Are developers simply the underlings of publishers?

[Millenium]

pezus said:

Millenium said:
Really depends on the size of the developers I would guess.

I bet studios like Bungie, Epic Games, Sony Santa Monica, Naughty Dog etc etc can get far better deals in place, and thus have much more say in their products than smaller developers.

But then we have Infinity Ward and Treyarch who are really big, yet it looks like Activision has total control over them.

Edit: And ND couldn't get rid of the online pass with Uncharted 3

I would say that's an unfortunate side effect of the fact that they have been under Activisions thumb/ownership for so long, Bungie & Epic Games are privately owned for example (And Epic Games at least has more than enough cash to only need the publishers for the actual publishing jon), and I believe that they both reserve the right to all of their ip's from now on.

Not sure if ND was against or for the online pass to start with? Maybe they agreed with Sony's decision? idk...

Edit: Whisperer clarified a bit, thanks!