In House Art Team vs. Outsourcing Partner: Which Is Right for Your Game Studio?

Needing extra help during game development is usually a constant reality. You could always use an extra concept artist, programmer or producer to help lighten the load, but often hiring may not be possible for a range of reasons. It may be that your budget is allocated elsewhere, you need someone this week, or something else entirely.

If you are in pre-production and trying to meet gateways with publishers, you may be needing a bit of help for one or two months but not enough to justify a permanent hire. On the flip side, in production or live service, the need for rapid content drops or new features can create sudden spikes in workload that your in-house team just can’t cover, and it is too unpredictable to hire full-time.

The reality is that modern game development has become more complex than ever.

Indies and AA teams are now rivalling AAA studios in both ambitions and sales, with far fewer resources than big productions. A recent example is R.E.P.O, made by indie studio Semiwork which has generated over $100 million in sales on Steam which has beaten some AAA releases of both 2024 and 2025.

Newzoo in their 2025 Global Games Market Report noted that the global player base is projected to reach 3.6 billion in 2025, representing 61.5% of the world’s online population. The audience continues to grow, while total global revenue is expected to reach $188.8 billion in 2025. The demand for video games that are polished, content-rich, and engaging shows no sign of slowing down. At the same time, developers must balance this demand with sustainable, budget-conscious approaches.

It’s a dilemma that all studios face: do you invest in an in-house art team, or collaborate with an outsourcing partner?

A good example of a middle ground is Sandfall Interactive, who made Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 with a core team of around 30 developers while strategically using outsourcing partners for support. It’s a sustainable way to create modern video games while protecting your internal team from burnout and ensuring the project stays on track.

In this blog, we’ll compare both approaches while also looking at hybrid models to help studios make better informed decisions.

The Case for an In-House Art Team

Firstly, let’s look at the pros and cons of building a full-time employed in-house art team.

Strengths

• In-house artists naturally will have better creative alignment and cultural fit within the studio. They see the project holistically, not just as isolated tasks, and are invested in the vision.
• Faster communication and iteration cycles, especially when working in the same time zone or physical space. Even with hybrid or remote setups, being part of the same company fosters smoother collaboration.
• Easier integration with design, programming, and narrative teams due to having daily access to their colleagues.
• Greater long-term consistency, which can strengthen your studio’s unique “visual identity” across multiple projects.

Challenges

• Higher costs such as salaries, benefits, hardware, software licenses, and potentially office space.
• You have limited scalability during crunch periods, and rushing hiring is never an advisable course of action, as it can lead to big mistakes.
• If employees leave, it can leave a big talent and knowledge gap that may be hard to fill quickly. Losing a senior artist can set production back significantly.
• There may be a risk of underutilization between milestones, and a large art team may sit idle.

When does in-house make sense?

If the art style is core to your identity, or if your game relies heavily on unique, evolving aesthetics (e.g stylized worlds like Cuphead or Hades), then keeping a strong in-house art team ensures consistency and ownership.

The Case for an Outsourcing Partner

Next, let us look at the case of utilizing an outsourcing partner. This can be an external development company, or perhaps even an individual.

Strengths

• Outsourcing companies specialize in being able to give you access to a wide talent pool and specialized expertise - it’s their bread and butter!
• You are able to ramp up and down depending on your project stage with a level of flexibility that doesn’t exist with full-time employees.
• Potential cost savings compared to maintaining a large permanent team e.g no need to cover hardware, software, or overheads.

Challenges

• Communication issues due to time zones and cultural differences, which can slow iteration.
• Quality control concerns if not managed closely. Outsourced work must be reviewed and integrated carefully.
• Security and IP protection risks if NDAs or contracts aren’t watertight.
• Requires dedicated management: outsourcing doesn’t mean you can set it and forget it. You’ll need producers or art leads to keep up communication with your external team.

When does outsourcing make sense?

If you’re facing short-term spikes in workload, need niche expertise, or are producing a high volume of assets (like cosmetics for live service games), outsourcing is an efficient way to scale without long-term commitment.

The Middle Ground

You don’t always need to choose one or the other option. Many successful studios combine in-house artists with external partners, striking a balance between consistency (in-house) and flexibility (outsource).

Knowing what to outsource vs what to keep in-house is entirely dependent on your needs as a studio. If you are needing specialized skills such as UI/UX design, but you are wanting to keep implementation in-house that is certainly something you can do. It fits to your needs.

Workflow Tips for Hybrid Teams

• Treat your outsourcing partner as an extension of your team, not as a separate vendor.
• Share style guides, art bibles, and pipelines early to give as much information to your partner as you can.
• Use clear communication channels such as Slack, Teams, ShotGrid or Jira to keep iteration cycles moving.
• Schedule regular check-ins to make sure everything is going smoothly.

This middle ground is often the most sustainable approach, mixing in-house with outsourcing specialists. It is especially useful for studios juggling budget constraints, tight deadlines, and ambitious creative goals - which every studio is in one form or another!

Final Thoughts

There is no one size fits all answer. The right approach depends on your budget, scope, and project goals.

Outsourcing can be a way to sustainably ramp your team up and down without bloating your core team to unsustainable numbers - which a lot of studios have learned the hard way.

Meanwhile in-house teams give you unmatched culture fit and creative control. Often, the sweet spot is somewhere in between. You can protect your studios creative vision, while still using the global talent pool that outsourcing offers.

The future of game development will increasingly rely on flexible pipelines. By making thoughtful choices about how and where you build your art capacity, you can keep your projects both ambitious and sustainably resourced.

If you’re looking for a reliable, experienced, and trusted game art outsourcing studio to help you explore the possibilities of outsourcing, Athena Productions is here to bring your worlds to life sustainably. Get in touch with our team today!