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Khuutra on 31 March 2009
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BMaker11 said:
Khuutra said:

It's not apples and oranges. The only question is how much it takes to be profitable.

Can I say HD third parties make as much as Nintendo per unit sold? I know it's not true: I said it's not true. I'm trying to make a point that assumes HD console owners make more money than you think they do.

Can I assume this sixteen dollars, since it means fewer copies would need to be sold for HD third parties to turn a profit?

By HD console owners, I'm hoping you mean HD game developers because I mean, how can I (an owner of HD consoles) make more money than I think I do lol.

Anyway, I don't think you can "assume $16 per unit" because we know for a fact that for the most 3rd party games need to sell more than 1st party games in order to turn profit. We know for a fact that HD 3rd party games need to sell more than Wii 3rd party games in order to turn profit.

The main differences here are that 3rd party games have been generally successful on the HD consoles, and not so much on the Wii. So while the HD consoles do in fact need to sell more than the Wii, comparatively, they don't have a problem doing so. Wii 3rd party games I'm sure have some amount that needs to be met to make profit, but I'm sure 250-300k isn't it. Especially because the per unit revenue they make is much less than that of 1st party games

You are killing me, man! You are killing me.

Well, you've backed off from the million figure, but you refuse to participate in the Socratic method so I'm going to get right down to it.

It's generally thought that third parties on the Wii make anywhere from fifteen to twenty dollars per copy of a game sold. Yes, this is third parties. Nintendo makes substantially more. It's unknown if third parties on the HD console would make more or not, but it's also generally thought that if they do make more than Wii third parties, it's not a significant amount.

The point's been proven that Reggie either misspoke or misquoted. Games on the Wii don't need a million to break even. Since you have acquiesced to this, there's no more argument to make.

Most "decent" third party games on the Wii probably do take in the order of magnitude that you're figuring (which would net them anywhere between 4 and 6 million dollars). The big ones probably take more! But it's unclear which ones are the big ones and which aren't. It's known that Okami turned a profit, but it's also unclear as to how much it cost to port it (probably not a lot).

Remember this, though: raw profit isn't the only metric of success, here. You also need a good Return on Investment ratio, where investing a certain amount of money gets you high profits. So you can spend 5 million on one project and make 5 million profit, that's a really good return on investment! But if you spend 500k apiece on ten projects and make 5 million profit apiece, you are rolling in the money.

I guess we don't have anything to argue about, since you came to most of the right conclusions by yourself.