10 Gaming Industry Secrets You Didn't Know
4. There's An Invisible Industry Of Secret Support Teams
Believe it or not, but many of your favourite video games aren't simply made by the credited studio - they are often collaborated upon by smaller support outfits who, in many cases, have a vested interest in remaining anonymous.
As detailed in a terrific article over at Polygon, for decades there has been an invisible under-industry of "white label" video game development, where small, generally little-known studios provide often-uncredited support to name AAA studios.
This often happens because the main studio doesn't want it being public knowledge that aspects of development were outsourced, fearing it would undermine their reputation.
While this can limit the support studio's ability to promote their work on a big AAA hit, it can benefit them in other ways, such as allowing them to work on two competing projects at once without souring any relationships.
Either way, for many consumers, they haven't even the faintest idea that many huge-scale titles are being covertly polished by teams you've never even heard of - some of whom like it exactly that way.