Publisher vs. Distributor

[SilverBow]

I have a quandary about when two publishers are involved in a game. It is not unusual for one publisher to distribute the game of another using the distributor’s UPC. As an example, F1 2002 [NA] for GBA shows both EA Sports’ and Destination Software’s logos on the front. On the back it states “Destination Software, Inc. is an authorized Electronic Arts distributor.” It also has Destination Software’s UPC which is always in this format: 8-02036-xxxxxx-x. An EA Sports UPC would have been 0-14633-xxxxxx-x. My question is which publisher should be entered in the “Publisher” field?

My preference is to use the distributor in the “Publisher” field since it coincides with the UPC. Maybe the Administrators can make a clarification of this situation in the Style Guide.

[tripredacus]

There seems to have never been any discussion on who a publisher is, at least in this forum. I do not think we need to be worrying about who the UPC belongs to, since it can be difficult to know all of them. We do not have a reference list to refer to. We do not handle distributors at all, and likely all games have a distributor even if they don't have a logo or mention on the box.

For this one tho, it seems clear that Electronic Arts is the publisher and Destination Software is the distributor and not a publisher.

There is always the option of creating a Publisher record with two companies on it, as has been done in the past.

[pzeke]

The description box is quite fit for this type of information, especially when it comes to figures/statues and soundtracks, to name a few examples.

[SilverBow]

There seems to have never been any discussion on who a publisher is, at least in this forum. I do not think we need to be worrying about who the UPC belongs to, since it can be difficult to know all of them. We do not have a reference list to refer to. We do not handle distributors at all, and likely all games have a distributor even if they don't have a logo or mention on the box.

For this one tho, it seems clear that Electronic Arts is the publisher and Destination Software is the distributor and not a publisher.

There is always the option of creating a Publisher record with two companies on it, as has been done in the past.

The majority of video game publishers distribute their own games. I work off a list of more than 250 videogame and DVD/Blu-Ray/UMD publisher UPC identifiers. This makes it easier for me to spot and correct errors on VGCollect and GameFAQs.

[Kreton]

I work off a list of more than 250 videogame and DVD/Blu-Ray/UMD publisher UPC identifiers.

Could you post the video game portion of the list so others could use it as well? Maybe we could get it stickied.

[telly]

These developer publisher splits are out there though. One example is Stardew Valley, which was published by Chucklefish but distributed by 505 Games. Another is The Thing on PS2, which was distributed by Konami.

I think it would be worth putting in as a separate field even though it would be blank in most cases. It represents a more accurate database.

[SilverBow]

I work off a list of more than 250 videogame and DVD/Blu-Ray/UMD publisher UPC identifiers.

Could you post the video game portion of the list so others could use it as well? Maybe we could get it stickied.

I'm going to do that when I get time.