sony's Polyphony Digital; or have formerly been an independent studio before being acquired by the console manufacturer, such as Rare or Naughty Dog.
Third-party developer
A third-party developer is a developer not directly tied to the primary product that a consumer is using, although some, such as Insomniac Games, may have exclusive publishing agreements or other business relationships with a particular manufacturer while maintaining independence. The primary product may be hardware or software.
In the video game industry, many third-parties publish the games they develop, such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, while others only develop games to be published under other companies, such as Raven Software. Furthermore, third-party developers can be owned by larger third-parties, such as the relationship between Neversoft (creator of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series) and Activision. Because of this, much larger third-parties that also publish their own games are typically referred to as publishing houses and not third-party developers even though they do develop many of their own games internally.
Another example is a developer that is a separate legal entity from the software being used, usually providing an external software tool that helps organize or use information for the primary software product. Such tools could be a database, VoIP, or add-in interface software, among others.
Examples of third-party developers
Publishers (and subsidiaries)
- 505 Games
- Akella
- Activision Blizzard the largest third-party developer
- Agetec
- Atari — formerly a first-party developer
- Atlus
- Bethesda Softworks
- Bioware
- Disney Interactive Studios
- Deep Silver
- Capcom
- cdv Software Entertainment
- Codemasters
- Conspiracy Entertainment
- Electronic Arts — the second largest third-party developer
- SCi/Eidos Interactive
- JoWooD Productions
- NCSoft
- O~3 Entertainment
- Q Entertainment
- Sega — formerly a first-party developer, now third-party due to loss of rivalry with Nintendo and Sony
- SouthPeak Interactive
Independent developers
- Backbone Entertainment
- Big Games
- Exient entertainment
- Epic Games
- Factor 5
- Foundation 9 Entertainment
- GSC Game World
- High Voltage Software
- Human Head Studios
- Id Software
- Insomniac Games
- Pi Studios
- Terminal Reality
- Threewave Software
- Valve Corporation
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