Rougly how many sales are needed to break even on a high budget game?

[el_rika]

NJ5 said:

el_rika said:
MGS4 took 4 years and was around 60 mil without publicity costs, was it not ? Quite possibly the most expensive [purely development costs] game so far.

To break even, around 1 mil copies, maybe a bit more.

I don't see why MGS4 would be more expensive than GTA4. I think the $100 million for GTA4 doesn't include marketing.

 

I think it's mostly because of the cutscenes.

In GTA4 you have some simple conversation cutscenes mostly, while in MGS4 you have action like in Hollywood movies and stuff that usually involves a lot of figuration and stunts with highly advanced Motion Captured animations. If i remember correctly the Motion Capture sessions alone too around half an year in MGS4. Just imagine the costs for that.

 On the other hand in GTA4 there all those radio stations and songs and stuff, i guess those didn't appear from thin air neither. Not to menion the size of the city.