US retail giant GameStop has launched a publishing division called GameTrust.

The firm has signed new games from well-known independent studios including Ready at Dawn (The Order: 1886), Tequila Works (Deadlite, Rime) and Frozenbyte (Trine). The company also announced in March it was working with Insomniac (Ratchet and Clank) on a new game called Song of the Deep, which is due in the summer, but at the time the firm said this was a one-off project.

GameStop has since changed its tune, with VP of Internal Development and Diversification Mark Stanley telling MCV the firm is in discussion with 20 other developers.

In total, the company intends to launch between five and ten games every year.

The new publishing division acts more like a games label (think Curve, Koch, 505 Games or Team17) as opposed to EA or Activision, with developers retaining full rights to their properties and GameStop having no involvement in the creative side of development.

Full article: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/gamestop-launches-full-publishing-division-and-signs-ready-at-dawn-insomniac-frozenbyte-and-tequila-works/0165604

I imagine them not having the games available digitally xD

"It makes sense, at least in the US. GameStop has over 6,000 stores worldwide, and it says it will be selling these games over PSN, Xbox Live and Steam, too. The firm also has deep pockets and so can fund larger projects."

Considering retail gaming is slowly fading away (both to digital and to online retailers) it seems normal to diversify their plans before its too late.

sounds like good news right?

So sub-15M budget is now a "smaller title". How things are spinning out of control, Uncharted 1 cost little more than that

I was joking. Of course they wouldn't make such an archaic decision lol

Of course they will publish them digitally. They will just get a cut of those digital sales. Good to see them diversify though, instead of just whine about digital.

I think this could be more a case of games that would of been digital only are now also getting a retail release to prevent Gamestop loosing out on the sales, It's good news all round anyway!

you need to read in between the lines. 

First note that these things don't just start overnight. We may be hearing confirmation now, but this started in some conference room probably over 2/3 years ago. 

What this is is GameStop taking note of something that's brewing in the industry and trying to get ahead of it early before they become irrelevant. The move to digital distribution. Right now digital distribution probably makes under 30% of console game sales. That's a pretty big number considering that only 3 years ago it probably didn't account for up to 10% of sales. 

Any exec worth half a brain will see that that number is only gonna grow. And I dare say that by the time the next generation comes along, digital distribution will be the primary form of game distribution. It could be so far along that any of the big three will most likely even make those that want to use a disc pay a premium for a console SKU that comes with a disc drive. We could even start seeing games release digitally first then on disc a fee weeks later. 

GameStop knows this, (all this already happened in the PC market) so the best way for them to circumvent this trend is to become a content creator themselves.