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Video-Game Publishers Outsource Development
randomErr writes "According to a San Jose Mercury News article reprinted at the Miami Herald: 'Mark Vange is in the vanguard of globalizing the video-game industry. He employs 30 game developers in St. Petersburg, Russia, who have worked on everything from flight simulators to dragon-fighting games. 'We can get the work done for half the cost that it takes in the U.S.,' said Vange, president of Ketsujin Studios. Similar outsourcing of video-game production is being done in places like China, India, Vietnam and parts of Eastern Europe. California game developers, who are the creative force behind a $10 billion industry in the U.S. market, view the trend with a combination of fear and anticipation'."
Programming has gone the way of the VCR repair man. MY 10 year old nephew is programming in C++ right now. Face facts, the bar has been raised for what a technical professional is and its time to suck it up or are all the programmer going to whine like a bunch of autoworkers who feel its necessary to earn $45+ dollars an hour to turn a fucking screw on an assembly line?
This is good. It increases productivity. Game prices will go down. Also bringing jobs to these countries reduces the terror threat. These are jobs none of us are willing to do, not the good jobs. These guys will do the dirty work, like writing the graphics engine.
Too bad the don't write the code under the GPL, then we could see real productivity increases.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
In Soviet Russia, all our base are belong to you!
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
Yes, and it's all the fault of some game company moving production to India. That is a SYMPTOM, dumbass, not a cause. The economy is shitty simply because the economy is shitty. Things like this happen all the time. It's simply the way the economy works.
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
I don't consider myself a troll but others would disagree.
Except in the case of corporate malfeasance
From my vantage point corporate malfeasance seems to be the rule, rather then the exception these days.
Well, if you are a CEO and you could reduce your development costs by 50%, you have an obligation to your shareholders to do so as long as the benefits outweigh the consequences.
And my whole point is that long-term the consequences will outweigh the benefits. What's going to be left for the middle class to do? We aren't all educated in bio-tech and what happens when they decide to outsource that? We have destroyed our manufacturing base and we are in the process of destroying our technical base. Are we going to be nothing more then bankers, insurance companies, CEOs and Wally-World/Burger Flippers? I'm sorry but I want a better future for my kids (not to mention myself) then that.
The game programmers here who lose their jobs will find others
You tell that to the tens of thousands of people that quit looking for a job last week because they've spent the last 12 months doing so and have exhausted their unemployment and just moved back home with Mommy and Daddy because otherwise they would have starved to death.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Congratulations. You're basically going to be guaranteeing that your children will be living in an America that the rest of the world has left behind. You've got two options:
- Put up with some pain for a few years, then reap the benefits that free trade brings;
- Fuck up the economy in the long term
Pick one.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Nice troll. Got in the "I'm entitled because I vote" thing, a communism slap... and good use of 'them'. I score it a -4 Troll. Keep up the good work, dumbfuck!
'Standards' in computing only impress those who are impressed by things like 'standards'.
It's ironic that it's mostly those people who consider themselves liberal Democrats who decry the outsourcing of jobs the loudest. These jobs, be they sewing Nikes or debugging the latest version of Grand Theft Auto, provide a huge boost to the standard of living some of the world's most impoverished people. If you are truly a liberal you should be supporting as much of this type of trade as possible. Thankfully not all liberals are so myopic. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, gets it. Possibly the most left-leaning prominent businesswoman on the planet, she nonetheless recognizes the importance of trade for the betterment of developing countries, as evidenced by her company's slogan "Trade not Aid". Unfortunately neither John Kerry nor G.W. seem to get it. Sadly, a whole whack of selfish Slashdotters don't seem to get it either.
You are a fool, you can teach or start a company. You don't have to work a menial job.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
If you choose to get skilled in a career which will shortly no longer exist, that's YOUR decision, you stick by it. Maybe, instead of chasing the easy dollar into the boom-time industry (manufacturing, IT, and then you mention bio-tech) you could go for a simpler, risk free job like labouring, shopkeeping or similar.
If *you* take a risk on your future career, *you* reap the consequences... I wish people would grow up and start taking responsibility for their own actions.