Videogame party system
You will probably have heard of games being classed as first party or third party, but what does that mean? Why first and third, but no second?
Well, there is a second party, but it’s rarely used and most people consider it to be 3rd party. Also, the party system only really applies to console games – since PCs have no single manufacturer (and Apple don’t develop games), computer based games would all be third party.
First Party
First party games are developed by the hardware manufacturer and published by them also. Nintendo is a classic first party developer/publisher. Often the developer may have a different name to the parent company, but are a wholly owned subsidiary.
There is one party of people involved in getting the game developed and published.
First party games only appear on one manufacturers hardware.
Second Party
Second party is more common than people think – in fact few people have even heard of it. Second party is where the hardware developer publishes a game developed by another studio, and that studio develops only for one platform. In many respects Rare was a second party developer for Nintendo for a number of years.
There are two parties involved: the developer and the hardware manufacturer who publishes the game.
Second party games only appear on one manufacturers hardware.
Third Party
Third party games are developed by a company with no hard ties to any particular hardware manufacturer and usually develop for multiple platforms at the same time., and then published either by themselves or by a publisher who also have no hard ties with the hardware developer. Ubisoft for example is a both a third party developer (and self publisher) and a publisher of other third party titles.
Third party games may only appear on one hardware platform, but are much more likely to appear on multiple formats.