External Game Development: How To Create the Next Hit Game With Freelancers

External game development has become the go-to strategy for massive gaming studios looking to produce the world’s hit games. From Xbox Game Studios’ Halo and Gears of War to Crytek’s Crisis Trilogy, established developers are turning away from traditional in-house only teams to hire talent from around the world.

However, that’s easier said than done.

Juggling thousands of contractors, vendors, and studios can become an absolute nightmare. Managing contracts, communications, deadlines, and collaboration requires world-class processes and platforms. Fortunately, we have just the thing.

Below, we’ll walk you through the external game development scene in 2023 and how the world’s largest gaming studios overcome modern-day obstacles with a freelance management system like Worksuite. Data from the “XDS 2023 Insights Report on External Development” was cited with permission from XDS.

According to XDS, the leading international games industry conference, “external development refers to the practice of video game Developers / Publishers leveraging Service Providers in any aspect of development, including but not limited to art, animation, cinematics, audio, engineering, porting, game development, UX-UI, motion capture, QA, localization, and VFX.”

With the rise of remote freelancing worldwide, one would assume that external development would be easier than ever. Meanwhile, global events have actually made it more challenging.

Everything from geopolitical conflicts and the COVID-19 pandemic, to record-low unemployment rates, higher wages, economic uncertainty, and The Great Resignation have made it more complicated than ever for gaming studios to produce top-notch games. 

Yet while the market conditions get more difficult, the demand for games only increases. One study projects the gaming market size to grow by 13% annually for the next 7 years — from $282 billion in 2023 to $665 billion in 2030.

Developers are outsourcing key aspects of the game development process to keep up with demand and meet tight deadlines — without exceeding budget constraints. 

Here are the top outsourced tasks in external development:

Some studios outsource a handful of responsibilities, while others rely on external involvement to develop entire games. It all depends on the available resources, expertise, deadlines, and budgetary constraints.

Game development studios opt for external assistance for various reasons:

External development isn’t all unreal graphics and ageless franchises, though. It has plenty of challenges that only the best solutions can overcome.

Access to worldwide talent at your fingertips might sound like it’s too good to be true. While it’s a reality the top developers and publishers embrace, the games production process is not without its headaches.

The world of external game development is full of challenges, which only get harder at scale. Here’s what you’re up against:

According to the XDS 2023 Insights Report for the Video Game Industry, 89% of game developers report that geopolitical events impacted their external development, and 88% have had to make changes to their strategies to accommodate evolving circumstances.

Game developers have turned to secure freelance management systems to overcome many external development issues. From overcoming compliance risks to managing hire and payment processing, the top game studios use solutions like Worksuite to streamline development and stay on-time and on-budget.

Worksuite empowers your studio to hire, onboard, and pay the world’s best developers, artists, animators, and designers—regardless of where they’re based. 

Here’s how:

Don’t just take our word for it—see for yourself how game developers and publishers like Xbox Game Studios, Crytek, Skyhook Games and Sumo Digital rely on Worksuite to build hit games.

Xbox Game Studios manages over 23 game development studios, producing some of the best, most well-known franchises in all of gaming:

And that’s just a sample. However, with great potential comes great responsibility, and even with all of these studios, Xbox Game Studious has to coordinate with 100s of contractors and vendors to supplement game development and ensure on-time production.

Skyhook Games is one of the market’s most talented outsourcing and game development partners. They work with Worksuite to supplement their workforce and help video game companies push their projects across the finish line. Skyhook developed impressive projects such as:

Crytek studio is the genius behind generation-defining games:

Hunt: Showdown won “Best Live Game” at the German Computer Game Awards 2022. The Crytek team puts out some of the most visually stunning and immersive games ever made, and they rely on external teams to help it all come together.

Sumo Digital comprises 16 studios across Europe, the UK, Canada, and India. They produce tons of leading games, and their hiring needs can’t keep up with the insane growth and demand (see their 118 open jobs) — which is why Sumo Digital uses Worksuite to find, hire, and manage external contractors worldwide.

Sumo Digital has helped create some of the following games:

Ready to streamline external game development at your company? Worksuite helps you develop at scale while overcoming the usual obstacles of contingent workforce management. We’ll help you find and hire the best talent in the world to deliver your projects on-time and on-budget. 

Schedule a demo today to see how Worksuite helps your team save time and money with a searchable talent directory, easy-to-use workflows, seamless integrations, invoice management, and contract lifecycle management — all centralized in one user-friendly interface.

Worksuite is a proud sponsor of XDS, the External Development Summit.