The Conduit developer interview

[alpha_dk]

vaio said:
If I was them I would publish it myself, with the ammount of hype this game gets they might aswell cut out the middle man and get to the market direcly them selves and make a far more greater buck themselves.

It's almost certainly not viable for them to do that (well)... I doubt they have the distributor connections, marketing/advertising connections, etc. to be able to publish it themselves.  They could probably find those connections, but it would probably be cheaper and easier for them in the long run to just hire it out to someone.

Since they are funding development themselves (at least for now), and the internet seems to be ablaze with demand for this game (to an extent that I for one have not seen for a 3P Wii game to date), they have lots of leverage with the publishers; they will likely have their pick of several different *good* contracts to choose from, most of which will involve nationwide advertising in all likelihood.

All told, the middlemen will likely be competing for them, more than they will be competing for the middlemen.  That gives them a great amount of power in any negotiations, whereby they will likely get an extremely good deal on the first game, in the publisher's hope that it becomes a successful series that they can then get the publishing rights to.