outsourcing
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Stratics interviews Stargate Worlds' Kevin Balentine
When Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment revealed back in March that it would be outsourcing some of its game design jobs for Stargate Worlds, a lot of people took that as a bad sign. Outsourcing game design? That's kind of like the Conan O'Brien sketch in which Conan absurdly outsourced the show's writing to India (though, if the WGA strike keeps going for too long, you never know what might happen).Stratics interviewed Kevin Balentine this week, and he defended the decision to outsource design by saying that it cuts back on a lot of the detail-oriented busywork that consumes lead designers' time, so that time can be spent designing more unique, story-based missions or quests. Maybe that will alleviate some people's fears. The interview is fairly short, but Balentine also talks about instancing, squad-based combat, and a couple of other things.
Spacetime figures out how to get a game "Made in China"
Jake Rodgers, the Art Director at Spacetime Studios, which is working on an unnamed space MMO for NCsoft, has an intriguing dev blog up about his trip to China and the process of outsourcing MMO creation over there. The writeup starts out like a travelogue, with anecdotes about how much Shanghai looks like Blade Runner, and how his team couldn't even order food with just English, but later he gets into the nitty gritty of using Chinese artists and companies to help make a massively multiplayer online videogame.Definitely a great read, and some of the pictures he's got up look terrific as well. Unfortunately, it tells us nothing about the game they're working on itself (the concept art is called "[Lonestar]" so do with that what you will), but it's interesting to hear the perspective of someone coordinating high level game development in a global marketplace.[Via GSW]
Nokia exits chip development, licensing out modem technology
Not too long after Nokia delved deeper into media sharing, the firm is now pulling out of the 3G chip development realm and licensing out its modem technology in order to better utilized R&D resources. Reportedly, STMicroelectronics will grab the reigns to develop 3G chips based on Nokia technology, and while the company "will continue to develop its own modems, the decision to license out the technology will bring in additional revenue and allow new players to enter the technically difficult market." Granted, the move isn't entirely surprising considering that mobile companies are shifting further away from anything that's not a core competency, but 200 Nokia employees will be transferred over to STMicro in Q4 as a part of the move.
NASA commercializing trips to the ISS?
According to reports this week, NASA appears to be looking for a little help in its Earth-orbit activities to offset long-range exploration costs. The space agency recently signed three new agreements with private companies to share information regarding its technology, with sights set on outsourcing certain crew and cargo related services for the lately troubled International Space Station -- thus freeing up resources for its more ambitious missions to the moon, Mars and the Planet of the Apes.
IBM gearing up to lay off over 100000 American employees?
We'll admit, even we're a bit frightened that immensely intelligent humanoid bots may one day oust us from these seats, but according to whispers going around at IBM's HQ, something just as momentous could be going down as early as this year. Shortly after Lenovo told 1,400 of its US-based employees to politely hop off the payroll, IBM's LEAN plan could call for over 100,000 American workers to be canned in favor of (surprise, surprise) hiring overseas. Already, the firm has laid off 1,300 employees in 2007, but according to a recent report, an ongoing "planning meeting" for how to handle the company's Global Services could eventually axe "up to 150,000 US jobs" while hiring cheaper labor in China and India. Interestingly, this news could actually be sweet music to Wall Street, at least in the short term, but we can't imagine how this logistical nightmare will ever bode well for Big Blue's future.
Meteos Disney Magic outsourced
If you were concerned about having to love the new Disney version of Meteos because you're a huge Q Entertainment/Tetsuya Mizuguchi fanboy, well, now you can take a second, more critical look at it. As it turns out, Q outsourced their game to two companies: Platinum Egg, who did a Harvest Moon puzzle game, and Aspect Digital Entertainment, who are professional game ghostwriters, like Tose. This fact may be obvious from the title screen, but we hadn't seen any investigation about it until today.This is news only because it's about Q-- this kind of thing happens all the time, but we thought that Mizuguchi's studio was kind of a "boutique" operation that only worked on games they wanted to. Why, then, would they take on a project that interested them little enough to outsource it? Oh, right.
Journos replaced by computers; Engadget snarkbot imminent
Oh boy, what a day it's been in the world of artificial intelligence. Those wacky computer programmers over at United States company Thomson Financial have developed software for the computing machines that generates most excellent news stories from corporate earnings reports. What a bunch of smart guys. Amazingly, the United States company Thomson Financial's computing machines can turn statements of finance into good news stories within 300 milliseconds of this financial information data going public. A corporate executive person from United States company Thomson Financial says that this method of storytelling allows reporters to do more important reporter things. How cool is that? Many stupid humans say that witless publications such as American technology weblog Engadget are already being transcribed by robots, but we think that is crazy nonsense talk. End transmission.
Apple promises to investigate "iPod City"
Even though the veracity of that Daily Mail story about supposed substandard working conditions in several Chinese iPod factories is still up in the air, the Apple PR machine has already begun rolling out something of a damage control campaign, issuing a statement that reemphasizes the company's commitment to internationally-recognized manufacturing codes of conduct. Citing protocols outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by the International Labor Organization, Apple stressed its own supplier code of conduct's commitment to safe workplaces, environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes, and most importantly to the issue at hand, ensuring that workers are treated with respect and dignity. Instead of flat out denying the Mail's claims, however, Apple seems to be adopting a more contrite approach, claiming that it is "currently investigating the allegations regarding working conditions" in the Hon Hai-owned plant. We're happy to see that Apple has taken notice of this story and is concerned with the folks who are vital in bringing their products to market, but the real test is whether we'll ever actually hear anything else about these factories once the company has completed the promised investigation. [Via iLounge]
Chinese workers reportedly toil in "iPod City"
In much the same way that we'd rather not think about how the Big Macs we eat were produced, we also often ignore the manner in which our favorite gadgets are manufactured, because it's not as fun listening to tunes when you consider that the person who put together your DAP could be living like an indentured servant. And according to a recent report by the UK's Daily Mail entitled "iPod City," indentured servitude might not be a bad description of the working conditions inside the city-size Chinese factories that assemble the iPod nano and Shuffle, where the employees reportedly make about $50-a-month and live in crowded dormitories as thanks for working 15-hour days. It should be noted that even though the Mail story is supposedly based on first-hand reporting, their claim of 200,000 workers at one plant has been called into question, and at least one other factory owned by the same manufacturer has been certified by the International Labor Organization as free of human rights violations. While Apple certainly isn't the only device maker to outsource labor overseas, Wired points out that the company's tacit support of possibly-questionable working conditions is all the more ironic in the wake of its Think Different campaign, which featured the socially-conscious Gandhi and Caesar Chavez, among others. Unfortunately, our own lust for the latest and greatest products only helps fuel the vicious cycle that forces companies to drive down wages and seek the cheapest possible labor, so until we find a way to break our gadget addiction, we'll all be complicit in these practices to some degree.Read- MacWorld summary of Daily Mail story [Thanks, Marc P.]Read- Wired analysis [Via Slashdot]
Apple to outsource tech support to India
The India Times reported today that Apple is planning to set up a massive tech support center in Bangalore, India its first tech support center outside of Cupertino. The article says that Apple will hire 3,000 tech support workers in India by 2007, with up to half of those to be hired this year. Property developer RMZ Corp is allegedly creating a 1.5 lakh sq ft facility for Apple in the first phase, and 1.5 lakh sq ft in the second phase. (Anybody know how big a lakh square foot is?) The buzz generated by this announcement includes concerns about tech support quality. Even the most politically correct among us would admit that deep down we don't relish the thought of stumbling through another tech support call to an overseas center, negotiating barriers of language and accent while trying to unravel computer problems. The effect of overseas outsourcing on local tech support workers is another concern. What will happen to Apple's support center in Cupertino?Apple declined to comment, telling the Times that it was premature to talk about it. However, an Indian government official told the paper that it had cleared Apple's investment proposal, and that operations should begin within two months.Update: It seems that a lakh is a traditional way to say 100,000, so Scott, our resident units and measures dude, thinks that Apple is building a 150,000 square foot facility which is also known as freakin' huge.
Report: next-gen developers turn to outsourcing, immediate future is bleak
A new report published by Screen Digest exposes the growing trend of outsourcing game development to low-cost specialists in Eastern Europe and South Asia. The report estimates that 60% of game developers currently outsource their projects and predicts that these companies will spend $1.1 billion on outsourcing this year, with that figure rising to $2.5 billion by 2010. Outsourcing is typically used for art and animation, but the supply of capable providers is growing thin. According to the study, within the next few years, demand will exceed quality resources, forcing higher costs and fewer games. However, as new media companies gradually enter the market, the games industry will ultimately benefit.
