“I think the point is everybody getting professional and independent — everybody — so [there won’t be any more] managers. You [will] have to manage by yourself.”
- Head of Q Entertainment Tetsuya Mizuguchi on the possibility of the game industry moving from full teams to freelance.
A profile published by Polygon earlier today examines how a growing number of established Japanese game developers have taken a different approach for creating new titles.
Founder of Q Entertainment (developer of Rez Infinite) Tetsuya Mizuguchi is one of many developers experimenting with this new approach.
Dubbed a "concept team", this model operates under a small, independent group in charge of generating the ideas and designs before moving on to partner with a studio to see the plans through.
While outsourcing isn't a new concept, utilizing this type of small team to create games is what Mizuguchi did when developing Rez Infinite. Other big names in the Japanese game industry have also followed suit.
Be sure to check out the entire piece over at Polygon, which goes into length about how other Japanese developers are using "concept teams" to develop their games.