In association with: BETA | OUTSOURCING
“It is not always easy to hire an expert in to help at a critical part of a project, let alone on contract, as regardless of the salary, people want to put down roots,” explains Ashtiani. “By using a specialist in the field,
developers get an instant solution and the benefit of someone who has worked on many different platforms and project styles. The staff who would have been contractors are employed by the service company and have a full time job so they also get a better deal and greater stability.”
Top to bottom: Brain in a Jar founder Carl Dalton, Spov’s executive produer Dan Higgot, account director for RealtimeUK Dave Cullinane, OMUK CEO Mark Estdale, Atomhawk’s managing director Cumron Ashtiani and senior producer at Catalyst, Tony Buckley Right: Activision’s racing title Blur saw Catalyst deliver 3D art assets and animation sequences for the game
FARMING OUT Despite the benefits, outsourcing remains a controversial practice. Whilst many believe that moving specific parts of development to an external source can be beneficial to a game’s quality and help local development hubs grow and flourish, some suggest that off-shore outsourcing for simple cost effectiveness is damaging for the industry. “I hate it,” says Mark Estdale, CEO of voice
recording experts OMUK. “I grew up in the North with the misery of what happened with coal and steel and this looks no different.” “I think it is a dangerous trend that could decimate development in the UK. Studios are closing because of it. It may make short-term pragmatic financial sense as we have to be competitive on a global stage but it is UK jobs, talent and the future that are being sacrificed.” Dalton agrees that outsourcing overseas can be very bad for some sectors of the industry, particularly the UK. He says that five years ago, whilst freelancers working in 3D modeling were hard to come by, outsourcing companies were easy to find. These days however, he says things have taken a turn for the worse in the UK.
36 | MARCH 2012
“Today there are many more individual
freelancers available, but UK-based outsource companies have all but died away in line with the increase in Eastern European, Indian and Chinese providers,” he says.
A MODERN WORLD Dalton admits however that the primary purpose for outsourcing any area of a project should be to find and fit talent with the knowledge and ability to complete a job
I think off-shoring is a dangerous trend
that could decimate development in the UK. Studios are closing
because of it. Mark Estdale, OMUK
and to do it up to standard. Whilst developers and publishers looking off-shore for purely cost saving measures are “outsourcing for the wrong reasons”, he believes that a rise in quality and communications can make it a viable option. “Instant communication methods and
very fast, high bandwidth data transfer means that off-shore outsourcing has fewer disadvantages than it did a few years ago,” explains Dalton. “Many of the companies that have grown
up in ‘low cost’ regions approach their work with exactly the same enthusiasm and dedication as any team in an ‘established’
region, they are game developers after all and we all love what we do.” Catalyst’s Buckley says that his company assesses which of its partners are best for a particular job, and not on where they are based, stating that the view of off-shore companies providing low quality services no longer resonates in such a global industry. “The perception that off-shore
outsourcing results in low quality assets is definitely an out-dated perception. There are good and bad levels of quality with any service; that is why Catalyst only use tier one recommended partners wherever they may be based,” he explains. Dan Higgot, executive producer of
London based design and animation studio Spov, backs up Buckley’s opinions, believing that as long as a studio delivers results, then where the company is situated does not come in to it, nor how much they cost if they can meet requirements and produce quality. “For a client, it doesn’t matter where you
are based, as long as you can deliver the results needed,” asserts Higgott. “We are an off-shore supplier for our US- based clients. For them, our offer is not price lead, but based on quality and innovation. We don’t try to be the cheapest, because if we did we couldn’t do the type of work and offer the level of service we do. It is a well- used cliché, but nonetheless true that it is important to remember the difference between price and value.” With such a disparity in opinion still rife in
over the ethics of outsourcing off-shore, the sector is perhaps at times tarnished as a whole for any bad results that come form an external company’s work, with the positives of what service providers bring sometimes ignored.
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