GC Remakes = Nintendo buying the 3rd parties some time.

[Erik Aston]

trestres said:
@Erik Aston: Not really, check my thread http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=44028&page=1

Nintendo is not making any of the games besides Wii Sports Resort. They are all outsourced to third party teams.

Also, the difference between a second and third party dev is that a second party developer was once a third party dev, but has been bought or has an exclusive deal with a console maker, so it's basically a 1st party team.

Third parties can make games and Nintendo can choose to publish them if they like. Nintendo may also hire a 3rd party team to make a game, though that very same team could be making projects for another console.

For example, Namco Bandai will never qualify as a second party dev, like you imply. They made Mario Super Sluggers, but only upon Nintendo's request. Alpha Dream or example makes only Wii or DS games, they will never be able to produce games for another platform that's not Nintendo, unless their contract is broken or Nintendo wants to get rid of them. Like it happened with RARE.

Whether there is a contract for a single game, a series, or for every game the developer makes doesn't matter. Every contract is different, and the term "second party" does not try to seperate them.

It is a slang term that refers to ANY game developed by a third party, but published by a first party.

A company which has been wholly or majoritally bought by a first party company, is now part of that company, and so is first party.

You would be better off not trying to classify the developers as "second party," but only the games. If you want to apply it to developers, there is no problem at all in saying that Namco acted as a second party in the development of Mario Sluggers.

For example, Skip Ltd. published LOL by themselves. Everything else they've made, Nintendo published. Technically, they're in the same boat as Namco Bandai in everything but percentages of games published by Nintendo. So where is the line between second and third in your book?

Just look at that Namco example. Does it help at all to classify a Mario game as third party? That's absurd. The important point, in this discussion, is that it is a game that Nintendo outsourced, and so didn't eat up their internal resources.

And just think about it. What games could there be dispute about their classification, such that a slang catchall would arise? First party deved and first party pubed? No dispute. Third party deved and third party pubed? No dispute. Third party deved and first party pubed? Potential dispute with every single game in the category. Your definition would have us digging into contract law and setting arbitrary borderlines, rendering the term useles.... Which it is anyways because no one uses it properly.