2016 INSIGHTS
on External Development for the Video Game Industry
advancing external development for the games industry
What’s inside?
External development (previously known as outsourcing) refers to the practice
of video game developers and publishers (buyers) leveraging service providers
(sellers) in any aspect of development including but not limited to: art, animation,
cinematics, audio, software engineering, user experience, quality assurance,
localization and visual effects. This report is intended to provide insight to the
changing trends in external development that have occurred over the past
year as it becomes an increasingly important facet of game development.
The statistics noted in this report were derived from over 60 international
external development project engagements, representing a 96% year over
year increase in the number of engagements collected. Over 40 different
industry professionals from leading game development studios anonymously
contributed insights by providing details of their various engagements.
The research and data gathered to establish this report was collected by the
organizers of the External Development Summit. Permission must be requested
if you would like to use this information in articles or industry presentations.
who we are
External Development Summit (XDS) is the only annual, international games
industry event held in Canada, with a primary focus on external development
for art, animation, audio, software engineering, QA and localization. Each year,
a broad community of game developers and publishers, service providers,
and middleware providers meet in Vancouver to contribute to the advancement
of the video game industry through collaboration, sharing of best practices,
networking and the delivery of a high-caliber, educational program. XDS 2016
will take place on September 7-9, 2016 in Vancouver, Canada.
table of
contents
3 Quick Facts
7 Levels of Engagement and Daily Rates
4 Advantages of External Development
8 External Development within Art Disciplines
5 Top Locations for External Development
9 Project Tools and Tech Resources
6 Project Disciplines and Types
10 Glossary of Terms
2
Quick Facts
Top 3 Most Important Factors when Selecting a Service Provider:
1
2
QUALITY
3
COST
CREDIBILITY
Team Size During Peak Production Periods:
28%
of this 28%, teams increased
by an average of
40%
of teams increase
during peak production
#1 Reason Companies Engage Service Providers:
to scale teams to deliver
more content & features
Of all external project engagements...
90%
China
52%
are production-centered*
is the #1 location for
project engagements
are HD console
based projects
*rather than R&D, Pre-production or DLC
3
Advantages of External Development
What are the key ways developers meet service providers?
37%
Games
industry events
7%
10%
Referrals
27%
19%
Internal company
resources
Service provider
reaches out/cold-call
Online research
Top Reasons Developers Engage Service Providers
31%31%
Scale teams to deliver more content and features
26%26%
Increase cost savings
14%14%
Due to lack of available local resources
11%11%
Create greater efficiencies
8% 8%
Access hard-to-discover skills/capabilities
8% 8%
Required to support content needs for live services
2% 2%
Other
94%
of developers expect to work with the same service providers again after project completion
4
Where are developers engaging service providers?
Country Ranking by Quantity & Size of External Engagements
Country
Quantity
Size
China
36%
49%
India
15%
7%
United States
11%
5%
Canada
8%
5%
Russia
6%
3%
Argentina
4%
4%
Malaysia
4%
1%
Brazil
2%
1%
France
2%
1%
Italy
2%
1%
South Korea
2%
1%
Romania
2%
1%
Spain
2%
10%
Ukraine
2%
5%
United Kingdom
2%
1%
Vietnam
2%
5%
Top 3 ranking countries
by the number of external
development engagements
Top 3 ranking countries
by size and duration
(i.e. staff hours) of external
development engagements
XDS PREDICTION Live Services (Ops) is a newcomer as a reason to engage with a service
provider as developers try to reduce the cost of updates post-launch and focus on creating
new IP. Over the next couple of years, we will see this rise up the charts as publishers not only
leverage service providers for managing content/feature updates for worldwide releases, but also
in leveraging local expertise to adapt and manage local versions of the games.
5
Project Disciplines and Types
What project types are companies developing externally?
Disciplines
3D Art 60%
3D Art
60% of external projects are 3D art projects
Concept Art 19%
Characters 26%
Props 19%
Weapons 6%
Vehicles 6%
Programming 15%
Environments 42%
Visual Effects 2%
Localization 2%
Animation 2%
Platforms (SKU)
Console 52%
Mobile/Tablet 30%
Browser 18%
*The information displayed reflects data based on quantity of project engagements
6
Levels of Engagement & Rates
Levels of Engagement with Service Providers
41%
22%
19%
16%
2%
Integrated Art Development
Conventional Art External Development without tool pipeline
Conventional Art External Development with partial tool pipeline
Co-Development
Other (Programming and Full Development)
Daily Costs by Engagement Level based on Project Engagement & Team Size
The information displayed below reflects data based on the size of project engagements and team size (i.e. daily rates for staff).
Please refer to the glossary for definitions of levels of engagement.
Daily Cost*
(USD)
Integrated
Art Development
< $150
Conventional Art
External Development
without tool pipeline
Conventional Art
External Development
with partial tool pipeline
9%
2%
$ 150 - 199
34%
64%
13%
$ 200 - 239
17%
2%
49%
$ 240 - 279
46%
13%
10%
6%
11%
6%
5%
Co-Development
28%
60%
$ 280 - 319
$ 320 - 499
$ 500 - 699
3%
*Daily rate per team member
7
12%
External Development within Art Disciplines
Art Engagements
By Size and Duration*
By Quantity
Photo Real
Photo Real
Cartoon
69%
6%
43%
9%
Cartoon
25%
48%
Stylized
Stylized
By Project Duration
% of project
engagements
35%
33%
15%
10%
5%
months
<3
3<>6
6<>9
9 < > 12
>12
*The information displayed reflects data based on the size of project engagements and team size (ie.staff hours)
80%
External Development in various
art disciplines makes up nearly 80%
of ALL external development projects.
Top 3 countries for art external development:
CHINA INDIA USA
8
Project Tools & Tech Resources
What tools are commonly used to support external development?
Project Management
Communication
File Transfer
Art Review
Excel
26%
Email
40%
Asper faspex
21%
Other*
27%
Jira
23%
Skype
29%
FTP
17%
Shotgun
14%
Hansoft
14%
Other*
14%
Perforce
17%
Photoshop
12%
Shotgun
10%
Shotgun
4%
Other*
15%
Concept Share
8%
Other*
9%
Basecamp
3%
Box.com
9%
Email
8%
Basecamp
4%
Hipchat
3%
Dropbox
9%
Jira
8%
MS Project
4%
Phone
3%
Email
6%
Basecamp
8%
TFS
4%
Slack
3%
Internal
6%
Hansoft
4%
Trello
4%
Webex
3%
In-house
4%
Perforce
4%
Powerpoint
4%
*Others include: Inhouse, Email,
Omniplan, Google Apps,
Confluence
*Others include: Confluence,
Game Changer, GIT, Other,
Google Doc, Proprietary,
Basecamp
*Others include: Concept Share,
Google Docs, GoToMeeting,
Inhouse, Jira, Kakaotalk,
OneNote, QQ, TFS, VTC,
Wechat
*Others include: Camtasia,
Cinesync, Confluence, Forum,
GameChanger, Image Annotation,
In Engine, Maya, Motionbuilder,
One Note, Shotgun, Snagit
Emerging Tools
The following tools were ranked as the top emerging tools adopted in the past year:
9
Glossary of Terms
The following definitions may be subject to the context in which they were used in this report.
Co-Development
Cooperative engagement where significant parts
of development are shared by a client and
service provider
Industry Professional (buyer)
An individual under the employment of a
video game developer responsible for
managing, influencing or decision making
for external development.
Conventional Art External Development
(without tool pipeline)
A service provider builds art content without
any tools to integrate or export the assets to
the developer
Integrated Art Development
A developer’s full technical pipeline is used
by the service provider
Photo Real Art
Art that is intended to simulate aspects of the
real world, whether organic or inorganic,
as realistically as possible
Conventional Art External Development
(with partial tool pipeline)
A service provider builds art content with the
support of tools that allow them to export
content, or use a viewer to check their work
Service Provider (seller)
A third party external partner hired to contribute
to certain or all aspects of game development
Developers/Publishers (buyers)
Companies that develop video games and/or
publish games that they own, or publish games
on behalf of other developers
Stylized Art
Design according to a style or stylistic pattern
rather than according to nature or tradition
External Development
The practice of video game developers and
publishers (buyers) leveraging third party service
providers (sellers) in any aspect of development
Full Development
A developer requires a full game to be
developed by service providers
10
For more information about the
External Development Summit (XDS),
please contact us at:
[email protected]
www.xdsummit.com