Actually since Crytec didn't publish the game themselves they get a smaller cut than Sony who made and published Uncharted or Konami who made and published MGS4.  There was a quote from someone at Naughty Dog who put the development costs of Uncharted at 20 million so it definately made money and no one knows really for MGS4 but rumored as high as 70 million but it has shipped over 4 million copies so they definately made money as well (yes I know shipped =/= sold but in Konami's eyes that is all that matters).

And it is good that it made money, don't want developers going out of business.  And for a game with that good of graphics to have such a relatively low budget shows why game developers who are complaining of high development costs needs to be working on PC games and porting down to consoles, like SE has decided to do with its Crystal Tools engine, and more importantly release it on PC.

I don't think people claimed that Metal Gear Solid 4 didn't make a profit, but I think most people didn't think that the RoI was that good ... Metal Gear Solid was developed by over 200 people for more than 3 years and had a rumored development cost (before marketing) of $100 Million, and with how heavily marketed the game was it potentially had a $50 to $100 Million marketing campaign (which may have been paid by Sony to secure exclusivity); even if you assume that Konami didn't spend a dime on marketing and received $40 for every copy of the game it would take 2.5 Million copies sold to break even.

To put this in perspective, a game like Boom Blox or Zack and Wiki (probably) cost less than $2 Million to develop, and the publishers (probably) made more than $20 per copy sold on it; which would mean that they would need about 100,000 copies sold to break even. Even though these games had a higher return on investment than Metal Gear Solid 4 there is constant talk about these games being failures ...

I never heard of the rumor of mgs4 being 100 million, and there was hardly any marketing in America

Are you kidding me?

Konami admitted to Metal Gear Solid 4 having had a development team of (over) 200 people who were working for more than 3 years; even the most conservative estimate of $100,000 per-employee per-year (when you factor in everything from wages, benefits, office space and equipment) you're dealing with a $60 Million game.

As for marketing ... Do you not watch any television? I hardly ever watch TV and I saw a lot of ads for Metal Gear Solid.

I watch a lot of TV and I could probably count on both hands the number of MGS4 commercials. Also, 100,000 per employee I consider high, not conservative. Otherwise you would have a lot of employees making well over 100,000 per year, possibly upwards of 200,000 and if that is true then I have no sympathy for game makers complaining of high dev costs.

I saw a couple MGS4 commercials.....during Friday Night Smackdown.

Games should not be costing this much ($60m), period. Gears cost $10m.

There were a ton of commercials, the most were during sports games

No ...

How much do you think office space costs? In many cities (like mine) an 8x8 cubicle will run you between $20,000 and $30,000 per year to lease office space; and not all the office space you lease can be efficiently used, there are fire-codes and people need to use a washroom on occasion which all costs you money.

How much do you think health benefits cost? Pension Plans? Education and training? Everyday perks like Coffee?

How about the HR person and the IT guys who are resources used by your team but are not going to be considered part of your team?

What about software programs like 3D modeling suits that cost $5,000 per employee?

On average you will spend (potentially over) twice the employee's salary in order to employ them. A $100,000 per year estimate means the average employee is making about $50,000 per year.

that is defiantly true, an example Google spends about $250,000 per employee, whom get paid about $150,000

I wonder how many copies they had to sell to break even.