GameStop has experimented with game publishing before and it appears to be convinced that there’s a place for it in this market. That’s why the company has announced the launch of GameTrust, it’s a new game publishing division of GameStop. Initially, GameTrust will publish titles from current partners Insomniac Games, Frozenbyte, Ready at Dawn and Tequila Works before working with additional smaller studios to bring their titles out to market.
The company isn’t taking a conventional approach to the game publishing business. It’s more focused on creating “exclusive real estate” online and in physical retail stores to enable customers to discover indie games that are otherwise easily passed over. This is a great way for GameStop to diversify its business as retail sales of consoles and particularly games continues to drop as gamers move towards digital releases.
Obviously, GameStop has a vested interest in ensuring that people continue to buy titles through retail stores, it has a massive retail presence after all but the games that it publishes will get a digital release as well.
It’s unclear right now which platforms titles from GameTrust will reach but it’s believed that titles for both PCs and consoles will be produced, and even for virtual reality when it makes sense.