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Grampy on 16 March 2009
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outlawauron said:
Soriku said:
outlawauron said:
Shanobi said:
The_vagabond7 said:
Given that it's sold a fraction on double the user base it's not really that brag worthy. All this shows is that the audience for this kind of game is drastically smaller than on the other consoles, and the % of wii owners interested in this sort of game is even more drastic compared to the other consoles.

An audience exists? Yes, but if the team that made WAW on wii had instead been split up and put making two much cheaper family party games would they have profited more? I think that is the real question the publishers will be looking at.

The real question is, if hardcore Wii games in fact cost 1/5th of what 360 and PS3 games cost, has the Wii version been more profitable than it's HD versions?

No they don't. Red Steel cost more than Gears of War.

They both costed 10 mil.

Anyway, that's one exception out of...how many games?

There are others, but the point is to not use absolute numbers. Not all Wii games are cheaper than HD games. They just aren't.

No, it is indeed hard to use actual numbers in an industry that seems to live in its own little financial Wonderland. [March 11, 2009] Rockstar proudly announces selling 13 million copies of GTA IV and by the way, we lost $50 million doing it. Their stock tumbles. [March 13, 2009] Rockstar stock rebounds on the strength of early sales of the DS version of GTA. WTF!!!!!

There is certainly something wrong in HD land if you have to count on Carnival Games and a handheld version of GTA to "rescue" you from selling 13 million copies of your flagship game. Talk about a Pyrrhic victory. Apparently some publishers can't make money with a printing press [although the owners can since they walked away with millions in stock - good thing the DS was there to make that stock worth something].

Given that type of bizarre universe, there probably is NO rule that always applies. In such a fantasia a Wii game can even cost as much as a HD one. Still, it is a little disingenuous to leave the impression on the table that such parity is anywhere close to the norm. Quite a few publishers and other industry insiders have gone on record with estimates of the difference between Wii and HD games.
THQ president Brian Farrell - 2x to 4x
EA boss John Riccitiello - 3x to 4x
Japanese Industry Report  2.5x (2x 360 - 3x PS3)
Colin Sebastian, video game industry analyst - 2x to 4x
Scott A. Steinberg, Sega marketing VP - 2x - 3.5x
Kelly Flock, THQ Exec. VP THQ - $1.5-4m vs $10-12m (2.5x to 8x)
San Francisco Chronicle - $5m vs $20m+ (4x+)

The figure has mostly fallen somewhere between 2x and 4x difference in development costs. I personally don't recall a single example of any estimate below 2x. If I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll be corrected in the next few seconds.