Think Services Game Group’s Game Developer recently released findings from their most recent survey, asking approximately 200 developers their opinions and usage statistics on outsourcing game development.

The 2009 Game Development Outsourcing Report found that between 2007 and 2008 outsourced development rose 10 percent, from 76 percent to 86 percent.  The Think Services Game Group conducted a blind survey, and approximately 200 professional game developers were polled anonymously, thereby ensuring a fair, yet comprehensive look at the industry segment.  Questions included studios’ usage of outsourcing, the associated budgets and plans to accompany this outsourcing, and regional factors, amongst a number of others.

This survey reveals key data on the rise and usage of outsourced development work, and how the practice is on track to grow even larger than current levels.  Of those surveyed that do not use outsourcing at one point or another during development work, half of them responded that they plan on doing so in the near future.  Likewise, of those surveyed that do currently use outsourcing, 95 percent of them plan on continuing to do so.

One factor contributing to the outsourcing movement, according to the survey is the increasing cost and bandwidth required to create a high volume of assets for modern console systems.  Respondents reported that the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 are the two platforms in which game development is most often outsourced.  To compliment these findings, the survey also found that overall outsourcing budgets are on the rise, nearly doubling.  The majority of companies planning to spend $2 million or more on outsourcing  rose almost 20 percent in 2008.

“It is the goal of Game Developer Research to provide the professional game community with an understanding of the industry landscape from multiple perspectives,” said Simon Carless, publisher of Game Developer Magazine and director of Game Developer Research. “With game outsourcing an increasingly important part of making large-scale video games, we hope this survey will give both contractors and game studios a good sense of how business practices are evolving.”

The 2009 Game Development Outsourcing Report is available for purchase from gamedevresearch.com and also discusses overall budgets, reasons for outsourcing, the selection process for choosing firms to outsource to, and the regions of the world that the respondents worked with.  The report also includes a directory of established outsourcing studios from across the globe that were mentioned by survey respondents, with a particular emphasis on those mentioned multiple times.