Tom,
Nice article! I think the industry is slowly beginning to understand what it takes to make these kinds of external international relationships work. For it to really work from a publishers side I feel like it has to start with dedication and support from an executive level. That gives you the flexibility and support to hire the correct internal staff to manage and support external partners and build long term relationships. Along with the willingness to work out all the normal kinks that come up any time two companies work together at such a core level.

The only point I had a different take on was the long term contracts idea, I’m also speaking from a publisher/dev/outsource manager POV, so take it for what it's worth. I do understand the idea behind this, but I'm actually in favor of short term contracts built on top of a long term relationship.

I feel this offers benefits to both sides through the ever changing dev cycle of most games. It keeps everything fresh and flexible, I see it almost like running scrum where you refocus and refresh your goals at the end of each sprint.. If tech specs change, no big deal; you wrap up the current "sprint" and then move on. If the outsource partner underestimated the times, or the number of revisions, you can easily address that at the end of the "sprint" and move on to the next contract.

And as long as you keep the communication going about future asset needs no one is left out to dry.

Thanks again for the great article; it’s always good to give this topic some industry wide exposure.

Cheers,
Grayson Chalmers
Outsource Manager @ SOE Austin