video game developer part of a series on thevideo game industry activitiesjobs video game design game design game art design game development game developer game modification game producer game programming game programmer game publisher game studies game testing game journalism level design development game ai game design interaction design game programming level design video game art video game design video game graphics video game music types adult game casual game indie game nongame interactive art interactive movie nonviolent video game serious game advergame art game edugame exergame topics digital rights management drm outsourcing software license enduser license agreement eula video game preservation related video game history of video games lists list of indie game developers list of video game developers list of video game industry people list of video game publishers list of video game websites vte a video game developer is a software developer that specializes in video game development the process and related disciplines of creating video games a developer may specialize in a certain video game console such as nintendos nintendo switch microsofts xbox one sonys playstation 4 or may develop for a number of systems including personal computers and mobile devices videogame developers specialize in certain types of games such as roleplaying video games or firstperson shooters some focus on porting games from one system to another or translating games from one language to another less commonly some do softwaredevelopment work in addition to games most video game publishers maintain development studios such as electronic artss ea canada square enixs studios activisions radical entertainment nintendo ead and sonys polyphony digital and naughty dog however since publishing is still their primary activity they are generally described as publishers rather than developers developers may be private as well such as how bungie was the company which developed the halo series exclusive to microsofts xbox types firstparty developer in the video game industry a firstparty developer is part of a company which manufactures a video game console and develops exclusively for it firstparty developers may use the name of the company itself such as nintendo have a specific division name such as sonys polyphony digital or have been an independent studio before being acquired by the console manufacturer such as rare or naughty dog secondparty developer secondparty developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios who take development contracts from platform holders and produce games exclusive to that platform these studios may have exclusive publishing agreements or other business relationships with the platform holder but maintain independence so upon completion or termination of their contracts are able to continue developing games examples are insomniac games originally a 2nd party for sony bungie originally a 2nd party for microsoft and rareware originally a 2nd party for nintendo thirdparty developers see also thirdparty software component activision in 1979 became the first thirdparty video game developer where the term secondparty originally referred to the consumers a thirdparty developer may also publish games or work for a video game publisher to develop a title both publisher and developer have considerable input in the games design and content however the publishers wishes generally override those of the developer the business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time by updating its milestones the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct the developer if the game is not meeting expectations when each milestone is completed and accepted the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers generally however thirdparty developers tend to be small closeknit teams thirdparty game development is a volatile sector since small developers may be dependent on income from a single publisher one canceled game may be devastating to a small developer because of this many small development companies are shortlived a common exit strategy for a successful videogame developer is to sell the company to a publisher becoming an inhouse developer inhouse development teams tend to have more freedom in the design and content of a game compared to thirdparty developers one reason is that since the developers are employees of the publisher their interests are aligned with those of the publisher the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developers decisions do not enrich the developer at the publishers expense in recent years larger publishers have acquired several thirdparty developers while these development teams are now technically inhouse they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner with their own culture and work practices for example activision acquired raven 1997 neversoft 1999 which merged with infinity ward in 2014 zaxis 2001 treyarch 2001 luxoflux 2002 shaba 2002 infinity ward 2003 and vicarious visions 2005 all these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition the primary differences being exclusivity and financial details publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget or missing deadlines than thirdparty developers a developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software usually providing an external software tool which helps organize or use information for the primary software product such tools may be a database voice over ip or addin interface software this is also known as middleware a good example of this is speedtree developed by interactive data visualization inc in addition accessories like headsets may be known as thirdparty headsets the company manufacturing the headset may be different from the console company for example turtle beach is a thirdparty headset manufacturer for the playstation 3 and xbox 360 also now including the xbox one and playstation 4 indie game developers see also indie game and independent video game development independents are software developers which are not owned by or dependent on a single publisher some of these developers selfpublish their games relying on the internet and word of mouth for publicity without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as sony microsoft or nintendo with the advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games other indie game developers create game software for a number of videogame publishers on several gaming platforms quality of life videogame development is usually conducted in a casual business environment with tshirts and sandals common work attire many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally an entrylevel programmer can make on average over 66000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining a position in a medium to large video game company in addition to being part of the software industry crunch time some video game developers such as electronic arts have been accused of the excessive invocation of crunch time crunch time is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch a game on schedule the complexity of work flow and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in videogame creation create difficulty in predicting milestones most gamedevelopment engineers and artists in the united states are considered salaried employees as exempt nonhourlypaid professionals they are not subject to state laws governing overtime the minimum wage was 36 per hour or 74880 per year attention to crunching was drawn by a 2004 blog post entitled easpouse a similar situation was brought to light in january 2010 when a collective group of rockstar spouses the spouses of developers at rockstar san diego posted an open letter criticizing the management of the studio for deteriorating working conditions for their significant other since march 2009 which including excessive crunch time this was followed by several former rockstar employees posting similar complaints of their time there unionization similar to other tech industries video game developers are typically not unionized this is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production the lack of distinction between management and employees in the whitecollar area and that the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out in 2016 voice actors in the screen actors guildamerican federation of television and radio artists sagaftra union doing work for video games struck several major publishers demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances when their unions standard contract was up for renewal the voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between sagaftra and the publishers while this had some effects on a few games within the industry it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize a grassroots movement game workers unite was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers the group came to the forefront during the march 2018 game developers conference by holding a roundtable discussion with the international game developers association idga the professional association for developers statements made by the idgas current executive director jen maclean relating to igdas activities had been seen by as antiunion and game workers unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize women in game development women and video games women in the games industry in 1989 according to variety women constituted only 3 of the gaming industry list of independent game developers list of video game developers video game industry practices breaking into the game industry from the igda i have a game idea and design career preparation from game industry veteran tom sloper quality of life in the videogame industry 