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Forums - Sony Discussion - development of GoW: A (may or may not) have cost 50 million $

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DigitalDevilSummoner on 21 April 2013
michael_stutzer said:
GOW 3 cost is already known, 44 million. They had the tools in place already, I doubt it is more than that. 40 million s my guess.


What I was thinking, it's not as if it's made the whole thing from the ground up and let's remember that Bioshock infinite costs were also slightly exaggerated in the press



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tontus on 21 April 2013
PlaystaionGamer said:
UC 2 and 3 only cost 20mil.. not a chance

 

No they didn't, lol. UC3 had a $7.6 million marketing budget in the UK alone. UC1 & UC2 cost 20 million to develop but that doesn't include marketing. So UC1 = $35 million & UC2 = $45 million is more accurate. UC3 probably cost $20-25 million to develop and $35-40 million to market = UC3 cost $60 million. Heavy Rain cost about $52 million to develop and market by the way and made $130 million for Sony.

God of War III only cost $44 million to develop and market, I doubt God of War: Ascension cost more but it's probably in that ballpark, around $35-$45 million sounds right considering how ambitious the game is with the suprisingly deep multiplayer in addition to a standard 10 hour single-player adventure. It has almost definitely made that money back already, I estimate it sold over 1 million worldwide by week 4 and considering special & collector's editions it has made between $60-65 million. It should make over $200 million lifetime. Don't even want to guess at how much of that Sony gets.



huiii on 21 April 2013
Panama said:
'middle' was interpreted as 50 million? Daily reminder that these people get paid for this level of journalism.


Well if you take the highest double digit number (99) then the middle is about ~50 mil....

i agree though it's bad journalism.



shanbcn on 21 April 2013
kowenicki said:
binary solo said:
kowenicki said:
binary solo said:
Nsanity said:
binary solo said:
If the game cost $50 million to produce, then factoring in marketing costs this game needs to sell ~1.2 million at full price to turn a profit.

The Super Bowl advertisment alone was probably a few million.

Yep 1.2 million @ full price = $72 million. I figure around $20 million marketing, 10% of the marketing budget on Superbowl sounds about right.

retailers sell it for free? 

That's the $2 million. Don't retailers get screwed on new games?


Last number I saw was that the retailer gets $15 from a $60 game:

 

As you can see, for a typical console-based video game that costs U.S. $60:

  • $15 goes to Retailers: eg: GameStop, Electronic Boutique, Walmart, Amazon
  • $7 goes to Returns/PP/MDF: Returns are money paid-out to retailers for product returns. PP stands for “price-protection” which is money paid back through the chain if/when the publisher reduces the video game’s price. MDF stands for  ‘Marketing Development Funds” which are paid to retailers for promotions such as TV ads, local flyers, and in-store marketing displays.
  • $4 goes to Distribution/COGs: Distribution = shipping and warehousing. COGs = Cost of goods sale. ie: the cost of the physical DVD, manufacturing, the instruction manual and the case.
  • $7  Platform Royalty Fee: For every game sold approximately $7 goes to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, as applicable, for whatever platform the game plays on – eg: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii.
  • $27 goes to the Publisher. Unfortunately this $27 is not further broken down to show how much of the $27 typically goes to independent developers. The amount paid to independant video game developers can be anywhere from 10% to 70% of the amount paid to the publisher – but often only after the publisher has first recouped any advances paid to such third party developers.


$12 goes to retailer if game is sold at $60. Since Sony doesnt need to pay himself for royality fee. Sony easly make $42 per game, provided game is sold at $60. Some times is more if you include specal editions and also less when price drops. There was Forbes article about it but i cant find it now. Ascension sold 630k first month with bundles. Overall it needs to sell $1.1 in USA to get back development and marketing budget which is $50 million. Gow games have exclent legs and there will be PS4 version as well. So it may sell closer to 4 million world wide.



Barozi on 21 April 2013
shanbcn said:
kowenicki said:
binary solo said:
kowenicki said:
binary solo said:
Nsanity said:
binary solo said:
If the game cost $50 million to produce, then factoring in marketing costs this game needs to sell ~1.2 million at full price to turn a profit.

The Super Bowl advertisment alone was probably a few million.

Yep 1.2 million @ full price = $72 million. I figure around $20 million marketing, 10% of the marketing budget on Superbowl sounds about right.

retailers sell it for free? 

That's the $2 million. Don't retailers get screwed on new games?


Last number I saw was that the retailer gets $15 from a $60 game:

 

As you can see, for a typical console-based video game that costs U.S. $60:

  • $15 goes to Retailers: eg: GameStop, Electronic Boutique, Walmart, Amazon
  • $7 goes to Returns/PP/MDF: Returns are money paid-out to retailers for product returns. PP stands for “price-protection” which is money paid back through the chain if/when the publisher reduces the video game’s price. MDF stands for  ‘Marketing Development Funds” which are paid to retailers for promotions such as TV ads, local flyers, and in-store marketing displays.
  • $4 goes to Distribution/COGs: Distribution = shipping and warehousing. COGs = Cost of goods sale. ie: the cost of the physical DVD, manufacturing, the instruction manual and the case.
  • $7  Platform Royalty Fee: For every game sold approximately $7 goes to Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo, as applicable, for whatever platform the game plays on – eg: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii.
  • $27 goes to the Publisher. Unfortunately this $27 is not further broken down to show how much of the $27 typically goes to independent developers. The amount paid to independant video game developers can be anywhere from 10% to 70% of the amount paid to the publisher – but often only after the publisher has first recouped any advances paid to such third party developers.


$12 goes to retailer if game is sold at $60. Since Sony doesnt need to pay himself for royality fee. Sony easly make $42 per game, provided game is sold at $60. Some times is more if you include specal editions and also less when price drops. There was Forbes article about it but i cant find it now. Ascension sold 630k first month with bundles. Overall it needs to sell $1.1 in USA to get back development and marketing budget which is $50 million. Gow games have exclent legs and there will be PS4 version as well. So it may sell closer to 4 million world wide.

You mean this?: http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/19/ps3-xbox360-costs-tech-cx_rr_game06_1219expensivegames_slide_2.html?thisSpeed=undefined

First of all that story is from 2006 so I'd rather take the newer source, since there were only few games back then that actually cost $60.
Then that pie chart shows the percental amount of money spent calculated down to each sold game, which just cannot be transferred to any other game.
Ubisoft surely didn't need to spend $15 for Art/Design for every sold copy of the Just Dance series, simply because the game sold so much.
Costs for returns aren't included either.



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Mr Puggsly on 21 April 2013

Nah, the game barely has a story.

The only way I believe that figure is if they include marketing. Sony was really pushing that game as something huge. I think of GoW:A as Sony's Dante's Inferno.



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Barozi on 21 April 2013
tontus said:
PlaystaionGamer said:
UC 2 and 3 only cost 20mil.. not a chance

 

No they didn't, lol. UC3 had a $7.6 million marketing budget in the UK alone. UC1 & UC2 cost 20 million to develop but that doesn't include marketing. So UC1 = $35 million & UC2 = $45 million is more accurate. UC3 probably cost $20-25 million to develop and $35-40 million to market = UC3 cost $60 million. Heavy Rain cost about $52 million to develop and market by the way and made $130 million for Sony.

God of War III only cost $44 million to develop and market, I doubt God of War: Ascension cost more but it's probably in that ballpark, around $35-$45 million sounds right considering how ambitious the game is with the suprisingly deep multiplayer in addition to a standard 10 hour single-player adventure. It has almost definitely made that money back already, I estimate it sold over 1 million worldwide by week 4 and considering special & collector's editions it has made between $60-65 million. It should make over $200 million lifetime. Don't even want to guess at how much of that Sony gets.

Marketing costs for Heavy Rain were guessed and it didn't "made" Sony (at least) $130m, that was the amount of revenue the game caused on the whole. That includes Sony but they're not the only ones to get their share from the revenue pie. Furthermore development and marketing costs haven't been subtracted yet.

Your guesses for Uncharted seem about right. If you take $35m for GoW:A, then yes it has barely broke even at the moment. If the budget was $45m however then it's still months away from being profitable.



Rafux on 21 April 2013

It probably is 60M with marketing and distribution.



Heavenly_King on 21 April 2013
Nsanity said:
binary solo said:
If the game cost $50 million to produce, then factoring in marketing costs this game needs to sell ~1.2 million at full price to turn a profit.

The Super Bowl advertisment alone was probably a few million.

The superbowl add was for intenet stream of the event and not the TV broadcast.  Adds for The TV broadcast cost millions, for the stream does not.



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osed125 on 21 April 2013

If this is true this number most likely includes marketing.



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