Trade must embrace outsourcing

Publishers and developers need to be more open to flexible workforces and better management according to a new production studio.

Outsourcing and support firm Supermassive Games Europe said that contract work will become more prevalent as the industry tries to make the best of rising budgets.

The firm, spun out of new Guildford-based developer Supermassive Games, was founded to give developers access to contract staff, plus offer consultancy and due diligence work for publishers and venture capitalists.

Production pitfalls have the tendency to de-rail even the most successful of projects, and it’s the increase in management bandwidth required to manage these things successfully that’s often overlooked,” the firm’s Alex Johnston told MCV.

He said that it was more likely that publishers will turn to outsourcing firms to help support the production of its games as they embrace a more diverse way of dealing with bigger projects.

Any service that can bring a project in earlier is valuable to publishers and developers. For the projects we’ve worked on we’ve been able to make a significant impact on the schedule – whether that be as a result of implementing better measures in planning, executing bespoke data analysis tools or simply providing extra resource so that the core team can focus on the creative aspects of the project.”