Video Game Outsourcing on the Rise Despite Quality Concerns Vendor Turnover - Amritt
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A new report from Amritt Ventures has shed some light on the ever-increasing presence of outsourcing in the video game industry. The Amritt 2007 Outsourcing Trendlines Study which surveyed 329 game-industry participants in the U.S. Canada and Western Europe between June and August 2007 found that 22 percent of respondents regularly outsource some programming 26 percent said they outsource testing and two-thirds regularly outsource art at their studios.
Furthermore 54 percent said that they do expect to expand their outsourcing even more in the future while 37 percent said they'll remain at about the same outsourcing level. Only nine percent said they'll reduce their outsourcing. The main appeal of outsourcing for 41 percent of respondents was faster time to market while 37 percent cited cost savings.
Not all is well in outsourcing land however. Vendor churn and concerns over the quality of outsourced projects persist. 27 percent of respondents reported that they have fired three or more vendors since they began offshore outsourcing another 16 percent have replaced two vendors and 26 percent have replaced one. This compares with only 31 percent who have not fired a vendor at all said Gunjan Bagla Principal of the Game Industry Practice at Amritt. This indicates that either many vendors are not performing or many clients are choosing the wrong vendor to start with.
While late delivery and high cost were cited by five percent and six percent of respondents respectively the primary problem mentioned was simply poor quality 27 percent the need for too many additional iterations for art/programming was next at 14 percent. In addition 11 percent said that their biggest problem was actually the need to wake up early or sleep late due to time zone differences in dealing with offshore vendors. Finally ten percent said that a cultural mismatch between them and their vendor was the top problem.
While it is heartening that cost and deliver appear to be under control clearly more training and preparation could reduce the issues around cross-cultural communication added Bagla.
Given the experiences the respondents have had with offshore outsourcing what did they learn? Bagla said the most common advice was to do your homework and visit your vendor.
