Article : Only 30% of games even break even!

[Laa-Yosh]

While I agree there are some big name games that have huge staffs and long turnarounds and produce 50 million+ games, there are others that have smaller staffs or shorter turnarounds times for their triple A games.

Epic has some of the best and most payed artists in the business, regularly handing out bonuses on top of everything. I'd say the numbers they talk about regarding Gears games are completely bollocks

 

[dobwal]

Epic has some of the best and most payed artists in the business, regularly handing out bonuses on top of everything. I'd say the numbers they talk about regarding Gears games are completely bollocks

Epic has about 75 on staff and yet is able to dev 3 or 4 games this gen as well as produce an engine that licensed just about to everybody. No wonder they are highly paid as they generate way more dollars per employee than just about anyone out there. I think it works wonders on your company's bottom line when your biggest project (UE4) has spent its first two years being developed by one person, who just happens to be the CEO. Its the equivalent of having Kenneth Lewis literally being "Teller of the Month" every month at every branch of Bank of America.

The Gears figures are low because they exclude engine work, which generates substanial revenue on its own. Furthermore, Epic claims that no more than 20-30 of its staff worked on Gears1 at any one time. It also helps that Gear's artwork spent a number of years as promotional material for UE3.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Epic actually outsources a LOT of their assets... they do have madly talented and skilled artists (I'm not a huge fan of their character work though) but a lot of the props are done abroad.

Anyway, I don't think they should be used as an example for industry average calculations.

 

[dobwal]

Epic actually outsources a LOT of their assets... they do have madly talented and skilled artists (I'm not a huge fan of their character work though) but a lot of the props are done abroad.

Anyway, I don't think they should be used as an example for industry average calculations.

Well, Epic opened Epic Games China, which now does a lot of outsourcing work for other companies itself.

 

[obonicus]

Epic has about 75 on staff and yet is able to dev 3 or 4 games this gen as well as produce an engine that licensed just about to everybody. No wonder they are highly paid as they generate way more dollars per employee than just about anyone out there. I think it works wonders on your company's bottom line when your biggest project (UE4) has spent its first two years being developed by one person, who just happens to be the CEO. Its the equivalent of having Kenneth Lewis literally being "Teller of the Month" every month at every branch of Bank of America.

It also helps that they don't really count the cost of developing UE4 when they talk about developing their own games.

 

[Sonic]

I wonder who makes more. Artists in the gaming industry or artists in the film industry. Since a lot of CG firms are in the Bay Area I'd imagine they get paid top dollar for their work especially feature animation.

Laa-Yosh, any info on this?

 

[RobertR1]

Pretty much any AAA title if you include marketing, with some budgets being well north of that figure. Just think of the labor costs -- a 100 person team with an average salary of $80,000 is going to cost $8M a year, excluding benefits. Now add in licensing, office lease, utilities, etc., and you'll see that it's very easy to get to $50M, especially with a 3-4 year project. Now, if you're going to sink that much into the development of a game, you'll certainly want to spend another $15M to market it.

I've heard that GTA4 was around $90M. Considering how long it's been in development, FFXIII must be up there, even with lower labor costs in Japan.

Here's something to support your marketing costs point: http://store.steampowered.com/news/2907/

Valve Announces $25 Mil Left 4 Dead 2 Ad Campaign
October 5, 2009, 11:04 am - Valve - Press Release

Zombie Blockbuster On Track To Top Valve's All Time Sales

Oct 5, 2009 - Valve, creators of best-selling game franchises (such as Half-Life and Counter-Strike) and leading technologies (such as Steam and Source), today announced a $25 Mil consumer advertising plan for its upcoming action thriller, Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2).

"Based on the strength of pre-orders, Left 4 Dead 2 will be the fastest-selling product in Valve's history," said Gabe Newell, president of Valve. "Left 4 Dead 2 has consistently run at 300% of Left 4 Dead's numbers."

Last year, Left 4 Dead was the top selling new property for both the Xbox 360 and PC. Sales were driven by strong word of mouth, top reviews, and a $10 million advertising campaign.

"We'll be supporting Left 4 Dead 2's launch with a $25 million campaign," said Doug Lombardi, Valve's vice-president of Marketing. "Left 4 Dead 2 has already set the record for greatest number of pre-orders in our company's history, and we're still over a month out from shipping."

In the USA, the campaign will include Monday Night Football and UFC television broadcasts, roadside billboards, and popular lifestyle and gaming sites.

This year's European plan is also more aggressive than last year's, with television advertising in all the major markets appearing during sports and lifestyle programming, plus strong outdoor investments in more cities, as well as online and print advertising.

"Left 4 Dead 2 is expected to once again exceed everyone's expectations and be an industry best title on PC and Xbox 360 for the year," said David DeMartini, General Manager of EA Partners. "With Left 4 Dead and now Left 4 Dead 2, Valve has created one of today's most compelling video game experiences and leading entertainment franchises."

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009's marquee titles. Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.

Introducing the AI Director 2.0, L4D's dynamic gameplay is taken to the next level by giving the Director the ability to procedurally change weather effects, world objects, and pathways in addition to tailoring the enemy population, effects, and sounds to match the players' performance. The result is a unique game session custom fitted to provide a satisfying and uniquely challenging experience each time the game is played.

Finally, with new Survivors, boss zombies, weapons, and items, Left 4 Dead 2 offers a much larger game than the original, featuring more co-operative campaigns, more Versus campaigns, new Survival maps, and a brand new competitive mode all available at launch.

For more information, please visit www.l4d.com

Chances are high that Valve has not managed to spend 25mil of development costs in a year to make L4D2 but clearly they see they feel there is a need for properly marketing a game and are willing to spend a fair amount for it.

 

[betan]

Left 4 Dead 2 is expected to once again exceed everyone's expectations

I'm pretty sure that cannot happen.

 

[Yemeth]

Off topic: Left 4 Dead 2 is the only game I miss on my PS3, hope it will be even better as everyone says so that all of you can enjoy it .

And don't ask about my PC, it's an old P4 with a Gefore 6600 .

 

[Richard]

$25M for marketing L4D2 is a complete overkill (pun intended). I wonder if Valve are throwing in anciliary costs into that figure. They're not publicaly traded and I have no idea why they'd do that but it just seems waaaaaay too high for a game that's already very hyped. Maybe they intend to fly to Valve everyone that signed that boycott petition.

 

[obonicus]

Maybe they saw that their big L4D1 ad campaign worked?

 

[ban25]

$25M for marketing L4D2 is a complete overkill (pun intended). I wonder if Valve are throwing in anciliary costs into that figure. They're not publicaly traded and I have no idea why they'd do that but it just seems waaaaaay too high for a game that's already very hyped. Maybe they intend to fly to Valve everyone that signed that boycott petition.

It's launching into a crowded holiday season with other shooters like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST. Want to guess what Activision is spending to promote MW2?

I wonder what part of that budget is being picked up by EAP?

 

[Richard]

It's launching into a crowded holiday season with other shooters like Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST. Want to guess what Activision is spending to promote MW2?

I'm not a marketing expert but I'd suggest trying to go against Halo ODST and COD6 is a losing proposition no matter how much you're willing to throw in the bin. They own steam and the vast majority of the sales will come from that where their ad costs are significantly reduced.

They've said they're not doing a demo so I fail to see where they'll spend so much money especially since the ad market is pretty bare right about now and companies can pretty much command prices, at least online.

The television ads will run through the budget pretty fast but again, unless they're trying to use L4D2 to bring in more Steam accounts instead of just more game sales I think the money could be spent elsewhere (in my pocket for instance )

I wonder what part of that budget is being picked up by EAP?

If I'm interpreting the PR correctly this is all Valve. The EAP comments seems more like a formality since they're putting the game on retail boxes more than anything.

 

[Mboojigga]

Looks like they changed their mind about a demo.

http://www.gamersdigest.net/3992/left-4-dead-2-demo-detailed/

Valve today announced details and timing for the demo of its upcoming zombie thriller, Left 4 Dead 2.

The Left 4 Dead 2 demo will feature gameplay taken from “The Parish” campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. Playable by 1 to 4 players over local or Internet connections on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with two-player split screen available on the Xbox 360), the demo features all the new boss infected zombies and all the new melee weapons included in the full product.

Those who pre-order the game (at participating retailers or via Steam) will obtain early access to the demo on October 27. The demo will then be made available to Xbox LIVE Gold members and all PC gamers on November 3. Then all Xbox LIVE members will obtain access to the demo on November 10.

Coming exclusively to Xbox 360 and PC, L4D2 promises to set a new benchmark for co-operative action games and become one of 2009’s marquee titles. Set for release on November 17, the title adds melee combat to enable deeper co-operative gameplay, with items such as a chainsaws, frying pans, axes, baseball bats, and more.