First or Second Party?

by **pokemaster515** » 19 Jul 2012 07:50

Well, I was wondering which of Nintendo's developers are first party and which are second? The two I am most confused about are Retro and HAL. I've googled them but can never get a solid answer on which they are.

Also can anyone tell me how to know if a developer is first or second party? What exactly is the difference between the two?

by **Devil_Rising** » 19 Jul 2012 12:25

Well basically, it works like this.

A "Second Party" developer, is one that is not owned by the "First Party", but works under a pretty much exclusive agreement with them instead. Meaning they only make games for the "First Party" publisher.

A good example of this, would be companies like HAL, like Skip Ltd., like Good-Feel, like Game Freak, etc. All developers who are not owned by Nintendo directly, but who still develop exclusively for Nintendo consoles.

In Hal's case specifically, as I understand it, they started out as a PC developer in Japan in 1980, and they made a lot of games for the MSX, Commadore 64, etc. When the Famicom/NES came out, they developed several games for Nintendo, that they self-published, such as the amazing and underrated Adventures of Lolo trilogy. Then they got in financial trouble in the late 80s, and Nintendo helped them out, and set them up developing Kirby's Dream Land. They've been exclusive ever since, but they're not owned by Nintendo as far as I know.

On the other hand, good examples of "First Party" developers, would be Retro Studios, Monolith Soft, Intelligent Systems, etc., who are external development studios, but are either wholly or mostly owned by Nintendo.

So I guess the basic difference is, one is a company who makes games exclusively because they're a "Nintendo developer", while the other could make games for other systems, but doesn't.

by **HammerGalladeBro** » 19 Jul 2012 13:44

First Parties
Companies that are subsidiaries of Nintendo, either funded by Nintendo or they bought most, if not all, of the companies' stock. Further information on their stock:

Spoiler:

Second Parties
Companies that aren't subsidiaries of Nintendo, but make games exclusively for their systems, they become Second Parties either by a exclusivity contract with Nintendo or if Nintendo owns some of the stock of the company, but not enough to become First Parties. Their games may or may not be published by Nintendo:

Spoiler:

Some companies like:

TOSE
A "shadow" developer, and according to them, they like it that way.
*Game & Watch Gallery
*Game & Watch Gallery 2
*Game & Watch Gallery 3
*Game & Watch Gallery 4
*Super Princess Peach
*Densetsu no Stafy
*Densetsu no Stafy 2
*Densetsu no Stafy 3
*Densetsu no Stafy 4
*The Legendary Starfy

Treasure
*Sin & Punishment: Successor to the Earth
*Wario World
*Sin & Punishment: Star Successor

iNiS
*Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
*Elite Beat Agents
*Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Ous! Tatakae! Ouendan 2

Kuju Entertainment
*Battalion Wars
*Battalion Wars 2
*Art Academy

Q-Games
*bit Generations/Art Style: Digidrive/Intersect
*Star Fox Command [with Nintendo EAD 2]
*Trajectile
*Starship Defense
*X-Scape/X-Returns/3D Space Tank
*Star Fox 64 3D [with Nintendo EAD 5]

aren't accounted as Second Parties, since they have developed games for rival systems after, or even while, working with Nintendo.

Former Second Parties
Companies that used to be Second Parties for Nintendo, but for some reason, they aren't anymore:

Spoiler:

It should be noted, though, that Nintendo owns some parts of some Third Party games, including, but not limited to, SEGA's Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series, since it's a crossover between Nintendo's Mario and SEGA's Sonic (This is why Mario characters aren't present in the condensed mobile/iOS versions of the games), Namco Bandai's Mario Kart Arcade GPs, Square Enix's Itadaki Street DS and Fortune Street, EA Sports BIG's Gamecube versions of NBA Street V3 and SSX on Tour, and Vivarium's/DigiToys' The Tower DS and its DSiWare re-release, The Tower DS Classic, since in both games, there's a Mario Tower.

And, as proved by very few games, only 2 as far I'm concerned, there might be Third Party games developed by Nintendo, like Pac-Man Vs. for Namco and (the Japan-only) Snoopy Concert with Pax Softnica for Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd. and Dentsu, Inc..

It could also happen that Nintendo supports Third Parties with their games, like in Square Enix's Dragon Quest IX, or Ubisoft's Just Dance Wii, which are edited versions of Just Dance by Nintendo to appeal to the Japanese market, so far only two have been released, only for Wii.

And most recently, they now own part of Tecmo Koei's Fatal Frame/Project Zero/Zero IP, thus, all future games will be Nintendo-exclusives, and also completely owns the rights of Spirit Camera as well.
Now Nintendo also secured the publishing rights to Bayonetta 2, which caused a great uproar from the "loyal" Bayonetta fans.

And now, just for the sake of doing it, an incomplete and disordered list of all the IPs Nintendo has, or at the very lest, co-owns:

Spoiler:

Now I want to see someone dare to say Nintendo doesn't have anything beyond Mario, Zelda, Pokémon and Metroid.

I hope that helps.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in something.

EDIT:
The companies I'd really like to know if they are/were Second Parties or not are:

Spoiler:

EDITS 2-onwards: Added some more info, moved the lists to spoiler tags, so the post is shorter and the lists are easier to see, and kinda order them in the order they have worked with Nintendo, according to the release dates of the games they developed.

/User'sLongestPostInGoNintendo

by **Devil_Rising** » 20 Jul 2012 00:41

Wikipedia, eh? :wink:

by **pokemaster515** » 20 Jul 2012 08:24

Thanks for the responses. I wish more people would look at this tread because it seems alot of GoNintendo users don't really know the difference. It something small that kind of gets on my nerves, especially in the case of Retro. So many think they are second party! DX

by **HammerGalladeBro** » 20 Jul 2012 19:20

Devil_Rising wrote:Wikipedia, eh?

A little bit of it, the rest was either my own search or personal experience/knowledge about the companies and their works. :mrgreen:

pokemaster515 wrote:Thanks for the responses. I wish more people would look at this tread because it seems alot of GoNintendo users don't really know the difference. It something small that kind of gets on my nerves, especially in the case of Retro. So many think they are second party! DX

In my case, some friends believe HAL and skip are first parties.

EDIT: Off topic: Is there a limit on how many times a post can be edited?

by **Devil_Rising** » 21 Jul 2012 02:10

I don't believe so, no.

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