I've been thinking about this recently. A lot of people compare a Game Development Studio mainly based on the portfolio, team size, or pricing. But I'm starting to feel that those things only tell part of the story.
A studio can have great-looking projects in its portfolio, but the real questions are: Do they understand your target platform? Can they handle changes during development? How do they communicate when a milestone is delayed? And can they actually scale with the project if things grow after launch?
Personally, I think a strong portfolio gets a studio onto the shortlist, but the production process and how the team works under real project pressure are what decide whether they're the right partner.
For anyone who has worked with an external game development team, what did you find more important — portfolio quality, technical expertise, communication, or the overall development process?

Having worked with several game studios across different projects, I'd argue that production process matters more than portfolio — though both are important. A great portfolio can be misleading if the studio can't replicate that quality under your specific constraints. What I've learned to look for: how they handle scope changes, their QA/testing maturity, and how they communicate during crunch periods. We once chose a studio with an incredible portfolio, but their production process was chaotic — missed milestones, poor documentation, and reactive rather than proactive communication. Since then, I always ask for detailed sprint breakdowns, see their actual issue tracking, and talk to references about how they handled delays. Another factor: do they have experience with your target platform and monetization model? Game development is as much about operational discipline as creative talent. There's a great thread on https://spinogambino.com.de/ where developers discuss their studio selection criteria — the emphasis on post-launch support and live ops planning really resonated with me. What's your project's genre and scale? That often dictates which process style fits best.