Why Do Games Developers Work with External Partners?

Before I cover why game developers work with external partners, I need to state that I am not personally a fan of using the terms “vendor” or “outsourcing” to describe what we do in the games industry or the companies we work with.  In traditional IT and BPO outsourcing relationships, the client does not usually become involved in how the vendor completes their tasks. Other than specifying the desired outcomes and putting service-level agreements (SLAs) in place, the client leaves the vendor on their own to deliver the work using the processes and tools they see fit. Very simply put, an organization transfers almost complete ownership of the process or task to a vendor. In the games industry, the business model and partnership is very different and is integral to delivering the deep and rich games expected by the players. 

An Extension of our Game Development Teams

At EA, we believe that effective game development partnerships are vastly different to the relationships you see in traditional outsourcing. As mentioned, we do not even use the term “outsourcing” when discussing these relationships but instead call it “external development.” Also, while our external partners are technically “vendors,” we do not like to use that term either. We prefer the term “external partner” as we are working together very closely and treat them as an extension of our internal team.  Rather than getting hung up on outdated working models and terminology, we prefer to focus on what it takes for both sides to work together to create great games. 

Making successful games is a huge challenge, and sometimes our best (and only) solution is to think beyond the capabilities of our internal resources. When we talk about working with an external partner as an extension of our team, we mean that both sides of the partnership are working together on the same project, or even the same part of a project. For example, we might be working together on the same code or the same art/animation assets. Instead of dictating how our partner should work and then leaving them to complete the job, we work hand in hand to ensure we both meet our development milestones, hit our deliverables, and achieve our goals. 

At EA, we look to cultivate long-term relationships with our external partners because these partnerships are important to our success. We invest a significant amount of time and resources to develop our partnerships. We conduct training and mentoring. We integrate and jointly develop our tools. And we visit our partners regularly to strengthen our work bonds and social relationships. All of these efforts help to foster a culture of trust, communication, collaboration, and integrity.

The Many Benefits of Working with an External Partner

Why do game developers use external partners? Most people would probably answer this question by saying “it’s all about saving money.” While cost savings can be an important driver for some, it’s not the only reason and usually not the biggest reason, especially given the quality, depth, and complexity of today’s games. 

Some of the main reasons game developers work with external partners include:

• Scalability: We can quickly leverage external partners to increase team sizes during the peak months of the development lifecycle. Likewise, we can quickly ramp down as needed toward the end of the project as the game goes in to testing and finaling.
• Flexibility: We can have access to any type of artists or engineers as we need them, where we need them, and when we need them. 
• Continuous Development: Working with teams all over the world allows for 24-hour “follow-the-sun” development. Our local team can pass off a project at the end of the day and come back the next morning to see that the external partner has continued to make progress. This allows us to shorten our development cycles overall and get great games into the hands of our players more quickly.
• Access to Specialized Talent: We can have access to artists or engineers with specialized skills (e.g., HTML 5, WHP, etc.) anywhere in the world.
• Leveraging Expert Local Knowledge: When developing titles for international markets, we can leverage the expert knowledge of local companies to understand popular features in their market, to ensure the game’s cultural relevance, and to manage our live services in the local language. This is becoming increasingly important for ensuring the success of mobile games in each market worldwide.
• Re-Focus on New Games: With today’s games, our live services stage of development is just as important, and sometimes more important, than our pre-release stages. After a game goes live, we need to analyze player data, make changes, and deliver new content and features to enhance the game experience. By handing over new content and feature creation, bug fixing, and game maintenance to our external partner, our internal teams can instead focus on creating exciting new Intellectual Property and new experiences for our players.
• Cost Control: We can maintain overall costs while producing more content and features by leveraging talent in lower cost locations. This is especially important with Gen 4 console and multi-platform connected development where we need to produce a huge amount of assets and features to create deep, rich games that delight players.

External Partners: A Strategic Advantage

According to a March 2016 survey of the industry’s largest publishers/developers, 2016 Insights on External Development for the Video Game Industry, scaling up teams to deliver additional content and features is the top driver for using external partners. This was followed by cost savings and the ability to access resources that aren’t available locally. Many publishers and developers have seen all of the benefits listed above and more by working with their external partners as an extension of their game development teams. These partnerships are much more than “outsourcing”- they’re a key strategic advantage in a company’s mission to deliver great games to players worldwide.  

Figure 1: Key Drivers for External Development

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