What's the average development cost for next generation?

[Gradthrawn]

Interesting, $60 million for GT5 (so far?).

What did GT5 cost to make?

[He and translator do some figuring, converting yen to dollars] $60 million. There are other games that cost more. Considering the size and scale of the game, I think it's probably a fairly small amount.

Completely OT, upon copying the quoted text, a link to the article was automatically inserted into my clipboard along with the text. Nice, I'll have to find the script they're using.

 

[Rangers]

Interesting, $60 million for GT5 (so far?).



Completely OT, upon copying the quoted text, a link to the article was automatically inserted into my clipboard along with the text. Nice, I'll have to find the script they're using.

I hate that, makes pasting copied terms from an article into a search bar a real pain, I've encountered it a few times

So, since GT is a Sony 1st party game, they get to keep essentially all the money, right?

So if they sell it wholesale for $50 a copy, they dont need to sell much more than 1 million copies to earn profit, right? Seems a slam dunk, considering GT sells 10 million per incarnation typically AFAIK.

If anything in this particular case the budget could easily have been much larger if they wanted.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There's rumors Killzone 2 cost 160 million.

If it did, then Sony were a bunch of morons IMO. The potential returns on $160 million of film are far higher, as you get cinema release takings, TV showings, and DVD+BRD takings. The revenue returns are just more numerous than a few million game buyers.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Sony won't keep all the revenue, at least ~15 goes for the other players in the chain, if not more.

Then again, GT5 is almost guaranteed to sell 3-5 million copies altogether.

 

[Gradthrawn]

Sony won't keep all the revenue, at least ~15 goes for the other players in the chain, if not more.

Then again, GT5 is almost guaranteed to sell 3-5 million copies altogether.

~$15 huh? That's a nice chunk of change for a small release and a rather large sum for big releases. Is that figure derived from a percentage of a standard $60 retail game or is it more of a flat rate? I'm wondering how it pans out for dual release games like Warhawk and GT5. And for that matter, for retail only games that later go DD like Burnout.

Speaking of GT5, I wonder if its cost and revenue were figured into that $60 million figure they provided.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

There's been a thread recently about the detailed breakdown of a game's retail price... Can't remember its name

 

[obonicus]

There was no conclusion, though, just some old sources of info. Since those who're talking don't really know and those who know aren't talking.

 

[assen]

Out of $60, the government will take something like $10 as VAT in most of Europe. So retailers, distributors etc. will surely make up at least $5. But these are percentages, and would be lower on cheaper games.

Re: Killzone 160 mln and Sony idiots - no, first-party game development is an investment, not normal business; it doesn't have to make profit by itself to be justifiable.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I accept that, but KZ2 still wouldn't be the title, unless they were hoping for a Halo. To put that many eggs into an unproven basket is a huge risk. If you invest that much in a single title, it should be to generate revenue and further the brand, which means something substantial. Sony would have been better off securing GTA as a PS exclusive, flexing an already strong PS-associated brand, rather than spending that much on a fairly lacklustre brand.

 

[TheWretched]

Out of $60, the government will take something like $10 as VAT in most of Europe. So retailers, distributors etc. will surely make up at least $5. But these are percentages, and would be lower on cheaper games.

That is why the MSRP in Germany and most other EURO countries isn't 60€ but 70€ (in Germany, there's 19% VAT. So deducting the tax results in about 60€ per game w/o tax).

 

[eastmen]

All this talk of reusing assets and using mddleware engines ignores that imo it's not the best for the final product.

I mean, look at all the criticism Halo ODST got for "re-using assets". People are much more excited for Reach and it's new (presumably expensive) engine.

It's the same with UE3, engines are a floor on graphics (a UE3 game will never look too bad) but also a ceiling (they will never look amazing either). That's not a new thing, the same issue existed a decade ago when Quake 3 engine dominated.

Didn't stop the game from selling 1.5m units in a week did it ?


Gamers just need to get used to it.

 

[eastmen]

~$15 huh? That's a nice chunk of change for a small release and a rather large sum for big releases. Is that figure derived from a percentage of a standard $60 retail game or is it more of a flat rate? I'm wondering how it pans out for dual release games like Warhawk and GT5. And for that matter, for retail only games that later go DD like Burnout.

Speaking of GT5, I wonder if its cost and revenue were figured into that $60 million figure they provided.

Gamestop gets between $8-$10 itself . Then you have shipping , you have manuals , cases , disc printing and what not. Prob anywhere from $3-5 bucks per copy. I'd be surprised if Sony clears $40 a game in the states when they publish it themselves.

Also if that 60m doesn't count advertising then they will get even less per game back.

 

[upnorthsox]

Gamestop gets between $8-$10 itself . Then you have shipping , you have manuals , cases , disc printing and what not. Prob anywhere from $3-5 bucks per copy. I'd be surprised if Sony clears $40 a game in the states when they publish it themselves.

Also if that 60m doesn't count advertising then they will get even less per game back.

Shipping - .75 tops (box of 10 = $2.50 = .25 ea)

Manuals - .08-.10 and half that's advertising

Cases - .10

Disk printing - ??? Do you mean the label? .02

Disc and pressing - Hard to say as it's Sony owned but in-house T&M costs should be about .50-.75

For a title with a history of sell 10-15mil you can bet retailers are getting lower margins unless they're doing big in-store advertising/promos.

So that puts costs about $10 or $50 for Sony.

 

[2real4tv]

Quoted from GAF, 1st sorry to here about Pandemic just thought this belonged here

I was one of the affected today.

Having worked at Pandemic for close to 5 years, it's a bittersweet moment. We literally just finished Saboteur and are extremely proud of the game it turned out to be, considering the amount of hardships we had during development. On the other hand, we now have no job and are forced to part our ways with people we hold dear to our hearts.

...

I wouldn't necessarily hate on JR and EA's execs just yet. In my eyes, they probably made the right decision as Pandemic cost a lot to upkeep and, quite frankly, the last few products weren't up to snuff. I think many of you would be surprised how much a game like Saboteur costs to make (think ~100 people for 3 years + ~20 people for ~2 years). Add overhead cost to incompetence in management/direction and you have a pretty convincing case to cut your ties and call it a day. It probably doesn't look good for JR considering he made a cool 5 mil off of the sale of Pandemic/Bioware.

I hope Saboteur sells well for all the hard work they put in.

Source: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18532751&postcount=309