GamesStop is widely known for selling games in all formats. Now, they are going deeper into the business by publishing games as well. However, they do not have plans yet for big budget games; they will be starting with small game studios for the meantime.
Fortune reported that the company has launched GameTrust, a game publishing label whose sole job is to fund, publish and market games. The new company is planning to publish five to 10 games a year.
Mark Stanley, vice president of internal development and diversification at GameStop, said, "We're now hearing more and more from our gamer base — we have an average of 46 million Power up Rewards customers, plus we have about 64 million individual gamers coming to our stores — that they'd like better access and better guidance into the world of independent games."
Stanley added that the new company is also ready to work with other publishers that include Ready at Dawn Studios, Frozen Byte and Tequila Works. Plus, they currently have on the table around other 20 developers.
The company announced in January that they will be working together with Insomniac Games, known for "Ratchet & Clank," to develop "Song of the Deep." The game is a Metroidvania-style 2D adventure game, The Verge reported.
GameTrust is part of the company's bigger plan in the expansion of its business. Paul Raines, GameStop's CEO, mentioned in another report that indie games don't earn much compared to AAA games, but if the company owns IP rights to five or 10 of them, it will be worth a lot.
GameStop's brick-and-mortar business, selling new and used games and consoles, has been on a decline for a time now and they do not want to go down with it. The creation of the game publishing company is just one part of the plan for the whole business to stay on the game. GameStop has also acquired ThinkGeek retailer and Spring Mobile, AT&T's wireless retail chain.
"Song of the Deep" will be available on GameStop starting July 12 and will be available for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.
