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In the video game industry, a second-party developer is a developer who, while being a separate entity from any console manufacturer, is tied to a specific one usually through contract or partial ownership and makes games specifically for that console manufacturer.
The defining characteristic is that a second-party developer is a company completely separate from the manufacturer, while first-party developers are considered to be a "division" of the console maker itself.
A second-party developer should not be confused with an internal first-party studio. For example, Intelligent Systems, developers of the original Metroid games (as well as the Fire Emblem and Advance Wars games), is an internal Nintendo studio and therefore not second-party. Camelot Software Planning, developer of the Golden Sun, Mario Golf and Mario Tennis games, is an example of a second-party developer.
The term "second-party" however, is not an official business term like "first-party" and "third-party", but is used simply to distinguish between third-party developers who develop games for various video game consoles, and developers who, while still a third-party, provide software only for a single video-game console (or consoles for a single company) due to reasons mentioned in the first paragraph.
See also
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