My guess at these low numbers is the relative "ease" to outsource self contained assets such as characters compared to outsourcing fully playable environments and the quantity of assets that goes with that.
don't confuse outsourcing with "outsourcing". E.g. the massive Ubi presence in Shanghai and Chengdu, or Lucas Singapore studio ain't "outsourcing". They're just part of Ubi / Lucas as any of their other worldwide studios is. The true number of AAA grade outsourcers in China, who have western studios as clients, is still…
On the whole outsourcing thing, that is weird. I've heard of some studios doing that, but I've never dealt with outsourcing, unlike the character artists who have to all the time.
Just wondering if anyone out there can help me in my search for outsource studios that specialize in or are capable of high quality, lowpoly diffuse only handpainted 3d work (ala World of Warcraft)??? :)
I strongly maintain that (with a few specific exceptions) anybody who endlessly sings the praises and advantages of outsourced art... has never had to clean up outsourced art.
How does a studio decide between hiring employee versus freelancer versus outsource studio? Suppose this example: Need to create 30 unique characters, AA quality in realism style. Figure 3 weeks per character on average. Is an outsource studio likely to do it faster because they have a small army? And maybe cheapest, too?…