Capcom: Original cool games don't make money, Dead Rising port yes

[Squilliam]

NJ5 said:

Squilliam said:

NJ5 said:
Somehow I find it hard to believe Zack & Wiki didn't make a profit yet. It sold 0.54 million according to vgchartz, if the publisher gets $20 per copy that's $10 million. Are we to believe this game cost as much to make as Gears of War?

Not only that but I do recall seeing some comments from Capcom about Zack & Wiki being a success. I'll try to find them later.

NJ5 please...

Don't believe the BS!!!

It cost $10 M and Microsoft only provided:

• Coding support
• Testers
• Advertising

and the engine was essentially "free", if not add about $10M in royalties and fees (At least)

Furthermore they used extensive outsourcing to China whereas Z+W was produced in Japan with some of the highest cost per developers in the world, am I right?

 

 

That's true, but doesn't it strike you as odd that a technologically simple game like Zack & Wiki can't break even with these sales?

I mean, where is the gaming business gonna end if a game like this can't break a profit at more than half a million units sold?

 

Its also a different perspective -> Developer (Gears of War) vs Publisher (Z+W) so you've got the advertising and distribution costs to go on top of that as well.

Shipping for example is very expensive, if it costs $5 to ship 3 games to a retail store it may only cost $10 to ship 30. So for example the distribution model on a Wii game is more costly than Gears of War due to the sheer difference in the number of sales and how the bulk of sales are distributed over time.

Also consider there are many more Wii releases than Xbox 360 releases, therefore it costs more money in terms of "market positioning" with retailers to keep the game on the shelves and keep it in a good position for sales especially for an item which doesn't have the sheer turnover compared to say a Nintendo or new release HD game of the likes of say Gears of War.

I would say the game broke even and established for Capcom a reasonable Wii series which will be easier and more productive to sell the next time around. They have more than broken even if you consider franchise value but they may not have done much more than break even in an absolutist sense of the concept.

I don't know about how this reflects on the Industry, but I would say publishers understand the true cost of development better than developers. Thats not too bad for a niche game on the Wii and I see this as more a reflection on the continued market development on the Wii and the shovelware titles will get crowded out eventually and these titles will get their dues eventually.