Video game development party

First-party developer

In the video game industry, a first-party developer is a developer that is part of a company that actually manufactures a video game console. First-party developers may either use the name of the company itself, like Nintendo; have a specific division name like Sony's Polyphony Digital; or have formerly been an independent studio before being acquired by the console manufacturer, such as Rare or Naughty Dog.

Second-party developer (Subsidiary)

A 'Second Party' developer is a misnomer used in place of a subsidiary in regards to the video game industry. Some examples include Game Freak and Hal Laboratory which are wholly owned by Nintendo, or Naughty Dog, which is owned by Sony.

Another situation is when an independent game developer to specialise in development for a particular platform. An example of this is Insomniac Games, which, until recently, has been developing games solely for Sony's PlayStation platform despite being an entirely independent studio. Studios like Insomniac are very rare in the video game industry because without the direct support of the platform owner, it is very risky financially to be developing solely for a particular platform.

Third-party developer

A third-party developer is a developer not directly tied to the primary product that a consumer is using, although some, such as Insomniac Games, may have exclusive publishing agreements or other business relationships with a particular manufacturer while maintaining independence. The primary product may be hardware or software.

In the video game industry, many third-parties publish the games they develop, such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Sega, while others only develop games to be published under other companies, such as Raven Software. Furthermore, third-party developers can be owned by larger third-parties, such as the relationship between Neversoft (creator of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series) and Activision. Because of this, much larger third-parties that also publish their own games are typically referred to as publishing houses and not third-party developers even though they do develop many of their own games internally.

Another example is a developer that is a separate legal entity from the software being used, usually providing an external software tool that helps organize or use information for the primary software product. Such tools could be a database, Voice over IP, or add-in interface software, among others.

In addition, accessories like headsets can be referred as third party headsets, meaning the company of the headset is different from the console company. For example, Turtle Beach is a third party headset company to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.