The announcement earlier this year that Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games would be working with retailer GameStop on its latest game may have caught some by surprise. A retailer-development arrangement is not very common. But it turns out GameStop has bold plans in the publishing space.
The company today announced a publishing label called "GameTrust." It's not just Insomniac that has signed up, either, as other independent developers including The Order: 1886 developer Ready at Dawn, Tequila Works (Deadlight, Rime), and Frozenbyte (Trine series) are among the initial partners.
GameTrust is not to be thought of as a traditional publisher, GameStop VP of Internal Development & Diversification Mark Stanley told GameSpot in a recent interview. He explained that GameStop will not have any form of creative control over the games and studios it works with.
"We do not involve ourselves in the creative process because at the end of the day, that is what our developer partners are passionate about," he explained. "By allowing developers to fully focus on their craft, GameTrust can focus on all other aspects of bringing a new IP to market, leveraging our deep expertise and retail channel leadership to support each developer and connect their games with a broader global audience.”
GameStop has bold ambitions for GameTrust, saying in a release today that the program will "revolutionize the game development and distribution process" by way of giving developers another option to help bring their games to market, leveraging GameStop's leadership in the retail channel (including marketing and more) to help bring games to a larger audience.
Overall, Stanley describes GameStop's relationship as "light-touch." He also tells us that publishing arrangements, including GameStop's total investment and marketing spend, will vary by project
No comments:
Post a Comment