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bardicverse on 05 November 2008
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hanafuda said:
bardicverse said:
hanafuda said:
bardicverse said:
^^^^ at $50/copy x 400k, that's 20 mil for a game that cost 3.5 mil to make, in other words a profit of 16.5 mil. I'd call that successful. Now if its a HD game, thats a different story, as the development might cost as much as 20-30 mil. An HD game MUST break the mil mark in order to turn a profit in many cases. This is why a lot of devs like making Wii games. Easier turnaround to profitability.

 

Yeah, cuz Capcom pocket all the cash handed over to the retailers!

My bad, forgot to factor the maufacturing and retailer costs, so we're looking at 30/copy. So that's 12 mil. So in other words, it further makes HD development selling the same amount of copies unprofitable, as opposed to tripling money on a Wii development. In the end, the result is the same. Unless you are guaranteed to sell 1 mil plus copies, HD development is very risky. As of the last sales charts, the Wii and XB360 are tied with games that have topped a mil, both at 13 titles and the PS3 was at 7 or 8. By those numbers to actual games released ratio, that means that there's a lot of HD games that fell by the wayside and lost money in the development process.

 

Distribution costs, marketing costs, localization costs...

You are assuming a lot. Development costs of HD games comes down all the time as things get easier and more streamlined. Sure, in most cases it is probably higher than developing for systems like the PS2 or Wii, but even so, most of the rest of the costs stay the same.

Furthermore, due to higher competition and the rather odd Wii market, I'd say developing for Wii has plenty of risks. Try asking Bandai Namco how they feel about Pro Golfer Saru's opening week of 719 copies in Japan...

http://www.vgchartz.com/games/game.php?id=28293

I think fewer devs are drinking Nintendo's, 'pot of gold at the end of the rainbow' kool aid regarding Wii development. It may have washed a year or so ago. Not any more.

 

Localization is actually part of the development costs, tho another studio is brought on to do that. The rest sure, I can agree with, but the amount spent on marketing varies differently. For example, Disaster vs LBP. Huge diff in marketing.

On the topic of the Bandai game, look at the title itself. Put out a FPS on the Wii, Im sure you'd see a bigger turnout than the 10th Wii golfing game.

Your last point is what is the most incorrect. With Wii marketshare pushing close to the 50% mark, more developers are putting money into developing for the system. This is an obvious trend that's been proven here and other places.