I have been in the games industry for 15 years in nearly every aspect: working for large, public publishers, independent developers and VC-backed startups. I have been a tester, program manager, development director, CEO, and I have built mobile, PC and console games. I now run a video game outsourcing company and cringe at the general attitude from developers and publishers toward outsourcing as something that is useful solely for cost-reduction purposes. As I’ve witnessed so far, there seems to be very little willingness from the publishing side to foster long-term partnerships beyond the weekly “bid on this asset for this price” mentality. 

This attitude has to change if our industry is to progress and successfully continue making great games. The leading outsourcing companies perform incredible work and help make incredible games, utilizing their strengths to meet the partner’s needs. “Partner” – that’s the key word here. The outsourcing partner should be viewed as an extension of the product team, regardless of where they are located.

It all comes down to finding the right long-term partner to help you scale components of your project, whether with short-term commitments or projects that are years in the making.

The aim is to successfully manage the “team” to deliver quality products on time and on budget. Today, globalization has allowed us to connect with teams located around the world, some of which happen to be located in a country where lower-costs prevail (in China cost savings are 10x that in the US!). However, in many cases costs are not saved, as a result of the working relationship not being properly managed. The ultimate result is that the project does not meet expectations and game quality usually suffers.