Unity has teamed up with Fusion by Devoted to make it easier for game developers to buy art assets on the Unity Asset Store and find artists who can offer additional help.
Unity Asset Store and Fusion by Devoted said the partnership connects Unity’s developer marketplace directly to Fusion by Devoted’s global freelance talent platform.
Developers browsing the Asset Store can now move from asset discovery to commissioning custom work in a single step, clicking through to Fusion by Devoted to hire vetted artists who can customize, extend, or build assets for their specific project.
The partnership addresses a gap that studios of all sizes run into: buying an asset is easy, but finding a trusted artist to adapt it to your art direction, technical constraints, or IP requirements has historically meant days of searching across disconnected platforms. Fusion by Devoted already supports teams in moving from idea to active production in under 72 hours. The Unity partnership puts that capability in front of the Asset Store’s developer base at the exact moment they need it.
“We’re super excited. Unity developers will have an easier time getting access to artists than other developers,” said Ninel Anderson, CEO of Devoted, in an interview with GamesBeat. “If Unity developers go to the Unity Asset Store and can’t find specific asset they need, we provide an option. They can come to Fusion by Devoted and find the assets. It’s an addition to the Unity ecosystem that makes developers more successful.”
Why this matters now
Game production is under pressure from several directions. Player engagement has declined to an average of eight hours per week in 2024, while only 12% of playtime goes to new releases as established franchises dominate attention.
Development costs continue to climb, with average triple-A budgets rising from $18 million to $24 million in 2010 to $150 million to $300 million today.
Studios are responding by running leaner core teams and relying more heavily on external contributors. More than 1,000 external partners now support studios across the global games industry, and freelance engagement continues to grow. In the UK alone, freelance work in games tripled year over year.
While distributed development has become common, the operational side remains a challenge. Finding the right talent, vetting portfolios, onboarding contractors, and coordinating across platforms can add weeks before a single asset is touched.
From browsing to building
The Unity Asset Store is the industry’s largest marketplace for game-ready assets. Most studios, however, still need additional work to adapt those assets to their specific game. Style matching, technical modifications, custom rigs, environment extensions – these require the right artist, not just the right file.
The partnership gives developers a clear path forward. From the Unity Asset Store, developers can now:
- Discover Fusion by Devoted directly through the Asset Store
- Connect with vetted artists matched to their discipline, style, and pipeline
- Receive clear bids before work starts
- Move into production in under 72 hours
- Get the artists to adapt and adjust your assets
What was previously a fragmented process involving searches across multiple platforms, RFPs, negotiations, and onboarding can now be resolved in a few clicks.
Distributed development as the default model
Distributed production is no longer limited to large publishers. Studios of all sizes rely on external contributors to support content creation across art, animation, and live service updates.
Managing freelance talent at scale remains a persistent challenge. Studios face uncertainty around vetting contributors, scoping work accurately, and coordinating across regions and pipelines. Fusion by Devoted’s vetted network provides financial, legal, and organizational support, giving studios a more structured way to work with external talent without building that infrastructure themselves, while artists are managed directly by the client.
Responding to economic pressure
The games industry saw more than 15,000 layoffs in 2024, with 2025 expected to exceed that number. Studios are under pressure to reduce fixed costs while maintaining production velocity. Freelancers are feeling the impact too, with more than 51% reporting requests for lower rates, rising to 80% in parts of Asia.
These conditions are accelerating a shift toward elastic production models, where teams scale resources up and down as projects move through phases. The Unity and Fusion by Devoted partnership supports this by letting studios bring in specialized skills when needed, without long-term headcount commitments.
Faster paths from idea to production
Fusion by Devoted already supports teams in moving from idea to active production in under 72 hours. Through the Unity partnership, this speed helps studios:
- Deliver vertical slices faster
- Iterate on content faster
- Prototype for publisher and investor pitches faster
- Explore art directions in parallel without slowing the core team
For teams managing tight timelines and shifting requirements, reducing setup time directly lowers risk and controls cost.
A global talent pool aligned with Unity development
According to Fusion by Devoted’s 2025 Freelancer Report, high-quality freelance talent hubs are growing across Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria, and Egypt. These regions align closely with Unity development, particularly for mobile games, stylized art, UGC-driven content, and rapid iteration workflows.
The partnership makes this global talent pool accessible to Unity developers at the moment of need, with vetting, matching, and project support already built in.
A hybrid production approach
The partnership supports a hybrid production model that reflects how studios actually build games today:
- Reusable assets from the Unity Asset Store
- IP-specific assets built by Devoted Fusion artists
- Distributed workforces that scale elastically around lean studio cores
“Studios don’t win by having the largest teams anymore,” said Ninel Anderson, CEO of Devoted Studios. “They win by having the most adaptive pipelines. This partnership gives Unity developers a faster, safer way to scale production — with a vetted global talent pool one click away.”
Developers can access Devoted Fusion through the Unity Asset Store now at assetstore.unity.com/hireartist.
Fusion by Devoted is a freelance talent platform built for game production. It connects studios with vetted artists across 3D, 2D, VFX, animation, and concept art, while the client can focus on creating the art with the talents directly. Studios can move from brief to active production in under 72 hours.
Devoted provides external development for game makers, and its job is to find work for game developers anywhere in the world. It allows devs to find talent based on skills and passion, rather than where they live, Anderson said. Devoted has access to more than 4,000 artists.
This model allows developers using the Unity Asset Store to not only find art, they can also find artists to hire to tweak their designs or create a follow-up image as needed, much the way that Hollywood creators find talent for making movies.
On the Unreal front, Fusion by Devoted has also cut a deal with Epic Games’ ArtStation.
“It’s not just about quality. If you get a pack of assets from Unity on the store, it allows you to build a scene. But then you may want more of the same and you may need to ask another artist to get it,” Anderson said. “This allows you to contact the artists. This helps with the democratization of game production. It’s less friction and less money wasted.”
Devoted by Fusion is working with a number of publishers with its platform.