I don't think FFXIII cost $100 million. I could see $50 million. But its releasing on Xbox 360 and PS3. It is going to do 5-10m worldwide so it will be profitable pretty easily.
For an average $60 PS3/360 game, a third party gets $35 back in the USA for the first 200,000 copies, then more after 200,000, more after 400,000, more after 1,000,000 from what I've been told.
So the first 200k is $7m, the next 200k is $7.2m, then next 600k is $22.2m, the next 1m is $38m etc. So you can make $72.6m or so if you sell a million copies. That means if the development is $50 million then they're fine. The port probably adds another couple million, and I would expect it to have a big ad campaign. But it should be profitable week one in Japan - what it sells outside of Japan is gravy.
People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.
When there are more laws, there are more criminals.
- Lao Tzu
