Outsourcing

Outsourcing is hitting every market in the US, and the PC gaming industry is no exception. While job hunting only two years ago, the number of programming jobs outside the US for major companies was negligible. On a more recent job hunt, roughly 50% of the job openings were in other countries, with most US companies not hiring. Here are some of the games listed on the front page of EB Games along with the developer: Hitman: Contracts (Eidos - UK) Painkiller (Dreamcatcher - Canada) Battlefield Vietnam (Digital Illusions - Canada) Farcry (Crytek - Germany) Splinter Cell Pandora Tommorow (Ubisoft - France) Lineage 2 (NCSoft - Korea) City of Heroes (Cryptic Studios - US but published by NCSoft) Doom 3 (ID software - US) Why should we care that the majority of our games are developed by other countries? First, PC gamers with programming or art talent often like to become developers. Now, you usually have to move to another country and work for $25K a year or less (and have a four year degree) to get a job. Second, it hurts our economy. The world economy supports the lowest common denominator. Which ever country least supports worker''s rights and environmental regulations can produce products the most cheaply. Third, we should take pride in products made in the US and support our own country by buying US made products while boycotting products made elsewhere. Publishers may argue that moving game development back to the US would increase prices. Yet back when games WERE mostly made in the US the prices were the same, and in some cases cheaper than they are now. Lineage 2 and FF Online were developed outside the US, i.e. far more cheaply, yet still charge monthly fees comparable to those charged by games developed within the US. In fact, Lineage 2 charges the highest monthly fee of MMOG to date. If we want to get jobs back to the US and support our own economy it''s up to us as the consumers to support games made in the US. Kevin Jenkins nFusion Interactive, one of the few remaining US PC developers