Generally speaking, what are the reasons why a company will develop but not publish a game and vice versa (particularly in the 16 and pre-16-bit era)? I have some ideas, but I'd like to hear the input from the community.
I assume more capital was needed back in the day for publishing rather than developing a game, so a small company like Technos could publish their games like Double Dragon until they had more success. For non-indie games, I reckon this doesn't hold true anymore, but I'm not sure.
I'm also assuming that big companies that both develop and manufacture games (i.e. Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom) get another company to develop a game for the following reasons:
1) Sometimes a video game company wants a certain type of game made that a certain studio would be better suited for creating than them.
2) There is a relationship/contract between certain developers and publishers (i.e. Nintendo and Rare).
3) It is more economically viable to subcontract out the occasional game than to keep more game designers on staff all the time.
I'm sure there are holes in some of my speculations as well as things I'm missing, but that is the best I can come up with at the moment.