How much do publishers get / game?

[Li Mu Bai]

HappySqurriel said: It depends on the publisher and platform because many large publishers have an ability to negotiate the licencing fees in general as well as for very popular games ... As an example Microsoft might have a standard licencing fee of $8 per copy of a game, Take Two may only pay $7 per game and to make GTA exclusive to the XBox 360 Microsoft could eliminate the licencing fee ... Edit: in other words, on a $60 title a third party publisher probably makes about $20 (in general) where some publishers could make $30 and on certain games $40 ...

HS, I've never heard of completely eliminating the licensing fee. I know Sony paid Take Two a considerable monetary amount for its exclusivity. Take Two simply realized that by going cross-platform would easily exceed any amount of money Sony could offer them, once MS had established themselves. (I'm sure some incentives were also offered by MS) Sony could then only negotiate for timed exclusivity. Although HS is correct, in certain instances these matters are negotiated completely upon a deal-by-deal basis. Close third party relationships, 3rd parties that develop solely for your console, franchise popularity, etc. Though what was considered the industry standard across the board last-gen was $5-6 dollars a game.