A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer and sometimes by paying an internal staff of developers called a studio; the large video game publishers distribute the games they publish, while some smaller publishers instead hire distribution companies to distribute the games they publish. Other functions performed by the publisher include deciding on and paying for any licenses used by the game; some large publishers with vertical structure own publishing subsidiaries. Large publishers may attempt to boost efficiency across all internal and external development teams by providing services such as sound design and code packages for needed functionality; because the publisher finances development, it tries to manage development risk with a staff of producers or project managers to monitor the progress of the developer, critique ongoing development, assist as necessary.

Most video games created by an external video game developer are paid for with periodic advances on royalties. These advances are paid, called milestones. Video game publishing is associated with high risk: The Christmas selling season accounts for a significant portion of industry sales, leading to a concentrated influx of high-quality competition every year in every game category, all in the fourth quarter of the year. Product slippage is common due to the uncertain schedules of software development. Most publishers have suffered a "false launch", in which the development staff assures the company that game development will be completed by a certain date, a marketing launch is planned around that date, including advertising commitments, after all the advertising is paid for, the development staff announces that the game will "slip", will be ready several months than intended; when the game appears, the effects among consumers of the marketing launch—excitement and "buzz" over the release of the game and an intent to purchase have dissipated, lackluster interest leads to weak sales.

An example of this is the PSP version of Spider-Man 3. These problems are compounded if the game is supposed to ship for the Christmas selling season, but slips into the subsequent year; some developers have alleviated this problem by saying that a given game will be released "when it's done", only announcing a definite date once the game is released to manufacturing. However, this sometimes can be problematic as well; the industry has become more "hit driven" over the past decade. Consumers buy the game that's best-marketed but not of the highest quality, therefore buying fewer other games in that genre; this has led to much larger game development budgets, as every game publisher tries to ensure that its game is #1 in its category. It caused publishers to on occasion force developers to focus on sequels of successful franchises instead of exploring original IP. Current generation consoles have more advanced graphic capabilities than previous consoles. Taking advantage of those capabilities requires a larger team-size than games on earlier, simpler consoles.

In order to compete with the best games on these consoles, there are more characters to animate. On this generation of consoles, games require budgets of US$15 million to $20 million. Activision's Spider-Man 3, for example, cost US$35 million to develop, not counting the cost of marketing and sales; every game financed is a large gamble, pressure to succeed is high. Contrasting with the big budget titles increased expense of "front-line" console games is the casual game market, in which smaller, simpler games are published for PCs and as downloadable console games. Nintendo's Wii console, though debuting in the same generation as the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, requires a smaller development budget, as innovation on the Wii is centered around the use of the Wii Remote and not around the graphics pipeline; when publishing for game consoles, game publishers take on the burden of a great deal of inventory risk. All significant console manufacturers since Nintendo with its NES have monopolized the manufacture of every game made for their console, have required all publishers to pay a royalty for every game so manufactured.

This royalty must be paid at the time of manufacturing, as opposed to royalty payments in all other industries, where royalties are paid upon actual sales of the product—and are payable for games that did not sell to a consumer. So, if a game publisher orders one million copies of its game, but half of them do not sell, the publisher has paid the full console manufacturer royalty on one million copies of the game, has to absorb that cost. Numerous video game publishers are traded publicly on

Invis Multimedia India Vision International, an ICT consultant and solution provider and the first Apple computer based video production studio of India, was set up in 1995. They started commercial production in March 1996. In 1996 November, E. K. Nayanar, Chief Minister of Kerala, launched the CD-ROM project of Invis Multimedia; the history of digital media in Kerala starts with the launching of the project Kerala: The Green Symphony in November 1996. The CD- ROM, Kerala: The Green Symphony was the first cross platform CD-ROM developed in India; the final product was released on 18 June 1998. Subsequently, the Department of Tourism, Government of Kerala agreed to sponsor the title Kerala: The Green Symphony and it was released as a multimedia title, produced in association with Kerala Tourism; the CD-ROM was translated into Hindi, German and Japanese languages. In 1998, Invis Multimedia was appointed as the ICT Solution Provider of Kerala Tourism, they developed the portal www.keralatourism.org for the Department of Government of Kerala.

In 2000, Invis Multimedia envisaged a plan to geotag all the major institutions and destinations of Kerala on a map to be developed with geographical information system. This was four years before the birth of Google Earth; the project had to be aborted due to delays in getting clearance for using satellite images and, with the introduction of Google Earth, all the services envisaged in the proposed plan became available. However, Invis developed a GIS map for Kerala Tourism in 2003, proving that they were years ahead of their time. In 2001, Invis launched a CD - ROM on the ancient health science of India; the CD was launched by the Prime Minister of India. It was translated into German languages; the title won a number of prestigious international awards. In 2002, Invis Multimedia became a member of UNESCO’s Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity. In 2003, it started publishing music CD titles. In the same year, Invis brought out a VCD on Panchakarma: Ayurveda’s Mantra for Rejuvenation; this was brought out in 9 languages.

Development and publication of a series of coffee table books started in this year, the first of the set being Panchakarma: Ayurveda’s Mantra for Rejuvenation. Another book on Kerala was released after a few years. Invis Multimedia started recording classical dance and theatre performances by masters for sharing and archiving the works of masters in 2003. A DVD series with English subtitles on the classical art forms of Kerala titled Know Your Heritage was released. In 2004 Invis introduced another DVD series on classical artforms of India; the package titled Symphony Celestial with 12 DVDs contained ten theatre forms of India. Soon after, Invis Multimedia introduced. Invis started taking up mobile site development and mobile content development in 2006. Subsequently, they started developing mobile applications. Rhapsodies from God's Own Country, a pack of eight DVDs on Kerala, was brought out in 2007; this series got National Award for the Best Film from the Ministry of Tourism. Invis brought out several DVDs and music CD titles there after.

Though Invis envisaged the idea of a video portal on India and registered the domain Indiavideo.org. in 2004, the portal became operational only in 2007. Invis introduced the concept of online video greetings in September 2007 through its website Keralavideos.com. This was the first instance of using online video clips to convey festival greetings. Soon after this site was merged with Indiavideo.org. In November 2007, Invis Multimedia launched the website Indiavideo.org, an online video encyclopedia of India in association with UNESCO New Delhi office. Another project implemented in association with UNESCO New Delhi office was a twin volume DVD on the traditional magic of India, titled Enchanting Illusions. In 2009, Invis Multimedia started a partnership with YouTube to open a brand channel; the channel contains nearly 10,000 video clips from India, gets more than 60,000 video views per day. The channel has 86,000 subscribers.100 years of Bollywood was a video series produced by Invis Multimedia on the eve of 100 years of Indian cinema.

This series presented many early films and film personalities. In 2013, Invis brought out four major e-books in association with Kerala Tourism. From 2013 to 2015, Invis Multimedia organized large campaigns for pushing traffic to the websites of its clients like Kerala Tourism and Grand Kerala Shopping Festival. Invis Multimedia supported an initiative of Kerala Tourism to do live webcasts of major festivals of Kerala happening in remote villages and major cultural festivals. Three large events were organized under this program: the HD quality, multiple days live webcasts of Arattupuzha Pooram, Theyyam festival and Nishagandhi Dance and Music Festival. In 2014, Invis brought out its first Blu-Ray disc; this disc titled Ayurveda and Yoga: The veda of health was made for Kerala Tourism. Invis has been running branded video channels on YouTube since 2007. In 2016, Invis started various online educational channels on YouTube. Invis Multimedia has been working as the ICT solution provider of Kerala tourism since 1998, winning seven successive bids.

Department of Cultural Affairs, Government of Kerala has selected Invis Multimedia as its ICT solution provider. In 2016, Invis started offering BLE for making museums barrier free and sharing digital content with visitors. In 2017, Invis started offering virtual travel guides for travellers visiting Kerala. In 2016, Hari zeroed in on the method of afforestation developed by Prof. Akira Miyawaki; the first Miyawaki model urban forest in Kerala was created as an Invis initiative at Puliyarak

The Nevada gubernatorial election of 1998 occurred on November 3, 1998. Incumbent Democrat Bob Miller was term limited. Republican nominee Kenny Guinn defeated Democratic nominee Jan Laverty Jones to become Governor of Nevada; this is the 1st open seat election since 1978. Caeser D. Adamson Jim Champagne Patrick Matthew "Pat" Fitzpatrick, perennial candidate John Geremia Jan Laverty Jones, Mayor of Las Vegas Joe Neal, Nevada State Senator Carlo Poliak, perennial candidate Barbara Scott, public accountant Burvle "Ed" Swindle Kenny Guinn, businessman Lonnie Hammargren, Lieutenant Governor Aaron Russo and film producer Bruce Westcott, businessman