As Development Costs Rise and Demand for Outsourcing Increases, Report Shows the Industry Needs a Better Freelancer Ecosystem

Devoted Fusion, a sister company of Devoted Studios, today announced a new study that delves deeply into the state of freelancing in games and adjacent industries, the growing importance of distributed development, and the most significant challenges within the current ecosystem.

With the average cost of development skyrocketing by over eight hundred and thirty percent (830%) in the last fourteen years, while funding and other resources have diminished, studios are expected to deliver bigger games, higher quality, and on more platforms, often with fewer resources. For many, that means turning to distributed development.

“With the pressure to streamline to survive, studios are increasingly looking to external resources for efficiency and flexibility,” said Jason Harris, chief commercial officer at Devoted and lead of the Fusion hub. “Due to the current job market conditions, there is an abundance of highly skilled freelance talent available.”

Download the full report here.

“Our interviews and surveys with freelance artists reveal that, while the practice of outsourcing has matured, most studios don’t have the necessary infrastructure to also manage the freelance side,” continued Harris. “We hope that, by shining a light on some of these challenges, the industry can take steps to build a healthier ecosystem that’s advantageous for studios and the freelance community.”

Key learnings from the study include:

• The average game budget jumped from $18-24 million in 2010 to $150-300 million in 2024, attributable to factors such as the demand for live services, as well as features like cross-platform, multiplayer, and social elements, and an increase in general overhead costs.
• Distributed development has become essential to making games. Many teams, including those behind several Game-of-the-Year-nominated titles such as Astro Bot and Black Myth Wukong are experimenting with running leaner internal teams with external resources to great success.
• Experienced and specialized freelancers are in growing demand. The number of freelancers working with UK developers tripled from 1,102 in 2023 to 3,625 in 2024. There are currently 812,000+ freelance artist profiles on ArtStation. Yet artists report finding projects their main challenge, while studios lament the time and difficulty in locating relevant freelancers for their projects.
• Beyond finding consistent work, which affects more than 65% of freelancers, they cite project instability and poor communication as the root of their top pain points. The lack of established freelancer-focused processes increases the engagement time and degrades communication, leading to unrealistic time and price expectations, ambiguous creative briefs, absent agreements, late payments, and ghosting.
• The growing need for external resources demands that better processes and pipelines be established to maintain a healthy ecosystem, regardless of studio size. Portals like Devoted Fusion can help connect projects and vetted freelancers, impart processes, and provide expert support and oversight.

To learn more about Devoted Fusion, visit DevotedFusion.com, or follow them on LinkedIn and Instagram.

About Devoted Fusion

Devoted Fusion is an end-to-end self-service freelance talent hub built for game studios to help them hire pre-vetted art and animation talent quickly. Sister company, Devoted Studios, was founded by Ninel Anderson in 2018 as a premier game co-development partner.

Additional Resources:

State of Videogame Freelancing Report: download form

Fusion by Devoted Press kit: https://bit.ly/DevotedFusion_presskit

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251016916856/en/

While the practice of outsourcing has matured, most studios don’t have the necessary infrastructure to also manage the freelance side. We hope that, by shining a light on some of these challenges, the industry can take steps to build a healthier ecosystem.