This is a really interesting and thoughtful article but I feel like there's an understated undercurrent here that has me worried, which is; many publishers are becoming more comfortable outsourcing entire development processes to countries specifically because they are cheaper. The thing is, I've seen this before (and still am seeing it) in the tv/film animation industry and uh, you know what happened there right?
- Basically all animation is produced in countries with few to no labour laws
- Even japan is becoming too expensive to make animation in locally because of downward pressure on salaries
- CEOs love countries like the phillipines and colombia where they can just assassinate union reps if they get uppity
- The US animation industry basically doesn't exist anymore outside of storyboarders and management
if this starts happening with games it's going to be apocalyptic for the north american game industry. There's things that could prevent a slide like that from occurring but seeing even the beginnings of it is deeeeeply worrying, ngl. Get unionizing, yall
Great article, yeah. I agree with Aura here that this trend is worrying. If people in positions to fund game development are looking at it from simply a cost-value perspective, then yes, they will look outside of the US. IMO, I just don't think it's apocalyptic or that the means to try to fix this are outside the reach of workers.
When the article mentions "the video game industry" we need to understand that the writer means something very specific here: studios with between 10-250 or so full-time staff. What we'd call SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). It doesn't mean solo devs, groups of 10 or less, or massive studios of 250 or more. It also excludes hobbyists, part-timers, and those supporting game development work or who are using their game development expertise in areas outside of traditional video games (software and tools, escape rooms, interactive installations, etc). When we talk about "the video game industry" we probably need to think of it more like the music industry than TV/film. The music industry has different "scenes" or fields with overlap and movement between them, whether it's big label pop or small DIY bedroom pop. When the article raises the alarm about this, it's mostly for small-to-medium scale commercial enterprises that are finding it harder to compete with those who can weather the costs of "failing." 1
Another piece of this is that game studios are so tight-lipped about internal operations through NDAs that it's near-impossible for people outside of those studios to help understand how video game production works or how we can better adapt to the needs of the medium. Most studios are built to release games, not to support the development of new ones. There's a lot of expertise and wisdom that's being withheld for fear of sharing company secrets, or because people assume things are already being run super efficiently (it's not). On top of that, the article also exclusively interviews people in leadership positions. Would the workers of these studios agree about their thoughts on remote work? Are they actually being paid fair wages, including those at the top? Are they competent managers? We shouldn't assume that those running the studios are doing a good job of it and using their time and resources wisely because we have no evidence in the article to support what those working conditions are actually like.
(The article also only looks to studios as if they're responsible for why publishers aren't funding their projects instead of pushing back at publishers and asking why they're funding less projects overall or why they are only funding larger-scale projects instead of smaller ones. Those decisions impact which games are made and the way they trend more and more towards long-term unsustainability.)
Lastly, yes, the article kind of points to capitalism and shrugs, but there's a crucial piece here that's missing. The means to supporting a thriving local video game ecosystem aren't just tax credits or a student-to-worker pipeline, it's fighting for better tenant protections and affordable housing options so that people can actually live in the cities they want to work in. It's about fighting for better healthcare and access to medical services. It's about fighting for better worker conditions and protections across all sectors through organizing and unionizing... not just in video games! Thinking of it in isolation ignores the larger systemic forces at play here, and like it's easy to understand why big companies don't want to invest in US SMEs when workers are one hospital trip or one rent hike away from homelessness, often trying to support whole families on their paychecks.
Yes, the animation and film industries are like canaries in the coalmine here for game workers. There's a lot of factors at play in how they got to be like that, and it's way more of a concern for larger game productions as the demands for higher fidelity games increases. That's the path that leads to wholly-outsourced game productions. To me, though, the question is more going to be, "If publishers stop investing in US game studios, then who are going to be the ones left in the US who will be able to afford to use their own funds to develop their games?" and the answer isn't great. Until that changes, game development in the US is going to be a constant uphill battle.
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Can't recommend Brendan Keogh’s The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist: Why We Should Think Beyond Commercial Game Production enough here. I shared some quotes and talked about it a bit here, and the whole book is available for free online.

