On The Verge of A Gaming Crash? Without Nintendo....

[Shanobi]

Shadowblind said:

Shanobi said:

Shadowblind said:

mrstickball said:

Gamerace said:

Can't find it now.  Did find this:

As for this latest realigning, money talks (innovation walks) and you have to assume someone simply woke up and smelled the honey pot. According to chairman and CEO of Foundation 9 Entertaiment Jon Goldman, "Publishers are saying: Instead of spending $15 million or $20 million on one PS3 game, come back to me with five or six Wii pitches." That's because (a) games take far less time to create on the Wii -- 12 months versus two to three years for the competition, (b) it costs roughly $5 million per game in development scratch versus $10 to $20 million for a typical Xbox 360 or PS3 game, and the Wii has been outselling every system except its own handheld DS Lite since November 2006, i.e. some eight or so solid months of market growth.

So 5m vs up to 20m and in some cases 20m (Mario) vs 100m (GTA).   No question Wii development is signifigantly cheaper.

Still didn't prove your point. You said that Wii games needed ~250,000 units to break even and X360/PS3 were a million. That article didn't prove it. All it said was that (and mind you, it didn't give a Wii average, but only 1 number) the average X360/PS3 game seemingly costs $15m. But that didn't give any numbers concerning break-even points, given the fact that the average X360/PS3 game makes developers more money.

 

 

 Lol a million units to break even. If game devs make even $20 per unit sold of they're game then a million units sold would give them $20,000,000, which is 10 mil more then a large budget game on the PS360 takes. Even at $15 per copy they make 5mil. And as far as I know, devs make more then that. This would put the number of copies needed to be sold around 500k for a game with the size and cost of LO to get its money back and then some.

 

 

Game developers don't get anywhere near 20 dollars per unit sold. Try more around 5-6 dollars.

 

Using this fact, now maybe you can see why there are so many studios being shut down, and game creators being layed off, during these "record sales".

 

By that reasoning, a $5million game for the Wii that averages 300k copies will make only $1,500,000 too, thus taking a MASSIVE loss as well. It would take a million copies of a Wii game sold to even break even. If that were by any means correct, then practically all game developers would be going bankrupt, whether by Wii or by HD console, and thus the game industry is doomed to fail no matter what happens.

Thus leading me to believe this whole 5-6 dollars thing is bull.

 

 

 

God, I get so tired of correcting people on things that they should know, especially on a site where people debate sales and costs. Google is your friend.

 

Last gen was 5-6 dollars per game sold, this gen isn't even that.

 

"For the companies that do put next-generation titles out early, making a profit is tough. Namco Bandai presidentTakeo Takasu said his company needs to sell at least 500,000 copies of each PlayStation 3 game it creates to make a profit. Analysts predict that some other publishers will need to clear 1 million units to get in the black--and start making about $1 per game sold.

The remaining $59 per game goes into many hands. The biggest portion--nearly 45%--goes toward simply programming and designing the game itself. Then the console maker, retailer and marketers each get a cut. Add in manufacturing and management costs, and depending on the type of game, a license fee. Some gamemakers also have to pay a distributor to help get their titles in stores."

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/19/ps3-xbox360-costs-tech-cx_rr_game06_1219expensivegames.html

 

It's called the distribution system, and it says hello.

 

Oh, and further on your 5 million dollar development point: MOST GAMES ON THE WII DO NOT COST 5 MILLION TO MAKE. Triple AAA titles, 5-10 million.

 

But most games? 5 Million? Are you serious??? Try more like 1-2 million.