Study: Average dev costs as high as $28m

[aselto]

And the article is reliable because...?

 

[nightshade]

That article isn't even slightly reliable.
IIRC KZ2 is 21$ million & the marketing budget of Halo 3 is 40$ million, and it was Shenmue 1 which had a budget of 70$ million. [without inflation ?]

The only correct numbers are of GTA4 & (supposedly) LA Noire.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

KZ2 was rumored to be anywhere from 20-50 million, with most thinking closer to 50 than 20. So 45 while a bit high isn't unreasonable.

Too Human...wow, that is a loss on an epic scale. No pun intended.

All of the titles over 50 million are WAY higher than I expect. And a bit surprised at Halo 3 myself.

I'm going to guess, that most of those numbers are just pure guesses. No sources sited, not even an explanation at how they came up with the numbers.

Regards,
SB

 

[Shifty Geezer]

The only correct numbers are...

You're as in need of supplying sourcs as that article.

 

[Squilliam]

How would Halo 3 cost $55,000,000. What exactly did they do? Pay everyone $100K salaries + bonuses?

 

[zed]

How would Halo 3 cost $55,000,000. What exactly did they do? Pay everyone $100K salaries + bonuses?

well a few that worked on it do drive ferreri's et al

Come on you're all being too harsh, halo3 does look like a million bucks
(zed looks around) come on guys back me up on this
(zed fondly remembers this forum from a couple of years ago when halo3 was praised to the high heavens graphics wise)
sigh those were the days

 

[nightshade]

You're as in need of supplying sources as that article.

Well there were a few articles that point towards those numbers regarding GTA4 & LA Noire.While for others its the very first time I am seeing those figures since most of the time I have seen different numbers from what is mentioned in those articles.

 

[tuna]

The Shenmue numbers are well established. I could even provide sources if I would dig up my old gaming mags...

 

[Squilliam]

well a few that worked on it do drive ferreri's et al

Come on you're all being too harsh, halo3 does look like a million bucks
(zed looks around) come on guys back me up on this
(zed fondly remembers this forum from a couple of years ago when halo3 was praised to the high heavens graphics wise)
sigh those were the days

Im more thinking of number of developers vs just a 3 year development period. Halo 3 was meant to be an Xbox 1 game...

 

[Cheezdoodles]

I saw this today

http://www.digitalbattle.com/2010/02/20/top-10-most-expensive-video-games-budgets-ever/

10. Killzone 2: $45 million
9. Final Fantasy XII: $48 million // lower than I thought
8. LA Noire: $50 million // Ive never heard of this game
7. APB, $50 million // Ive never heard of this game
6. Halo 3, $55 million // higher than I thought
5. Metal Gear Solid 4, $60 million
4. Too Human, $60+ million
3. Shenmue, $70 million
2. Gran Turismo 5: $80 million // higher than I thought
1. Grand Theft Auto 4: $100 million

WRT halo3
"over $200 million Microsoft spent promoting the game."

I knew it was the most expensive marketing campaign ever for a game overtaking gears of war, but $200+ million is enormous

I wouldn't take that list all to seriously.

Im atleast very curious how they managed to get 200million marketing campaign for Halo 3. All i could find from google was 40-50 million. Seems also most of the numbers are just pulled out of thin air, except for a few ones.

 

[zed]

>>Im atleast very curious how they managed to get 200million marketing campaign for Halo 3. All i could find from google was 40-50 million<<

$40-$50 is too low, as games Ive heard from the company have have spent $20-25 million on marketing, and its been like "what marketing?"
halo3 was in your face, by far the largest marketing campaign ever, $200million though is huge.
but youve gotta remember marketing includes CGI trailers used to promote the game, which is not gonna be cheap when youve hired the guys behind LOTR,avatar etc to make them

here are links to the lesser known games
APB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APB_(video_game) // looks like GTA MMORPG
LA Noire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LA_Noire

From the wiki it looks like both above games have been delayed, which are a good way of burning money

 

[Silent_Buddha]

>>Im atleast very curious how they managed to get 200million marketing campaign for Halo 3. All i could find from google was 40-50 million<<

$40-$50 is too low, as games Ive heard from the company have have spent $20-25 million on marketing, and its been like "what marketing?"
halo3 was in your face, by far the largest marketing campaign ever, $200million though is huge.
but youve gotta remember marketing includes CGI trailers used to promote the game, which is not gonna be cheap when youve hired the guys behind LOTR,avatar etc to make them

here are links to the lesser known games
APB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APB_(video_game) // looks like GTA MMORPG
LA Noire http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LA_Noire

From the wiki it looks like both above games have been delayed, which are a good way of burning money

I wouldn't say 40-50 is too low. UC2 had a far more visible TV marketing blitz in the US. KZ2 had similar TV marketing exposure to Halo 3 in the US also. Resistance 1 was similar or higher TV exposure in the US compared to Halo 3. Same for Gears 1.

I just don't see anyway a marketing campaign with the limited play time (1-3 months usually at most) eclipses 100 million without using multiple Superbowl spots. And where the Superbowl spot cost 2.6 million this year, advertising spots are usually an order of magnitude or more less.

Unless we're implying that a 30 second CGI spot costs more to produce than most movies.

Regards,
SB

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Halo 3 had, among other things:
- the entire Believe campaign with the diorama, and the "old marine" interviews
- the Digital Domain TV spot, which was more then likely at least as expensive per second as movie VFX
- the Landslide (?) movie from Neil Blomkamp
- it even had a midnight launch event here in Hungary, with some local celebrities and a 10-feet high Master Chief statue in the middle of a large mall

I can accept that 200 million marketing budget, in fact it's the 50 million production budget that sounds a bit too high; Halo had nowhere as much content as the similarly high MGS4 with all the mocap and voice and a longer dev schedule. Then again, japanese game dev salaries are rumored to be low...

 

[dobwal]

Halo 3 had, among other things:
- the entire Believe campaign with the diorama, and the "old marine" interviews
- the Digital Domain TV spot, which was more then likely at least as expensive per second as movie VFX
- the Landslide (?) movie from Neil Blomkamp
- it even had a midnight launch event here in Hungary, with some local celebrities and a 10-feet high Master Chief statue in the middle of a large mall

I can accept that 200 million marketing budget, in fact it's the 50 million production budget that sounds a bit too high; Halo had nowhere as much content as the similarly high MGS4 with all the mocap and voice and a longer dev schedule. Then again, japanese game dev salaries are rumored to be low...

I agree and can see MS's marketing campaign being that high, but I don't think that number should be construed as a cost totally coming out of MS's pocket.

MS's had alot of cross promotional marketing going on with the likes of Pepsi, Burger King and 7-11. When you have a huge release like Halo3, you can get alot of other companies wanting to ride your coat tails to promote themselves in the process. Alot of MS's marketing cost were subidized by other companies.

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Marketing_for_Halo_3

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I agree and can see MS's marketing campaign being that high, but I don't think that number should be construed as a cost totally coming out of MS's pocket.

MS's had alot of cross promotional marketing going on with the likes of Pepsi, Burger King and 7-11. When you have a huge release like Halo3, you can get alot of other companies wanting to ride your coat tails to promote themselves in the process. Alot of MS's marketing cost were subidized by other companies.

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Marketing_for_Halo_3

Interesting link, with some cost breakdowns (10 million for the Believe campaign). But even their estimate is "more than 40 million." which is a far cry from 200 million.

Regards,
SB

 

[scently]

200 million is toooo high. Its just not possible.

 

[obonicus]

Steve Perlman revealed a report on the cost breakdown of games, during an OnLive presentation.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html

Given how Perlman is selling his platform, though, I wonder how accurate this truly is. Would 3rd party publishers be so open with the cost breakdown on their titles to a potential platform-holder?

Also, the way they separate licensing from cost of goods seems to differ from the other stories we've heard. Don't the platform holders take care of the actual disc-pressing costs?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

There doesn't seem anything noticeably out of whack, although Platform Royalty + distribution + cost of goods seems a bit low, I would think the total for that would be closer to 15 than 11.

And, of course, there's no breakdown of developement costs, etc in the publisher breakdown.

Regards,
SB

 

[obonicus]

Right, these are believable numbers, but we've seen other believable numbers. I'm just questioning their source. Perlman's a bit of a snake oil salesman, at least where it comes to OnLive.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Is "returns" seriously such a big loss that it should be accounted for every unit sold?