The publisher usually gets all the recognition and the developer is often lucky just to get their name on the box. For example, Descent and Redneck Rampage are both published by Interplay but were developed by Parallax Software and Xatrix Entertainment. Quake II and Heretic II are both published by Activision but developed by ID Software and Raven Software. Monopoly and Frogger are published by Hasbro but were developed by Westwood Studios and SCEE Cambridge. Most people that are familiar with video games recognize the publisher names but very few people recognize the names of the game development companies that actually made the games.
Some publishers do have in-house development teams that make some of their games.
Interplay, Activision, and Sierra all have large in-house development staffs that created Fallout, MechWarrior, and Leisure Suit Larry. But they also publish many other games made by outside developers. A few publishers, such as Blizzard Entertainment, do not use outside developers at all and develop all their games in-house including Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo. Most games are created by a small game development company that is under contract with a big publisher. Often the game idea comes from the publisher.