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Forums - Sales Discussion - "Journey Becomes Profitable, ThatGameCompany Starts Receiving Royalties"

Tagged games:

3 year development = high budget due to developer salaries
PSN exclusive = Not enough sales to make up for the development time

It's not that hard to understand how this game barely broke even. The game was in development hell.



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To me, its appalling it took this long. XBLA would have treated it better, and it is why TGC is going multi.



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

sales2099 said:
To me, its appalling it took this long. XBLA would have treated it better, and it is why TGC is going multi.

You should read through the thread.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

outlawauron said:
sales2099 said:
To me, its appalling it took this long. XBLA would have treated it better, and it is why TGC is going multi.

You should read through the thread.

I did, still appalling.



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

Self publishing next game so odds of seeing the new TGC game on 360 or ONE seem low and that is just fine with me. PSN users will support there games and I can imagine a large portion of PC users will as well. Just please do not go into the mobile market.



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sales2099 said:
outlawauron said:
sales2099 said:
To me, its appalling it took this long. XBLA would have treated it better, and it is why TGC is going multi.

You should read through the thread.

I did, still appalling.

What similar title has done nearly as well? What other publisher would have let it stay in development for so long? The game has sold well over a million and holds the record for fastest selling title on PSN ever. I'm curious as to how much was spent on the title with such a small team working behind it.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

outlawauron said:
sales2099 said:
outlawauron said:
sales2099 said:
To me, its appalling it took this long. XBLA would have treated it better, and it is why TGC is going multi.

You should read through the thread.

I did, still appalling.

What similar title has done nearly as well? What other publisher would have let it stay in development for so long? The game has sold well over a million and holds the record for fastest selling title on PSN ever. I'm curious as to how much was spent on the title with such a small team working behind it.

I have seen no news article saying it broke a million. I also know it broke week 1 records, but no news since, implying it dropped off considerably.



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

^ What's going on, here?!



Barozi said:
HikenNoAce said:
If a game sells well but don't recoup their development costs, then something went wrong in the management of the team and development somewhere.

Retro City Rampage sold 35,000 on PSN, making $600,000 on PSN, and sold 40,000 on PC (including Steam) and made $400,000 there.

Clearly, PSN yields more money.

Retro City Rampage made at the time $600k, but on both PS3 and PSV combined.

Overall the PC indie market is far far larger than PSN and XBLA and lifetime sales/revenue will show that even more.

But don't forget that the Vita version was free for those who bought the PS3 version. And the VIta version was free for PS+ subscribers too.

Overall, more money was made on PSN than on PC.



AmishGramish said:
Okay, it'll just be easier if I make a bulk response to everyone instead of just responding to each quote:
(For anyone seeing this who doesn't know already, I'm the Community Manager for thatgamecompany.)

@cmeese:
I just want to note that CouchSurfing.org received more money from Benchmark than TGC did.
Anyways, we're self-publishing our next game. We're trying to be completely independent of any publishers, but it doesn't mean that we won't be with a publisher on a specific platform or completely for a future title.
The funding deal was that Benchmark own part of TGC, so they in turn own part of our next title. But, just like Sony, they are funding us to go our own way with development, so they aren't trying to change anything or forcing us to have any partnerships with various companies.


So, you want to be independent and yet sold part of the company? Why not sell part of the company to Sony then?