Epic outsources videogaming to Shanghai

Outsourcing content has been a popular industry trend that’s been going on for at least a decade now. Companies specializing in products and services that can be produced by people outside of the country can always outsource them — call centers, web design, and so on.

So far, when it comes to videogaming, China has taken a huge share of the outsourcing business. Research statistics say that if gaming companies outsource in China, they can save production costs at around 40-60%.

This is exactly the reason why at the Tokyo Game Show, Epic Games‘ Jay Wilbur has announced the Epic China Outsourcing Division, based in Shanghai. It will be run by the same team who managed Ubisoft Montreal with its Ubisoft Shanghai division. Epic’s goal is to provide low-cost game asset outsourcing to both Epic and third parties.

There was always the issue of company size, and for Epic, the smaller, the better. In fact, there’s an average of 30 developers for the Gears of War team, while the Epic team in general is 50% smaller than the industry norm.

Looking at the numbers, Epic spends only ,000 per man month including overhead costs in China. In North America, Europe and Japan, such productions can cost around ,500 to ,000. Considering that the project budgets for the next-gen platforms are going to be more expensive — around a million compared to just to million in the past — outsourcing combined with engine licensing has definitely enabled gaming companies such as Epic to run on a well-managed budget over full-time employee costs. It’s likely that a lot of high-profile gaming studios will follow the trend.

Via GamaSutra

Outsourcing content has been a popular industry trend that’s been going on for at least a decade now. Companies specializing in products and services that can be produced by people outside of the country can always outsource them — call centers, web design, and so on.

So far, when it comes to videogaming, China has taken a huge share of the outsourcing business. Research statistics say that if gaming companies outsource in China, they can save production costs at around 40-60%.

This is exactly the reason why at the Tokyo Game Show, Epic Games‘ Jay Wilbur has announced the Epic China Outsourcing Division, based in Shanghai. It will be run by the same team who managed Ubisoft Montreal with its Ubisoft Shanghai division. Epic’s goal is to provide low-cost game asset outsourcing to both Epic and third parties.

There was always the issue of company size, and for Epic, the smaller, the better. In fact, there’s an average of 30 developers for the Gears of War team, while the Epic team in general is 50% smaller than the industry norm.

Looking at the numbers, Epic spends only ,000 per man month including overhead costs in China. In North America, Europe and Japan, such productions can cost around ,500 to ,000. Considering that the project budgets for the next-gen platforms are going to be more expensive — around a million compared to just to million in the past — outsourcing combined with engine licensing has definitely enabled gaming companies such as Epic to run on a well-managed budget over full-time employee costs. It’s likely that a lot of high-profile gaming studios will follow the trend.

Via GamaSutra