I think there are various variables to the issue of the break-even point. MS was the publisher/owner of the game and hardware. I believe this might attribute *some* help in terms of fees. Not much, but maybe $1-2 per unit sold. Game budgets really vary from game to game. I believe some games are possibly made for near $1m USD to $5m USD - I'd assume *most* games are in this area that are cheap(er) 360 games (any of the $40 titles comes to mind), while mid buget games are $5m-10m. However, there are a few games that are major cost-crunchers to far exceede GOW. GOW was a pretty good deal on the 360 due to no licensing fees for middleware such as Unreal Engine (that could play a huge factor in costs per game), which saved the team probably around $500k to 1m. Blue Dragon and Lost Planet, for example are both $20m+ games. That would indicate a break even point of around 750k units (which LP has beat) and around 900k needed for BD (assuming $25m game) - not really "horrible" numbers needed, but daunting as BD might get close to that barely. See, the secret of a system is how well the software moves vs. the cost. The higher dev costs on 360/PS3 games are there, I am sure. However, the games ARE $10 more to cover the dev costs (that $10 isnt for anything else, buddies). This is why not everyone are jumping on the Wii ship - there is a bunch of money to be made from 360/PS3 games. IE, the 360 moved 2m units of software (roughly). The vast majority were $60 titles, or most likely around $100m (or so) in s/w. Compare that to maybe 1.1m Wii s/w units @ $50 (high, but still) for $55m. Which company will a dev use? Also, there is the huge issue of digital distribution - that can cut the $12 price of the retail store down significantly (maybe $6 in server fees?) - which is a big reason some PC games are digi-distributed near exclusively such as Galactic Civs 2... I believe they ended up making somewhere near $30 or $35 of the $40 the game cost for profit - and GalCiv2 only cost them $800k.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
