In the year 2025 European game development houses markedly increased the amount of money they allocated to external talent, posting a striking 63 percent rise in spend on outsourced roles. This surge outstripped the overall industry’s growth, which was recorded at 55 percent worldwide, indicating that Europe is leading the shift toward a more contractor‑centric production model.
The figures come from the recently published analysis titled "Talent Signals Reshaping the Games Industry," authored by Tanja Loktionova, founder of Values Value and co‑founder of InGame Job. Her report pulls together data from a broad employment survey that canvassed studios, freelancers, and other stakeholders across the gaming sector. One of the headline findings is that the pool of freelancers working with European studios expanded by 24 percent over the previous twelve months. At the same time, the average earnings of freelancers saw a global uplift of 19 percent, suggesting that higher demand is translating into better compensation for independent talent.
Despite this financial improvement, nearly two‑thirds of freelancers—about 63 percent—express ongoing worries about the stability of their income streams, underscoring the precarious nature of gig‑based work even in a booming market. The report also highlights a talent‑supply crunch. Close to 60 percent of surveyed studios reported difficulties in locating qualified specialists for their projects. Conversely, 54.1 percent of freelancers indicated that they faced challenges in finding projects that matched their skill sets and career aspirations.
This mismatch points to a growing friction between the supply of highly skilled contractors and the specific needs of studios, a gap that could influence hiring strategies in the coming years. Labor‑market volatility is another theme that emerged from the data. Roughly 30 percent of respondents said they had experienced layoffs within the past year, and the average time required to secure a new position was six months.
This extended job‑search period reflects the competitive nature of the industry and the importance of maintaining a robust professional network. Career mobility expectations are high: half of those surveyed anticipate changing jobs within the next six months, and less than half reported feeling satisfied with their current employment situation.
Only 26 percent felt they were making meaningful professional progress, while 36 percent described their careers as stagnant. Moreover, a significant 55 percent disclosed that they had not received any formal training or upskilling opportunities during the previous year, raising concerns about long‑term talent development and retention. Loktionova interprets these trends as a "structural signal that the industry has matured past its growth‑at‑any‑cost phase and has not yet figured out what replaces it." In other words, the era of relentless expansion driven by massive in‑house teams appears to be giving way to a more nuanced, layered staffing approach.
The data suggests that studios are gravitating toward a two‑tier team architecture. At the core sits a small cadre of senior figures—directors, lead architects, and custodians of a franchise’s creative vision—who are typically compensated with a mix of equity, health benefits, and performance bonuses. Surrounding this nucleus is a peripheral layer composed largely of contractors and freelancers who are hired for specific sprints, milestones, or development phases.
Once those targeted tasks are completed, many of these external contributors are released from the project, reinforcing the cyclical nature of gig work in game development. Beyond staffing dynamics, the report touches on the growing anxiety surrounding generative artificial intelligence. Sixty‑one percent of European developers expressed concern that AI tools could pressure them to accelerate production timelines and increase output volume. Meanwhile, 35 percent feared that AI might directly threaten their job security or diminish demand for their particular skill set.
These apprehensions reflect broader industry debates about how emerging technologies will reshape creative workflows and employment patterns. Overall, the 2025 landscape for European game studios is characterized by heightened reliance on external talent, a pronounced talent‑supply mismatch, and an undercurrent of uncertainty driven by both economic volatility and technological disruption.
As studios continue to refine their two‑tier staffing models, the balance between core creative leadership and flexible contractor support will likely determine how effectively they can navigate these challenges while maintaining the quality and innovation that gamers expect. To address the identified gaps, industry leaders may need to invest more heavily in training programs, create clearer pathways for career advancement, and develop hybrid employment structures that blend the stability of permanent roles with the agility of freelance contributions. By doing so, they can mitigate the concerns of both studios struggling to find qualified experts and freelancers seeking reliable, well‑compensated work. The evolution of this ecosystem will be a key indicator of the sector’s ability to sustain growth without sacrificing the wellbeing of its diverse workforce.