Insourcing Innovation
The cover story of February's Wired was about the ongoing trend of tech outsourcing (ie, sourcing programming/IT work from places like India, China, etc). It is quite an extensive article and among other things, covers the anger that "local" workers have when so many jobs are outsourced. Understandable.
To some extent, this has been a small (but growing) issue for game developers. Many American, European and Japanese teams are either trimming their staff and sourcing out basic code/art tasks, or the teams are being disbanded altogether because whole projects are being sourced to cheaper countries. Some industry folks are concerned...
I say this is great! The best part of the story was a side-bar by Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson. He implored that we all should just go with the flow, that complaining/etc would not be able to do much against strong market/economic factors. And, most importantly, he said, this frees us up to do the fun stuff, the innovative stuff, the big idea work - then ship it out to get it produced/maintained... I agree. In many ways, this is what smart studios are already doing...
Of course, I'd contend with his somewhat biased point of view that it is only the Americans that can come up with the innovative ideas. But, that is a whole other debate ;)
Posted on February 11, 2004 02:41 PM
Comments
Well, at first glance I agree that globalization is fabulous. But when your friends - artists, programmers, and musicians - are out of a job and can't find work except at WalMart, something is wrong with the system. There needs to be a balance, and we haven't found that balance yet.
Posted by: Mark DeLoura at February 12, 2004 01:06 PM
I don't know whether that really means something is wrong with the system, but it is definitely a very bad thing to have happen to you.
The problem with the whole "do the innovation, outsource the work" idea is that the number of game developers who can or are needed to do the innovation is pretty small. You need people to develop a concept and manage the outsourcing, and the rest you could outsource. If you are a decent, solid programmer or artist or designer, you may lose your job.
Posted by: Jurie Horneman at February 14, 2004 05:13 AM
I've seen art and programming get outsourced, but not design. I think the rationale is that design requires a high level of integration, and is too difficult to break into smaller pieces and outsource. Art assets and code are more easily compartmentalized.
However, I have yet to see outsourcing work well, as the additional time and effort needed for coordination do not seem to be worth the savings on production cost.
Posted by: Brian Yeung at February 23, 2004 05:04 AM
Wait for a few more years, till the kids in India start playing computer games. Then there will be innovation and then there will be outsourcing of the game industry.
I think it is just a matter of time...
Posted by: rushhour at May 1, 2004 06:32 PM
Forget outsourincg your assets to China, outsource them to Alabama! HAHA.. No, serioualy there is a new company which competes with oversees cost savings by leveraging hicks!
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This amusing little company aside, outsourcing asset, level, and cinematic development is accomplished successfully all the time in the gaming industry. The failures you hear of, primarily come from offshoring the work, or hiring the wrong team (ie: an asset team to do cinematic work). The problem is most people do not approach it right. Think of it this way, the publisher is outsourcing their development to you to develop the game. You need to follow a tight process as well, which depends greatly on developing an articulate specification document... and I could go on and on, but I will spare you all!
-NORTH
VP | Operations
Liquid Development
www.liquiddevelopment.com
Posted by: NORTH at November 19, 2004 11:03 AM