To all of those that think SEGA's both hardcore games bombed.

[HappySqurriel]

txrattlesnake said:

If MGS 4 cost $100 million to make, then it would need to make $200 million to earn the right profit. And 4 million sold at $60 would take it past that number.

I am basing these assumptions on a documentary I watched about the making of Peter Jackson's King Kong. They talked about how much money it cost to make the film, then they said in order for it to earn a profit it had to make twice what it cost to make the movie.

4 Million sold at $25 (the ammount Konami probably gets off of a $60 game sale) works out to be $100 Million; or the ammount you assumed that Metal Gear Solif 4 cost. If Konami needs $100 Million in profit to justify $100 Million in development cost, and therefore sales of 8 Million units, they would never have made a game at that budget.

The documentary you watched probably said was that a big budget movie needed a box office (gross revenue) of twice the cost of development to have turned a reasonable profit ...