Naturally, outsource companies feel the same pressures as do developers who outsource -- especially to employ company resources in the most efficient manner possible. But if developers turn to outsource companies to keep their teams trim, who do outsource companies turn to?

At Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based Shadows in Darkness, the six-year-old art outsource company has a unique solution.

Last year, the company -- which is relatively small, with just 20 staffers -- created a separate sister corporation called Darkside Game Studios that is taking on outside programming work, most recently assisting with Civilization Revolution for the PS3. Its goal is to eventually take on full game development.

"It's really a quite clever plan if you think about it," says Hugh Falk, who is president of both companies. "Just as developers are concerned about what to do with their people when they are in between projects, we -- as an outsource company -- have the same concerns. Our solution is to let our people with downtime work on projects for Darkside and vice versa, which is essentially outsourcing to ourselves. It eliminates downtime altogether and allows us to keep quality control in-house. What could be better?"

2K Games/Firaxis Games' Civilization Revolution

Not that Shadows in Darkness has much downtime these days; the frail economy seems to be taking care of that. When the U.S. dollar was stronger, most of the industry's outsourcing work went to India, China, and Eastern Europe where rates were relatively inexpensive.

But, says Falk, in an unusual twist, some offshore game developers are now outsourcing to the U.S. "I would say that a good 70% of our clients are now based in countries -- particularly in England, Canada, and Australia -- where outsourcing to the United States makes good economical sense for them," he says.

Also working in favor of Shadows in Darkness, Virtuos, Production Road, and similar companies is that outsourcing is increasingly becoming just good common sense.

"Three or four years ago, finding clients took a lot of cajoling mainly because developers just weren't ready for companies like ours," recalls Falk. "They'd tell us, 'Yeah, we're looking into outsourcing but we haven't really done any.' It was tough to get business. Now it seems like everyone is doing it. There's usually someone in charge of outsourcing at every developer, someone who you can speak to directly, who understands the jargon. They know what they're looking for and it has become a much more streamlined process all around. So our biggest issue is keeping up with the demand as opposed to trying to create demand."