What Would Matt Do

(as seen on Gamasutra ) 

Is this a good or bad thing?

Why China for Epic, and why now? Wilbur explained that the cost per man month (including overhead) to produce games in North America is around $9,000, and in Europe and Japan, it's $8,500 per man month. But costs per man month in China are less than $4,000 - hence Epic's choice to keep its core team at Epic's NC offices, but outsource significant amounts of art creation for its games.

Ok, lets break down both sides of the argument.

The Good: It saves Epic money and allows Epic to continually employ the people they have and (hopefully) make good games.

The Bad: It gives jobs to people in other countries that don't have minimum wage laws (so the actual artists could be making a dollar a day, who knows) and it does so at the cost of jobs for people here. 

Now if you look at the Good, it might be required for Epic to continue business to outsource business with Chinese companies instead of some local chaps, I don't know. And that would basically be the tipping point for me. If Epic can afford to do business entirely locally, then do it. Don't cut costs by giving money/jobs to other countries works when able and ready people are here.

What Would Matt Do: Completely change the way corporations are allowed to operate from the ground up. No more out of country headquarters for tax evasion, no more going to the cheapest third world country you can find to get your work done and remove their person rights, for starters.