GameStop Locks in Even More Devs to GameTrust, Their New Publishing Division
It’s been known for sometime now that GameStop has been looking to venture into video game publishing. As physical copies of games slowly start to go the way of the dodo perhaps this is their way to stay relevant in a swiftly changing market. The used game market is still strong, but the landscape is definitely seeing a shift. Their new publishing label is aptly called GameTrust and among its line up of developers are Insomniac Games (Ratchet and Clank, Sunset Overdrive), Ready at Dawn Studios (The Order: 1886), Frozenbyte (Trine)Â and Tequila Works (Rime).
We’ve known about the Insomniac deal for a while as it was announced in January that their upcoming adventure game, Song of the Deep was to be published by the new label. This was only the tip of the iceberg though on the emerging label. GameStop has said that they want to use GameTrust as an avenue for independent developers to shop their games out to a bigger audience than ever before. Seeing as GameStop has over 6,200 retail stores at its disposal there’s no doubt they have the power to do just that.
“GameTrust will revolutionize the game development and distribution process by offering a new way for independent developers to create and introduce their own IP to a broad gaming audience and for gamers to discover and enjoy exclusive new video game experiences,” the company said.
GameStop has made a point of noting that they will leave the creating to the creators and not look to dip their fingers into the development process of any game. Instead their aim is to use “exclusive real estate within its online and physical stores to offer gamers access to new games available across multiple platforms, including digital, physical, console, PC and VR”. We’ve got to admit this has us running scared a bit as we know how good your average GameStop employee is at up-selling every customer who walks in the door.
As mentioned above, joining Insomniac Games in partnership with GameTrust are Ready at Dawn, the studio behind The Order: 1886; Frozenbyte, the developer responsible for the Trine series and the upcoming Shadwen; and finally Tequila Works, a Spanish studio behind Deadlight and the recently reacquired from Sony, Rime.
According to GameStop this isn’t the last of the announcements they have coming with even more developers expected to join the new label too. Keep it locked to COGconnected for more information as we get it.