Game Publisher THQ To Offer Independent "Partners" Program

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THQ, a mid-sized video game publisher, is reportedly going to follow in the footsteps of the bigger EA and Activision and offer a “Partners” program, similar to the EA Partners program, where they’ll promote and distribute games for independent game developers.

The EA Partners program where EA offers a “menu” of services to game developers, usually involving the publishing, distribution and promotion of a game. Some notable EA Partners games include Half-Life 2, Crysis, Rock Band, and the upcoming game from Respawn Entertainment, the guys who formerly made the Call of Duty series for Activision. EA Partners is popular with developers because it lets them keep their control of their projects as well as maintain all legal IP rights for their games.

Activision doesn’t have a formal “Partners” program like EA, but they recently signed a 10-year deal with Bungie that will see Bungie receiving many benefits from Activision that a traditional EA Partners partner would get. Bungie will maintain control over the IP and design decisions while Activision will publish and distribute the games.

Website Fudzilla is reporting that THQ will be following in their footsteps and offering a ‘menu of services’ to developers. Fudzilla’s David Stellmack reports that THQ won’t have the money to sign big developers like Bungie or Insomniac, but Mr. Stellmack predicts that mid-sized and smaller developers could be drawn to THQ, as they’re still a big publisher with retail distribution and promotion contracts in the press.

Fudzilla talked to a source within the game developer community. This developer wasn’t willing to say that these “Partner” programs would be the future of the video game industry, but did say they were becoming a bigger part of the industry.