noname2200 said:
I hadn't realized that the game sold so little (so far). Considering how front-loaded it is, that's not very good news for Konami. I hope for their sake that the game's being severely undertracked, because if not they've just thrown away three years of development time. @OP: if this site is correct, don't be so sure that MGS4 has made a lot of money in profits. $150 million is a ton, but after royalties, manufacturing, shipping, retailers' cuts, and other expenses, Konami probably received less than half of that amount. Considering how expensive the game was rumored to be, and how much extra money the advertising blitz cost, well...like I said earlier, I hope the game's being severely undertracked. That said, your friend doesn't sound like he's the most up-to-date person regarding the gaming industry, so don't worry too much.
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No, it's not undertracked. The numbers have been adjusted upward. Japan has some 600.000 sales, US 1 million and around 1 million in Europe as well. The game will have a hard time making 4 million copies. That's ok sales, but not for MGS4. Combined cost (development + marketing) should be around $75 million.
Remember that Konami earned shitloads of money on the PS2 MGS's. And now it has spend more than any of the previous games, but earned less. That's a pretty bad business strategy if you ask me.
MGS4 is the perfect example of an industry that doesn't have a clue anymore, the development costs are really not sustainable anymore.
This graph is awesome, it shows what is happening. Mind you these are pure development costs without marketing etc. Development costs for average games have risen 4 fold. This automatically means that in order to achieve the same profits you have to sell 4 times as much games (Sure, HD games are $10 more expensive, but licensing fees have risen as well). So for MGS4 to have the same impact on Konami's financials it should sell around 16 million copies. Which of course will never happen.
