Only 30% of games recover their development costs!?

[HappySqurriel]

Groucho said:

HappySqurriel said:

Publishers have been claiming that it costs 1/4 to 1/2 the cost of a HD game to make a similar Wii game ... Basically, it would a game that cost $100 Million to develop (like Grand Theft Auto 4 or Metal Gear Solid 4) would probably cost in the range of $25 Million to develop for the Wii

Shovelware is drastically less expensive to produce than an AAA game, and most shovelware games will sit with tiny budgets ($500,000 to $1 Million I would expect) because they're designed to be profitable off of the initial sales to retailers.

 

I have to say that you are quoting bad science here. You're gonna have to prove that, for example, developing Super Mario Galaxy cost significantly less than, for example, the latest Ratchet & Clank.

GTA4 and MGS4 are some of the most ridiculously high-budget titles of all time. They are *not* good examples. Most AAA games cost way less than $40 million to make, and $1 million does *not* produce a Wii shovelware title -- not even close.  Again, feel free to name some examples that did.

 

Since you seem to be the uninformed one, why don't you look at the dozens of interviews with third party publishers which have claimed that HD games cost 2 to 4 times as much as Wii games.

What people don't seem to get is that it takes far longer to produce the highly detailed models and textures that are required in HD games (and you need to create additional textures in order to apply the material effects), and you require far more of these objects and textures because the high detailed environments look sparse without being more heavily populated. When you combine these factors it explains why so many HD games cost so much more to develop while still having much shorter campaigns with less gameplay modes than similar games of the previous generation.