| Kresnik said:
Second party = published by the company (often the IP is kept); developed externally. Third party = no association with the company other than putting it on their platform.
Uncharted is a first party game on PS3. They own the studio, IP & published the game. Resistance is a second party game on PS3. They own the IP & published it, but it was developed by Insomniac Games who are an independent team. Fuse will be a third party game on PS3. It's developed by the same external team (Insomniac) and Sony are not publishing the game nor retaining the IP. It is merely appearing on their platform.
That's how I've always understood it, at least. |
The classic definition, at least in my understanding, is that a second-party is a developer who is not owned (or primarily owned) by a first-party, but whose output is exclusively for a first-party. Examples included Rare (barely: Nintendo nearly owned a majority there) and Insomniac.
Second-parties have always been pretty rare, and they seem to be even more so now.
