GameStop gets into the game publishing business

Games retail giant GameStop has announced it is getting into the publishing business, launching a new subsidiary called GameTrust and signing up a hefty list of well-known studios including Frozenbyte, Tequila Works, and Ready at Dawn.

While GameStop is best known for selling games published by other people, the company is apparently not happy keeping it that way. This week the company announced it was to begin publishing titles on behalf of third-party developers, under a new label dubbed GameTrust. This label, the company claims, will be used to launch between five and ten games a year with twenty developers in discussions with the company to get in on the action.

In an interview with trade outlet MCV, GameStop's Mark Stanley confirmed that it had already signed deals with several developers: The Order: 1866's creator Ready at Dawn, Trine's Frozenbyte, and Tequila Works of Deadlite and Rime fame were named as being among the first to launch titles under GameStop's GameTrust label, along with a one-off deal to publish a single game from Ratchet and Clank developer Insomniac dubbed Song of the Deep.

The company is, Stanley claimed, flexible about the role it takes: as well as simply providing a route to market for independent developers with finished or near-finished products, GameTrust will partner to provide funding or even complete support throughout a game's development process. In all cases, said Stanley, the studio will retain full IP rights, and GameTrust will have no creative control - offering a freedom unlike that of big-name rival publishers.