I dont understand why on game cases, http://www.impactlab.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/video-game-library.jpg has the game name and publisher instead of game name and developer.

Anyone know why?

I felt like getting a game the other day, just to, and I was at gamestop and was looking through their games that were displayed http://www.impactlab.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/video-game-library.jpg. I was doing a quick scan and on every game case I saw 2 pieces of information, the game name and publisher. I would rather see game name and developer, no? The developer being more useful information over the publisher?

Publishers want people to know their name

Well I do know that some average people don't know the difference between the developer and publisher.Looking at my 58 games for Xbox, 360 and PS3 there are 11 EA titles with thier name on the side, 4 2K games and 1 Rockstar game.The rest have no company name or logo on the side.

On mine it just has the name of the game:



http://www.jfedor.org/misc/ps2games.jpg

I have 24 Xbox 360 video game cases in front of me, 1 is missing a cover, and 4 have publishers down the middle, one Pop Cap, a kalypso, and 2x EA.

Supreme Commander 2 only has the name. This is a game that could benefit from having its publisher in the middle part of the cover/case.



Those are proper. Just video game names. I wish all my games were like that.

Part of the publisher's job is to take all the credit. More specifically, since they do a lot of the funding as compared to the developers making the game, they're far more concerned with making their money back than anything else. Putting their name at the forefront is basically advertising; if the consumer likes a game, and connects it to the name of the publisher instead of the developer, they might buy other games with that name on it. That way, if the developers find someone else to publish next time, it's the publisher who continues to make money. Basically a case of "I paid for this box, I'm putting whatever I want on it".

It is kind of silly, the amount of prominence that publishers get on game boxes, compared to other industries.

What's more prominent on a book - the author's name, or the publisher logo?

PC games often install and sort themselves in folders by publisher as well, which is pretty presumptuous. Imagine sorting the books on our bookshelves by publisher! Why would we possibly want to do that? Why would we want to do it with video games either?

Because publishers pay the big money. Makes sense.

And developers perform the actual labour that created the game. Makes more sense.

Do you see WB on the side of your LOTR blu-ray or Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop?

How about Avatar, is it the Fox logo or James Cameron's production company, Lightstorm Entertainment?

Any developer that licenses a game to a publisher enters into a contract that specifies whose logo goes where. Same with films, TV shows, CDs, etc.

I did go on to give the example of books, which was the specific one I was thinking of. In that case, the author (creator) gets the most recognition. Same with CDs (typically), the artist (creator) gets a more prominent position on the case than the record company. But with games, you typically get a publisher logo vastly overshadowing anything that suggests who the creator of the product was.

Even in films, sometimes, the name of the director is more prominent ('James Cameron's Avatar'), and even if they don't display the logo of Lightstorm, giving the director prominent recognition is at least something. A nod to someone involved in the actual creation of the film. Of course, most films do not even do that. But all that means is that films are just as bad as games in this regard.

I can understand where you're coming from. I'd love to see artists get more recognition as well.

In the case of "So and So's Movie," it's kind of an ego thing but distributors will generally only do that if it is a selling point. Would you be more inclined to watch "Peter Jackson's The Hobbit" or "M. Night Shayamalan's The Hobbit"?

In the case of books it is not exactly the same situation, as something written by an individual author is in a slightly different boat than works that are developed by one company and sold to another. Also, books have a rich history and have been archived in vast libraries for centuries, even before the industry of book publishing developed among private corporations.

It also doesn't hurt that author's names have become a sort of brand to help publisher's sell books.

Ultimately, there is no reason why a particular deal with any game pubisher couldn't provide for including the logo or branding of the developer on the spine, but it is considered prime real estate in the consumer goods market.

In my line of work, I've experienced situations where there is more than one DVD distributor partnering together, at which times getting your logo on the spine is desired by all comers but usually goes to the bigger fish. But sometimes there is room for 2 logos on the spine.