UPDATE: Developer and Publisher overhaul

[matt]

Hello all,

I just pushed out the first of a batch of new updates that will enhance the way we handle developers and publishers. This first update will now allow you to browse games by developer and publisher. All item pages have been updated and you can now simple click on the dev/pub name to browse games.



Along with this new update I've pushed out a few new tools to allow us admin better control of this data. As it stands there are a lot of duplicates in the database. Over the next week we will be merging these and cleaning out all invalid data.

The next update will also allow us to add multiple developers and publishers to a single item. This is necessary and there are often more than a single party involved. I'll post an update once that rolls out.

That's all for now. Please let me know if you notice any issues.

Thanks!
Matt

[desocietas]

Yay!

[scott]

This is awesome. I've already went through and fixed a bunch, did you know we had possibly 40 entries for Sonic Team alone?

[andrew]

Very nice! I think we also need a uniform way of entering publishers and developers. What I mean is there are a lot of name variations in our database for the same dev/pub. For example, we have

Konami;
Konami, Inc.;
Konami Company;
Konami Industry Co. Ltd; and
Konami Studios.

Now these all may be different entities and should have separate entries, but my point still stands. Here is another example:

Atlus
Atlus U.S.A., Inc.
Atlus Co.

So, I think we should agree what to use. Do we use SCEA, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony, or Sony Inc. Co. Ltd. ? This will help make this new feature even better and will help with the site stats.

While I'm at it, I think we also need a consist way of spacing when slashes are used. I prefer to use spaces before and after the slash. Here is an example http://vgcollect.com/item/17238 .

[psydswipe]

Not entirely sure how Atlus is handled in Japan but Atlus USA no longer exists. In the US it is simply Atlus now, a publishing brand of Index Holdings. Companies do change their names too often. Some are very minor changes, like adding the word Games or Studio after their name in place of something else. There is no correct or incorrect way of doing it though; someone will just have to decide how specific they want companies to be. I find European publishers to be the most confusing. Partly because the UK and mainland Europe aren't always the same.