Why game development is moving overseas

[the_tyrant]

Ok, so I saw this interesting article today (please take a look)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ork-conditions

Now notice that the game was completed with only 10% the budget of its competitors, and how the working conditions are horrid.

Compare that with the conditions that developers in North America work in. There used to be a time when companies actually gave BMWs as signing bonuses (not anymore unfortunately). If developers don't get good furniture, cushy silicon valley benefits, and a competitive wage, studios would have trouble filling their ranks with top notch talent (the top notch talent would just go work for Microsoft, IBM, Google, etc. that do provide top notch benefits).

The conditions that eastern European developers as a whole work in are appalling, their wage is pennies compared to what they would be getting in North America. I can see conditions significantly improve in Eastern Europe in the near future (hey, after all, top notch talent is hard to get no matter where in the world you are).

Now lets look back into the video game industry, they used to say that 7 out of 10 games flop. With the increasing complexity and difficulty in video games (it simply takes more man-hours to implement all the features that gamers expect). I can see a lot of video game development being outsourced, after all, you can create a very competitive game for only 10% of the budget. Video game companies are operating at a much lower margin compared to the rest of the software field, and thus I can see them really appreciating the lower development costs.

I would predict that only top blockbusting franchises would be developed by North American teams in the future. Eastern European teams are capable of delivering top notch games for a much lower budget.