By Athena Productions
You may have seen a lot of outsourcing studios popping up on social media, you may have enquired about a project, perhaps applied for a work opportunity but what exactly does an outsourcing studio do and why are they needed?
The video games industry is one of the fastest growing segments in the entertainment business, with an estimated 1.47 billion people playing video games worldwide by 2027.
That’s one in every six people in the world playing and raving about video games!
While that’s all fine and dandy, it puts an increasing demand on game development studios to make bigger and better games for their growing audience, and sometimes there aren’t enough resources to meet demand. This can be true for multiple industries, such as Films, TV and Advertising.
That’s where outsourcing studios come in.
“Outsourcing is the business practice of a company (video game developer) seeking a third party (outsourcing studio, even individual freelancers) to perform tasks or services (creating concept art).”
LCS Opening Ceremony Matte Painting – The team at Athena Productions created the Matte Painting for our client NMBRS, which had to fit the exact dimensions of the real-world stage for the opening ceremony.
Why would you need to use an Outsourcing Studio?
The reasons for needing to use an outsourcing studio can be varied, but here are a few of the most common reasons that we have seen:
Deadlines
Teams are often on strict deadlines, and with more tasks in the pipeline it can leave the team overwhelmed with the workload.
This can be a Catch-22 situation.
You may have an urgent assignment that needs doing, but your artists are already on equally important tasks. Which one takes priority?
This is where an outsourcing team can come in handy.
Outsourcing studios have extra artists available to put on your project giving you those additional skills, alleviating stress and getting those important tasks done.
Flexible Resources
Development can be extremely fast paced, with project needs changing almost daily.
Being able to scale up and down on the number of artists you need from the outsourcing studio, can help you invest in the services you require at the time.
Access to high quality expertise
Finding and hiring full-time specialized artists is a timely process, and competing for talent with other companies isn’t always an option.
Using an outsourcing studio can give you access to those high quality and niche skill sets that you are needing quickly.
Start small, and build from there
There can be a combination of reasons why a company may require an outsourcing studio, and as you can see it can prove beneficial to both small and large projects.
When you decide to outsource, it is important to know why you are looking for those extra resources, and to choose a partner that you can trust and will deliver the results you are looking for.
At Athena, we suggest starting with small tasks, and ramp up your outsourcing partner from there once you have gained confidence and trust in the partnership.
