S.T.A.G.E., I learnt this one lately, but despite so many years of reading up on vg stuff, there is no such thing as 2nd party. Everything is either 1st party or 3rd party.
From Wikipedia:
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Second-party developer
A company closely tied to a console manufacturer (or a publisher) is known as a second-party developer. Confusingly, the publishers themselves are sometimes referred to as third-party developers in their relationships to the console manufacturers (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo). This distinction of first-, second- and third-party developers does not generally apply to PC-game development. The term "second-party" developer is colloquially used in the sense of "subsidiary", referring to a non-owned third-party developer specializing in development for a particular platform. Some studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with a manufacturer, while maintaining independence. Examples are Insomniac Games (which developed games solely for Sony's PlayStation platforms as an independent studio) and Game Freak, (which primarily develops the Nintendo-exclusive Pokémon game series). Studios like Insomniac and Game Freak are rare in the video-game industry; without support from the platform owner, it is financially risky to be developing solely for a particular platform. Other studios known as "second-party" may be wholly owned and funded by their parent company. |
Monolith are 1st party.
