9 Proven Benefits Of Co-Development in AAA Games

By co-development, we mean a collaboration between a primary game studio and one or more other companies. The level of assistance and support provided by the others depends entirely on what the specific project necessitates. When creative minds collaborate, enhancing AAA game quality through partnerships becomes possible. They can craft a dazzling game that appeals to a wide audience of players and becomes a super success.

AAA games or triple-A games as they are sometimes called, feature vast amounts of content, scintillating graphics, lifelike visuals, complex gameplay mechanics, and intense narratives, and they are highly appealing to gamers. This makes them very expensive to develop, and are usually released by big names in the industry. AAA games necessitate huge budgets, not only for development, but also for marketing.

Additionally, huge teams of designers, developers, and testers are also required. The combined talents help studios release games of brilliant quality, intricate storylines and expansive worlds filled with interactive elements that provide hours of immersive and engaging gameplay. The many benefits of co-development in AAA games allow studios to release more exciting games in shorter timeframes.

Game development is a highly dynamic industry, and studios may often be confused regarding the best approaches to give life to their creative visions. Though outsourcing and co-development may seem the same, there are a few differences, and the benefits of co-development in AAA games are greater.

Co-development is collaborative game development , where a single project may have multiple teams working on it, handling different aspects of the game based on their specific skill set. This is teamwork between the main company and others.

Game development outsourcing refers to hiring an external team to handle specific tasks, the whole project, or certain segments – like animation, art production, or testing, for instance. While the main company may supervise the project, they depend on the external team for delivery.

When the game becomes successful, the benefits of co-development in AAA games become apparent, and all the parties in the co-development stand to gain; this incentivizes co-development partners to produce superior quality work.

Developing a successful game needs a lot more than mere technical skills or using cutting-edge tools. You need to combine creativity and collaboration in such a manner as to craft an exciting game that will keep players engrossed for hours. This is where co-development partnerships can bring multiple benefits.

Benefits of AAA co-development

1. Collaboration and Partnership

Co-development enhances collaboration between the development partners, and this synergy can result in superior quality, innovative, and smash-hit games. By sharing know-how and expertise, you can improve the overall development process. Regular communication is one of the best practices for co-developing AAA games, and it ensures that everyone is on the same page. Setting goals and milestones ensures integrated workflows, streamlines operations, and fewer bottlenecks.

With collaborative problem handling, all issues can be quickly remedied, and it’s one of the best benefits of co-development in AAA games. You can also ensure that different components of the game work in a good flow, leading to a unified and polished product, increasing the chances of success.

2. Greater Engagement

One of the biggest benefits of co-development in AAA games is the level of ownership and creative control it offers. It involves active participation in the creative process, right from the beginning, till release. It means you need fewer revisions, as giving creative freedom to artists leads to smoother workflows and improved innovation. Following strict instructions cramps creativity, but with tools like mood boards, you can define the overall look and feel of the project, making it a more collaborative process.

3. Efficiency and Sustainability

Effectiveness and sustainability are two important benefits of co-development in AAA games. The entire process is more unified, streamlined, and flexible to accommodate shifting needs and challenges, as there is a vast array of skill sets available, like:

Programming — sophisticated coding skills required to build game mechanics, optimize performance and guarantee cross-platform compatibility, including debugging complicated code, writing effective algorithms, and executing new features as required.

Art and Animation — expertise in creating assets of high quality, like environments and characters, and animations which breathe life into the game world.

Design — game design expertise helps in crafting captivating gameplay mechanics, UI, and levels. Designers can create intuitive and exciting experiences by responding to players’ feedback during testing.

QA — a stringent testing process that helps you detect and resolve issues to make sure that the game can be enjoyed on any platform. Ensuring impeccable quality is among the best benefits of co-development in AAA games.

Project Management — when multiple teams are coordinated smoothly, you can ensure that the project is on track with regard to time and budget.

Let’s take the example of the game Destiny; it is one of the best examples of the benefits of co-development in AAA games. Bungie Inc. co-developed the game with High Moon Studios, allowing Bungie to leverage Moon Studio’s special skill set for different elements of the game. This partnership allowed them to release a polished and well-rounded game.

4. Lower Consumption of Time and Money

Developing an AAA game can be a huge drain on your time and resources. Implementing the co-development models for game studios, can help you streamline your workflows, and focus on core value-adding tasks, like marketing, for example. You can reduce time spent on developing the game, and get economical solutions for aspects of the game like art production, localization, etc.

5. Access to Tools and Expertise

Another of the benefits of co-development in AAA games is that you have access to a large team of professionals like programmers, designers, artists, and sound engineers, who have spent years honing their skills and perfecting their craft. Full-service game development studios invest a great deal in cutting-edge technologies to gain a competitive edge. As an enterprise business with a brilliant game idea, this can be a huge boon for you.

Whether it is AI, AR, VR, or mixed reality (MR), your co-development partner will be able to provide all the technologies you need. A survey by Statista says that more than 3700 million people will use AR and VR by 2029; when you choose co-development for your AAA game, you can make sure that you are one step ahead of the competition.

6. Quality Assurance

One of the benefits of co-development in AAA games that is often overlooked is the experience of your partner means they already have a prolific portfolio. How does that help you? Well, you can harness their expertise and experience, and ensure that your product is of a superior quality. You can craft a compelling game that delivers hours of sheer delight to your target audience.

7. Adaptability and Scalability

Enabling you to scale your operations to meet demands for projects is one of the major benefits of AAA game co-development. Interestingly, this is not just helpful for indie developers and small studios, but major studios as well, especially when there is huge demand. Instead of spending money on new hires and technology acquisition, you can get a lot more done by going the co-development way. It will also help you to adapt to the needs that keep evolving over the lifecycle of the game development.

8. Risk Management

Being able to mitigate risk is another of the benefits of AAA game co-development that are critical. Let’s just think for a minute that your game fails. What then? How will you recover your investment? It is definitely a difficult situation. When you have co-development partners, the risk is spread thinner, and absorbing losses is easier.

The chances of failure are very low when you partner with a reliable studio, as you can leverage their capabilities and combine your skills to come up with an exceptional product.

Access to Additional Services

This is one of the benefits of AAA game co-development that can be a complete game-changer, but very few people think about it. Your game co-development partner may have expertise in user acquisition, public relations, and marketing, and these services can prove to be invaluable. With such a partner, you can be assured that every single aspect of a game’s release, from production to promotion, can be managed professionally and efficiently to reach wide audiences.

What do all these benefits of co-development in AAA games eventually translate into?
Releasing an immersive and exciting game is not the end result; earning revenues and building your brand is. When you partner with a studio to craft a scintillating game that thrills players, you can monetize your game through numerous avenues to earn revenues.

When you give players a game they love, they will keep coming back to it, and you can keep improving on it through LiveOps to extend the game’s life and continue earning for a long time.

Now, if you want to take full advantage of the benefits of AAA game co-development, it’s important that you are also aware of the possible pitfalls.

When one or more co-development partners are involved in developing an AAA game, there are certain inherent risks, like:

• Distributing responsibilities appropriately
• Clearly defined roles and tasks
• Different working methods, priorities, and speeds
• Lack of trust
• Inadequate or improper communication
• Sharing IPR and revenues

While the co-development models for game studios are manifold, the studios involved must take care to take steps to ensure a great relationship and smooth development:

1. Understand Your Project

It is essential you have a clear understanding of your project to experience the benefits of co-development in AAA games; if it is a predefined project, you should be able to list out the technologies to be used, the assets to be generated and organized, and so on. You can then look for a co-development partner with the requisite skills.

Once they are on board, you can simply request your partner to follow your vision to complete the project.

If it’s an ad-hoc project, everything can be pretty chaotic. You can let your combined creativity lead the way instead of pre-defining it all, as in the previous case. While you will obviously have a concept in mind, you have no definitive plan, no final decision on technology or sketches.

Don’t get us wrong – this does not mean that you will end up with a lopsided product; on the contrary, you are likely to end up with an amazing result. One of the benefits of co-development in AAA games is that you can get excellent results in the end, whether it’s a predefined or ad-hoc project.

2. Know Your Team

It is important for all teams involved in the development process to know one another well – your skills, strengths, and weaknesses. This way, everyone will be well-prepared before you start the project, and it makes it easier for everyone to accommodate the needs of others. Knowing the benefits of co-development will motivate everyone to do their best; if there is any resistance, it could lead to inordinate delays.

3. The Tool Check

You must prepare your tools well in advance so that they:

• Are accessible by external parties remotely.
• Are capable of tracking communication in an organized fashion.
• Can provide an in-depth view of every step of the process.
• Identify methods of active capture of valuable performance metrics.
• Generate detailed financial reports, and are able to make accurate forecasts.

4. Express Concerns and Solutions

Now, functioning like a well-oiled machine doesn’t mean that you have to agree on all matters. Rather, it is critical that genuine feedback is provided. Your co-development partners should be encouraged to register their concerns about technologies, design, industry trends, forecasts, or anything else. This is essential for the game’s success.

Juego Studios has a proven track record, with more than 500 games developed for over 200 clients. We have expertise in a wide range of game genres, including AAA. Leverage our experience and resources to release immersive games, and get impeccable LiveOps support to earn maximum revenues. Avail our game development services to expand your capabilities and meet burgeoning demand for AAA games.