My 2 cents: A publisher. Publishers often own the IP, not the game company. This results in publishers shopping around a game, or the ports of a game to any interested party who is under their wing.

Quote:Armbuck wrote:
1. I am just curious
2. how a video game companies would venture out to find another video game company to do 3rd party development. Like how you see many games are made by various other game companies not just one.
3. How would a company find these other companies to do business if they are not well known in the industry or even just a start up.

1. Please don't tell us that! Idle curiosity on your part is not a great motivation for us to help you. I suspect that it isn't really just idle curiosity, though. I suspect that you are contemplating becoming a developer, and that's why you're asking. You should read FAQ 29 on game development startups: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson29.htm
2. Let's get our terminology straight. You are using the phrase "video game company" too loosely. There are publishers and there are developers. If the terms are not self-explanatory, you can look up the terms in the game biz glossary at http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson28.htm or on Wikipedia.
3. They don't. If you're fresh out of school and you hang out a shingle over your front door saying "Armie Buck's Whizbang Game Studio," only the pigeons and mailman will know of your existence. You have to network and you have to have relationships and contacts within the game industry. Read http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson54.htm

Quote:Kulseran wrote:
4. My 2 cents: A publisher.
5. Publishers often own the IP, not the game company.
6. This results in publishers shopping around a game, or the ports of a game to any interested party who is under their wing.

4. Huh? How is "a publisher" the answer to what armb asked?
5. Often but not always. Depends on the contract. And "game company" in this context means "developer."
6. Publishers shop around game concepts and ports to any interested (and qualified) developer, period. The interested developers don't necessarily have to be already owned (which is what I assume "under their wing" is supposed to mean) by the publisher.

Quote:
4. Huh? How is "a publisher" the answer to what armb asked?

hmm... maybe it isn't.
I should be specific, but I took the "Like how you see many games are made by various other game companies not just one." to be commentary on how a franchise like "Call of Duty" is done by both Infinity Ward and Treyarch. It is an Activision IP, and they get to choose who they consider qualified to develop said IP.

Quote:Original post by KulSeran
I took the "Like how you see many games are made by various other game companies not just one." to be commentary on how a franchise like "Call of Duty" is done by both Infinity Ward and Treyarch.

Or maybe he was saying he could see multiple logos on a game package -- like for instance CoD Black Ops has both an Activision logo and a Treyarch logo. (Maybe the OP didn't understand that one company is the publisher and the other is the developer.) Or maybe he was talking about the numerous company names one can find in the credits for a major console title.

Quote:Original post by armbuck
how could a developer get in on this to help on projects by 3rd party development? By a publisher? Networking? Luck?

Finally we get your actual question!
Extra developers on a project are brought in by either the publisher or the main developer.
Extra developers are brought in to handle specialized areas. Only experienced developers would be brought in, based on their specialized knowledge and based on being known and trusted by someone already on the project.

So the way you get that kind of work is by having experience and contacts.