New research from UK game developer trade body Tiga shows that numerous game developers “regard outsourcing as fundamental to their business.”

According to Tiga’s research, 83 per cent of UK developers outsource at least one business process. Many said the practice was essential in order to meet tight deadlines, skill requirements and scalability issues, and increasingly attractive given the current global economic downturn.

“As we begin to see the impact of the recent financial crisis along with the ever-increasing scale and expectations of current and next generation games, we are embracing outsourcing as one of the ways we can stay competitive in the global market,” said William Brown, associate producer at Ubisoft Reflections.

David Tolley, outsourcing manager at Monumental Games, commented: “… Successful outsource contribution is driven by experience, passion and strong support from internal staff. A few short years ago, outsourcing was almost taboo – now it is a necessity.”

Tiga CEO Richard Wilson said that the body’s case studies “show that a well-managed approach to outsourcing can give UK game developers a competitive edge in the global marketplace.”

In a recent Codeshop feature Fireproof Studios co-founder Barry Meade called for the industry to adopt a new "Hollwood studio" style outsourcing model.

Though certainly a cheap means of producing assets, Meade argued 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 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,” he said.