The co-founder of Fireproof Studios has called for the industry to adopt a new "Hollwood studio" style outsourcing model.

Though certainly a cheap means of producing assets, Barry Meade argues that the existing model of outsourcing is far from efficient, burning up a lot of in-house development time supervising the progress of external teams.

Fireproof, which created world art for Burnout 3, Revenge and Paradise, as well as the backdrops and level furniture for LittleBigPlanet’s Metal Gear Solid 4 DLC, is now asking to take on that degree of responsibility for other developers – not merely turning out a few textures or wireframes, but offering to grapple with hugely significant portions of the overall project.

“We think there’s room for a new model and for us that model is based on the way the Hollywood studio system works,” says Meade. “If a producer wants to make a particular movie they would hire a director of photography, and then the DP would have his crew. They’re hired explicitly because they’re experts. Not because they’re cheap or they’re cheaper than their in-house guys. They’re hired because everybody knows if you hire ILM, you’ll probably get the best CG in the world; everybody knows if you hire this DP, you’ll probably get the best cinematography.

“We want that model to come to games. In fact, we believe it has to come to games because the system doesn’t really work as it is – it’s actually a bit expensive and creatively a bit knackering for the industry.”