A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer.
They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer (the publisher calls this external development) and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio. The large video game publishers also distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies (or larger video game publishers) to distribute the games they publish. Other functions usually performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses used by the game; paying for localization; layout, printing, and possibly the writing of the user manual; and the creation of graphic design elements such as the box design. Some large publishers with vertical structure also own publishing subsidiaries (labels).
Large publishers may also attempt to boost efficiency across all internal and external development teams by providing services such as sound design and code packages for commonly needed functionality.
Because the publisher often finances development, it usually tries to manage development risk with a staff of producers or project managers to monitor the progress of the developer, critique ongoing development, and assist as necessary. Most video games created by an external video game developer are paid for with periodic advances on royalties. These advances are paid when the developer reaches certain stages of development, called milestones.
Video game publishing is associated with high risk:
Numerous video game publishers are traded publicly on stock markets. As a group, they have had mixed performance. At present, Electronic Arts is the only third-party publisher present in the S&P 500 diversified list of large U.S. corporations; in April 2010, it entered the Fortune 500 for the first time.[10]
Hype over video game publisher stocks has been breathless at two points:
FY 2020-2021 | Name | Country | Revenue in $bn |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Sony Interactive Entertainment | Japan, United States | 18.190 |
2 | Tencent Games | China | 16.224 |
3 | Nintendo | Japan | 12.010 |
4 | Microsoft | United States | 10.260 |
5 | NetEase | China | 6.668 |
6 | Activision Blizzard | United States | 6.388 |
7 | Electronic Arts | United States | 5.537 |
8 | Take-Two Interactive | United States | 3.089 |
9 | Bandai Namco Entertainment | Japan | 3.018 |
10 | Square Enix | Japan | 2.386 |
11 | Nexon | South Korea, Japan | 2.286 |
12 | Netmarble | South Korea | 1.883 |
13 | Ubisoft | France | 1.446 |
14 | Konami | Japan | 1.303 |
15 | Sega | Japan | 1.153 |
16 | MiHoYo | China | 0.855 |
17 | Capcom | Japan | 0.7673 |
18 | Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment | United States | 0.7324 |
19 | Embracer Group | Sweden | 0.3225 |
In 2021, the largest public companies by game revenue were Tencent, with US$32.2 billion, followed by Sony, with US$18.2 billion, and Apple, with US$15.3 billion, according to Newzoo.[11]
Name of Publisher |
---|
505 Games (Italy) |
Aksys Games (US) |
Annapurna Interactive (US) |
Devolver Digital (US) |
Focus Entertainment (France) |
Frontier Developments (UK) |
Humble Games (US) |
Koei Tecmo (Japan) |
Marvelous Inc (Japan) |
Nacon (France) |
NCSoft (South Korea) |
Nippon Ichi Software (Japan) |
Paradox Interactive (Sweden) |
Team17 (UK) |