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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Wii game budgets 1/4 of HD budgets according to EA

Squilliam on 05 February 2009
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 



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theRepublic on 05 February 2009
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 

Interesting.

$15 million comes up to exactly 1/4 of $60 million...



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

Now Playing
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NJ5 on 05 February 2009
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 

But I thought those things (except perhaps advertising) were more or less included in the "100K/employee/year is the standard for dev cost calculations."

 



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

Squilliam on 05 February 2009
theRepublic said:
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 

Interesting.

$15 million comes up to exactly 1/4 of $60 million...

$15 million, 1/4 cost? nononono KZ2 will probably cost about or a little over $100,000,000 once you factor everything in.

Just development vs development its >10M vs ~60 or ~1:6 between The Conduit and Killzone 2.

 



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Squilliam on 05 February 2009
NJ5 said:
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 

But I thought those things (except perhaps advertising) were more or less included in the "100K/employee/year is the standard for dev cost calculations."

 

Just watch the splash screens on your next game and see what technology companies they used. Thats what I was talking about with third party technologies. Its things like PhysX etc which studios can make use of.

Thats just the development costs for in house coding, going out of house for things is an added expense and development is just one part of the cost of making games.

 



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theRepublic on 05 February 2009
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 

Interesting.

$15 million comes up to exactly 1/4 of $60 million...

$15 million, 1/4 cost? nononono KZ2 will probably cost about or a little over $100,000,000 once you factor everything in.

Just development vs development its >10M vs ~60 or ~1:6 between The Conduit and Killzone 2.

 

That's fine with me.  It just shows that games trying to do the same thing are far cheaper on the Wii.



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
Switch - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)
Switch - Bastion (2011/2018)
3DS - Star Fox 64 3D (2011)
3DS - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trilogy) (2005/2014)
Wii U - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (2010/2017)
Mobile - The Simpson's Tapped Out and Yugioh Duel Links
PC - Deep Rock Galactic (2020)

Groucho on 05 February 2009
Squilliam said:

$15 million, 1/4 cost? nononono KZ2 will probably cost about or a little over $100,000,000 once you factor everything in.

Just development vs development its >10M vs ~60 or ~1:6 between The Conduit and Killzone 2.

 

Yep those launch parties cost a truckload.  Especially the jewel-encrusted party hats.

Man... The Conduit.  I can't wait for that one.  A milestone in quality gaming development.  Less than two years for the greatest shooter to ever hit the Wii... good times ahead!



NJ5 on 05 February 2009

@Squilliam: I know what you meant. I was under the impression that the known development costs jibed pretty well with the 100k/dev/year figure. That's why I was making that assumption.

We know that those often quoted dev costs don't include advertising, but I did think they included all dev-related expenses (including third party tools etc).



My Mario Kart Wii friend code: 2707-1866-0957

theRepublic on 05 February 2009
Groucho said:
Squilliam said:

$15 million, 1/4 cost? nononono KZ2 will probably cost about or a little over $100,000,000 once you factor everything in.

Just development vs development its >10M vs ~60 or ~1:6 between The Conduit and Killzone 2.

 

Yep those launch parties cost a truckload.  Especially the jewel-encrusted party hats.

Man... The Conduit.  I can't wait for that one.  A milestone in quality gaming development.  Less than two years for the greatest shooter to ever hit the Wii... good times ahead!

Likely first day purchase for me.  The only other game I ever bought on the first day was Super Smash Bros Brawl.



Switch Code: SW-7377-9189-3397 -- Nintendo Network ID: theRepublic -- Steam ID: theRepublic

Now Playing
Switch - Super Mario Maker 2 (2019)
Switch - The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019)
Switch - Bastion (2011/2018)
3DS - Star Fox 64 3D (2011)
3DS - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Trilogy) (2005/2014)
Wii U - Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (2010/2017)
Mobile - The Simpson's Tapped Out and Yugioh Duel Links
PC - Deep Rock Galactic (2020)

HappySqurriel on 05 February 2009
Squilliam said:
theRepublic said:
Going back to my apples to apples comparison:

Killzone 2 is rumored to have a $60 million dollar development budget. To be fair, it was originally supposed to be $30 million before it went overbudget.

Using Groucho's numbers, development for The Conduit should be around $5.25 million (30 employees x $100,000 cost of employees x 1.75 years in development if released in June '09).

Keep in mind that these are BOTH exclusive FPS. Also keep in mind that BOTH of these games are supposed to push the limits of what is graphically possible on their respective consoles.

Now you can add third party technologies, voice acting, motion capture, publishing costs, advertising costs etc. It'd probably total at least $10M excluding advertising.

 

 

Certainly, tool costs can be expensive and (depending on the tools you use) an artist or developer could have tens of thousands of dollars worth of software on their system ... On top of that, licenced middleware can also be expensive and games can have a couple of millions of dollars invested in middleware ... but (overall) it doesn't change development costs enough that the ballpark figure is really all that inaccurate.