After a turbulent 2025, the game development landscape looks very different. This year brought sweeping industry layoffs, rising production costs, high volatility in game performance, and greater pressure to deliver content faster across more platforms. At the same time, players continued to expect higher fidelity, more ambitious worlds, and regular live updates. By the end of 2025, even the biggest studios were rethinking how they operate.
External co development is no longer a fallback plan. It has become a core part of how games are made. As the industry steps into 2026, many studios are already recognizing the signals that they can no longer scale through internal teams alone.
This article will talk about the clearest signs that it is time to partner with an external development team and explains how the realities of 2025 have shaped a new production model for 2026.
The Studio Reality After 2025
The numbers from 2025 help explain why so many studios are rethinking their production model. Market data from Newzoo shows the global games industry approaching 189 billion dollars in 2025, creating pressure for larger, higher quality releases.
At the same time, press reporting and industry lists indicate that a handful of blockbuster titles now reach into the high hundreds of millions in development costs, while major franchises often rely on thousands of contributors and multiple studios working together. The year also saw widespread layoffs and slower hiring pipelines.
According to the GDC 2025 State of the Industry survey, about 11 percent of developers reported being laid off in the previous year, and studios continued to struggle to fill senior or highly specialized roles. Together, these factors pushed many teams to look for more flexible, scalable production models going into 2026.
Looking ahead to 2026, studios are seeking a more stable way to scale. External partners allow teams to stay lean while accessing flexible production support on demand. The question is not whether to collaborate, but when.
Below are the seven strongest signs your studio is ready to partner up with an external partner:
Sign #1: Your Production Timelines Keep Slipping
What we saw in 2025:
Many studios entered 2025 under pressure from internal capacity reduction while production goals stayed high. For instance, the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2025 survey reports that one in ten developers said they lost their job in the past year, and 41 % said they were impacted by layoffs or saw colleagues let go.
These workforce disruptions correlate with longer schedules, increased reliance on overtime and crunch, and slipping milestones across the industry.
What this means for 2026:
If this pattern continues into the new year, it signals an internal pipeline stretched beyond its limits. Slips ripple across teams, causing missed content drops, delayed marketing beats, and rising technical debt.
A co development partner stabilizes throughput by adding the right people at the right moments, preventing more slippage as the year progresses.
Sign #2: You Cannot Hire Fast Enough
What we saw in 2025:
Studios faced intense talent scarcity in key roles. Industry commentary and surveys show that many game companies reported trouble filling senior engineers, technical artists, and VFX roles. For example, 32 % of gaming houses struggled to find suitable talent for their projects.
What this means for 2026:
If you are starting a new project or expanding scope, the internal hiring pipeline will not grow fast enough to support it. Recruiting still takes months, and competition for senior talent remains high.
External teams provide instant access to specialized talent without long hiring cycles or long term commitments.
This means, if hiring speed does not match production speed, collaboration becomes essential.
Sign #3: Scope Creep Became the Default in 2025
What we saw in 2025:
Games continued to grow in complexity through 2025, and this expansion directly contributed to rising scope. Industry reporting shows that modern titles take longer to build because they require more content, more platforms, and more interconnected systems than earlier generations. On top of that, the market itself is shifting faster than most teams can adapt. Our State of Video Games Freelancing Report 2025 found how changing player expectations and genre trends, from live service updates and battle passes to extraction shooters and roguelites, force studios to rethink features mid-development. These pivots stretch timelines, increase rework, and expand the production footprint beyond what internal teams originally planned.
What this means for 2026:
If you already feel behind before new features arrive, the roadmap will only become more demanding in 2026. Scope creep is not going away. Studios that survive it are the ones who reinforce their pipelines with external help before the pressure peaks.
A strong partner helps absorb expanding workloads while keeping the original roadmap intact.
Sign #4: QA and Optimization Were Always Delayed
What we saw in 2025:
QA backlogs grew across the industry. Optimization work was pushed to late production, which strained release windows and increased bug risk. Technical debt hit new highs. Industry reporting also highlights that games are taking longer to polish because complexity has increased faster than QA resources.
As noted by Christophe Gandon, managing director of the game division at Virtuos, "As the games industry matures, projects grow in complexity as players increasingly demand better quality, immersion, and satisfaction in game length and value. Developers strive to meet or exceed these expectations."
What this means for 2026:
Delaying QA again this year will lead to the same problems, only more expensive. Performance expectations continue to rise, and post launch recovery is harder. External engineering and QA teams help stabilize this part of the pipeline, reducing risk at the final stages.
Sign #5: Creative Leadership Spent 2025 Managing, Not Directing
What we saw in 2025:
Leads across the industry found themselves absorbed in coordination, scheduling, and triage. Less time was spent reviewing creative work or shaping direction.
What this means for 2026:
A team that cannot give its leads space to do creative work slows down over time. As projects get larger, leads need more support to keep quality high.
A well integrated co development partner allows leads to return to creative decision making while the partner handles consistent execution.
Sign #6: Your Budget Grew in 2025 but Output Did Not
What we saw in 2025:
Costs increased. Output did not. Teams had fewer people but bigger expectations. Production overruns became common, and fixed costs weighed heavily on studios of all sizes.
What this means for 2026:
Studios are moving away from bloated internal structures and toward flexible capacity. External partners give teams the ability to scale up or down as needed, improving cost to output efficiency as the industry enters another unpredictable year.
Sign #7: You Need End to End Production Support, Not Just Temporary Staff
What we saw in 2025:
Many studios relied on staff augmentation only to realize that freelancers could not solve deeper workflow challenges. Coordination, tools, engineering integration, and multi discipline collaboration required a more unified partner approach.
What this means for 2026:
Complex projects demand more than extra hands. They demand a partner who supports full cycle production, from art to engineering to optimization.
Recognising the Shift: 2026 as the Year of Strategic Co Development
Studios that succeed in 2026 will not try to rebuild massive internal teams. They will focus internal energy on creative leadership and rely on external partners for specialized, scalable production support. This allows teams to move faster, maintain quality, and control long term costs.
Co development is now a strategic decision, not an emergency measure.
What Does a Reliable External Partner Look Like?
A strong partner should offer:
-
Transparent communication -
A proven history of reliable delivery
-
Seamless pipeline integration
-
Cultural and workflow alignment
-
Flexible engagement models
Next Steps: How to Start the Transition
-
Assess your internal pipeline honestly.
-
Identify which disciplines are under the most pressure.
-
Decide if you need support in art, engineering, or full cycle workflows.
-
Test alignment with a smaller pilot.
-
Scale the collaboration as trust and output grow.
Why Studios Choose Devoted
Devoted Studios partners with teams worldwide to support art, engineering, tech art, gameplay systems, and full cycle production. We integrate directly into each studio’s workflow so collaboration feels seamless. You can explore our end to end environment production approach, from early concept to final assets. We have also spent more than four years collaborating with Obsidian Entertainment on large scale environment and content pipelines.
And if these seven signs match what your studio experienced in 2025, it may be the right moment to explore co development for 2026. Many teams are already changing toward flexible, scalable production models to stay ahead of the industry curve.
