| ishiki said: generally speaking it wouldn't really be that big of a deal since indie games aren't really lookers (tech-wise speaking ofcourse) |
Independent developers can be any level of quality. Independent just means you're publishing without a publisher, not that you can't create awesome games.
Bethesda is independent. It's publisher is its owner, ZeniMax. Even though it has a publisher, the people at Bethesda actually handle the entire publishing process as well. ZeniMax simply provides funding until the project is complete.
In fact, ZeniMax was co-founded after Bethesda Softworks by the founder of Bethesda and a lawyer.
As I mentioned in another thread, the reason why Microsoft wants a publisher for certain games is to ensure rights to distribute and have a place to send checks, then let them (not Microsoft necessarily) sort out who gets what. A publisher literally just needs to be a lawyer and an address.
