Epic Games Goes to China

This makes me feel guilty as a gamer. I helped push the industry to a point where all they care about is the bottom line, and everything else takes a back seat. Sure, the game companies will be able to hire 100 texture artists and 500 animation artists for the cost of 2 of each category in the States, but at what cost? Will the outsourcing houses average 50% usable content, as gnoleb's example goes? I don't know what the rate is for in-house talent (obviously not 100%; it's a trial and error process), but will this introduce more delays in the production timeline? Will a game scheduled for a 18 month production timeline get stretched out to 30 months because of these delays?

I just don't know. I have a feeling that EA's current environment will look like a relative utopia when compared to the largest gaming house in 2010. I just hope all the gaming biz guys out there who are touting this actually have a conscience, and know that a few designers, QA testers, etc., in the industry who could've had a foot in the door will now be locked out because they are Not Economically Viable in comparison to these "content farms".

totally lame, give jobs to people across the ocean when people in the us would like to get in on making games

i hope this reduces time to market. I think games take waaaay too long to make. Everytime I finish a good game, I dont want to wait 2-3 years for the sequel. 6 months at the most.

Just crank out the fun you muthas.

This is progress from the money side of game making. While things are looking grim for indie houses, I don't see Ubi, Activision, THQ, and EA hurting for cash, so I don't see how raising game development budgets for them is a big concern.

Having worked on 4 projects that have used outsourcing, I can say first hand that there was not one instance where the quality of work better than what would have been done in-house (all from different places). Not one single case. Usually, 20-50% is very bad or unuseable for some reason (or has to be touched up).

When you are concerned about the quality side of the equation, advances like this are bad and I don't see how anyone can argue they are good. It is not like the extra money saved goes into making the game better- not in any case I've seen, anyways.

I have a problem with "cheap labor". I wish there was a way to outsource "management"- they usually suck up most of the money, anyways.

How much buggier can some games get with outsourcing ? Time will tell. Yet there is potentially one good side of outsourcing , cheap labor. Which could mean that a small start up company that has some great ideas but not the financial backing could get a headstart against the big guys . Pure speculation though.

While people are screaming "Outsourcing bad!" here is a different way of looking at it. The article says Epic is trying to get more Asian developers to use Unreal Engine 3 (and related middleware) so what better way than having an office in Asia? The time zones are closer together, you have people that speak your language, and the sales team knows their customers better. Though I know cheap labor is also major factor too.

I always have found it odd that Japanese developers do not reuse engines more often. Creating a new engine for every single game seams like such a waste. Hopefully we can see more multiplatform Japanese games in the future.

can't say this is really surprising

I spent a few weeks at Ubi Shanghai a few years ago. Crazy cool office, TONS of guys working on stuff.

oh, and no liability laws either, so you can have open windows on the 16th floor of a hi-rise. and no lighting in the stairwells either neat.

Blame EA wife.

For some reason I can only think of this:

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We had a skin for a little arrow," remembers Romero, "and it was 1300x960 pixels." An artist inexperienced with games had drawn the arrow, which would never take up more than a few pixels on the screen, at a higher resolution than most monitors could display at the time.
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Well this is kind of lame.
I know how hard it can be to get into the game industry in the States. Now it is going to be even worse with few job openings.

Welcome to globalization.

All the player models have "made in china" emblazed on them.

Epic Games: GAP Child Labour Edition

Boo! Makes total economic sense but I always get a sinking feeling when it comes to outsourcing of any kind.

makes sense, since assets take so damn long these days