How to Choose a 3D Game Outsourcing Studio in 2026

The video game market is going through something strange. Project budgets keep climbing, deadlines keep shrinking, and players expect graphics quality that even AAA studios can’t handle entirely in-house anymore. Outsourcing stopped being a backup plan — it became standard practice.

The logic is simple because hiring a full-time 3D artist costs $80,000 to $120,000 per year plus benefits, work tools, and bonuses from the company. Outsourcing involves specialists for a specific period, production stage, and defined scope of resources, and does not require additional payments for the maintenance of the worker.

When Ubisoft developed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, they worked with a dozen external studios around the globe simultaneously. The game shipped on time with massive amounts of content. An internal team couldn’t have created that volume even with double the time.

This article looks at the criteria for choosing a 3D outsourcing studio, real cases of major companies partnering with smaller teams, and practical advice for anyone doing this for the first time.

Technical Expertise: What Matters Most

First meetings with potential partners usually start with portfolio presentations. But pretty pictures only show the surface. Real expertise shows up in details that aren’t obvious at first glance.

The studio needs fluency in the tools your project uses. If you are working in Unreal Engine 5 and a potential partner only has a Unity portfolio, this could become a problem later. When evaluating studios that offer 3D game development services, check their engine expertise first.

Pipelines matter next. Modern game development demands tight integration across all production stages. Models have to be exported in the right formats, textures need to match platform technical constraints, animations must work with your rigging system.

Project scale matters as well. A studio that created assets for mobile hyper-casuals might not handle the demands of a AAA project for PlayStation 5. Different leagues need different quality cultures, different optimization standards, different understanding of technical limitations.

Communication and Processes

Technical skills can be perfect, but if the communication process breaks down, the project fails.

First question: who will be your point of contact? If it’s a project manager who understands technical details, that’s a good sign. If it’s a salesperson who promises everything immediately — bad. You need someone who can answer questions about polycount, UV unwrapping, and normals.

Time zones can be challenging, but they’re solvable: daily stand-ups in asynchronous format, detailed documentation, clear briefs. Many Eastern European and Asian studios have adjusted their processes for US and European clients specifically for this reason.

Feedback loops need to be short. If a week passes from work delivery to getting comments, productivity drops dramatically. Ideal setup: daily progress review, comments within 24 hours, quick iterations instead of long revision cycles.

Major Studios and Smaller Partners

Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge and Kevuru Games

When Lucasfilm Games and ILMxLAB developed their VR project in the Star Wars universe, they needed dozens of unique characters meeting the franchise’s strict canon while looking flawless in a virtual reality headset.

Lucasfilm turned to Kevuru Games to create 3D characters with texture variations. The task wasn’t simple: models had to work on Quest 2 (limited power), maintain Star Wars style recognition, and pass the franchise owners’ strict artistic control.

What Lucasfilm gained: speed instead of expanding the internal team, specialization in VR optimization, and flexibility to scale the team based on needs without long-term commitments. The game launched with high ratings, characters looked organic in the Star Wars universe, and not a single asset caused technical problems.

Epic Games and Multiple Partners for Fortnite

Fortnite isn’t just a game, it’s a platform with constantly updated content. Each season brings dozens of new character skins, emotes, tools, cosmetics. Epic Games simply cannot create this volume internally while maintaining monthly release cycles.

The solution became a distributed network of outsourcing partners worldwide. Different studios handle concepts, modeling, rigging, animation. The conveyor runs continuously: while one studio makes concepts, another models, a third animates.

Epic got the ability to release content at incredible speed. Instead of waiting for internal teams to go through all stages for one skin, they launch 20-30 elements in parallel.

Virtuos and Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix worked with Virtuos during the development of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Virtuos supported the project with environment art, character models, and visual effects as part of the overall production pipeline.

There was simply too much to build for one internal team. Virtuos took on a large part of the environment work, character-related assets, and visual effects, sticking closely to Square Enix’s rules rather than trying to reshape the look of the game.

This wasn’t about handing off creative control. It was about volume. Thousands of assets had to be produced, reviewed, adjusted, and optimized. With Virtuos handling that load, Square Enix could keep its focus on combat, pacing, and the story beats that fans cared about most.

What players saw in the final game didn’t feel stitched together. Midgar felt whole. Familiar locations were instantly recognizable, but far more detailed than before. The remake was praised largely because of that balance, respectful to the original, yet clearly built for a different era.

Portfolio: Reading Between the Lines

Portfolio is the studio’s resume. But most people read it wrong, focusing on beautiful renders instead of relevant experience.

First rule: look for projects similar to yours. If you need stylized characters for a mobile RPG and the portfolio only shows realistic weapon models for PC shooters, that’s a mismatch. Skills don’t transfer as easily as it seems. Stylization requires different artistic vision, mobile platforms have different technical constraints.

Genre diversity can be both a plus and a minus. On one hand, it shows studio adaptability. On the other — lack of deep expertise in a specific niche. A studio that did RPGs, shooters, and strategies might be a “jack of all trades” but master of what exactly?

The client base speaks for itself. If the list includes Bandai Namco, EA, Lucasfilm, Epic Games — the studio passed their internal selection processes, proved their ability to work under NDA, withstand corporate quality standards. Not a guarantee, but a significant reliability indicator.

Budget and Timelines: Realistic Expectations

Pricing Models and Geography

Money talk often causes discomfort, but transparency is critically important. Unrealistic expectations from both sides are the most common reason for outsourcing project failures.

Fixed price versus hourly payment is the first choice you need to make. Fixed works well for clearly defined tasks: “50 weapon models, polycount up to 15k, three LOD variants.” Hourly payment works better for exploratory work: concept design, R&D, work where scope might change.

Understanding Quality Thresholds

Timelines are always more optimistic than reality. Multiply the initial estimate by 1.5 — you’ll get a more realistic number. This doesn’t mean studios lie; task complexity just always turns out greater than it seemed at the start.

Revision rounds should be limited by contract. Typical standard: two revision rounds included in price, beyond that — additional payment. Otherwise you get situations where the client demands the ninth version of a model because “something’s off,” and the project drags on endlessly.

Milestone payments protect both sides. Classic scheme: 30% upfront, 40% after approval of first batch, 30% at final delivery. If the studio demands 100% payment upfront — that’s risk. If the client wants to pay only after the fact — the studio can’t plan resources.

Red Flags: When to Walk Away

Some signals are so obvious that ignoring them guarantees problems:

• No NDA or resistance to signing it — serious studios have standard procedures
• Vague answers to technical questions — they either don’t understand or hide incompetence
• Overpromising — “we’ll do anything, any deadline” is irresponsibility, not confidence
• Portfolio without details — possibly stolen work or minimal role in projects
• No references from previous clients — no positive experience to share
• Communication problems at negotiation stage — it only gets worse under deadline pressure
• Pressure for quick decisions — “special price this week” is a classic sales trick

Test Assignment: Mandatory Stage

Portfolio and negotiations give a general impression, but only real work shows the studio’s true level. Test assignment isn’t optional.

The format needs to be fair. Either pay for the test (reduced rate, but pay), or make it genuinely small: one character concept, a simple object model, quick scene blockout. Don’t ask for a week of free work.

Technical specification for the test should be as close as possible to the real project. If your game is in Unreal 5 with Lumen, don’t ask for a Unity test. The test should check exactly the skills needed.

Evaluate not just the result but the process. How does the studio ask questions? Do they request additional references? This shows how engaged the team is and how well they understand the task.

Conclusion: Checklist Before Signing the Contract

Choosing the right 3D outsourcing partner is a decision that will determine your project’s success. Before signing, make sure you answered “yes” to these questions:

• Technical fit: Does the studio master your project’s tools and technologies? Are there similar projects in the portfolio? Can they show breakdown shots and technical documentation?
• Processes and communication: Is there a clear task tracking process? Who will be your point of contact? How quickly does the studio respond to questions? Are they ready for daily communication?
• References and reputation: Can you talk with previous clients? What do reviews say? Has the studio worked with known companies? How long have they been in the market?
• Financial transparency: Is the pricing structure clear? Are revision rounds limited? What are payment terms? Are there penalties for missing deadlines?
• Test assignment: Did the studio pass your test? How did they approach the process? Did they meet deadlines? How did they react to feedback?
• Long-term perspective: Do you see this studio as a long-term partner? Do they have capacity for your future projects? Do your values and approaches align?

Outsourcing in 2026 isn’t a compromise. Major studios like Lucasfilm, Epic Games, and Housemarque proved that the right partnership with specialized teams lets you create better games faster and more efficiently.

Bad choice costs months of lost time, missed deadlines, redone work. Right choice opens possibilities you didn’t even think about at the start.

Under these conditions, knowing how to find and effectively work with outsourcing partners isn’t just an advantage. It’s a necessity for survival.