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greenmedic88 on 02 September 2009
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Gnizmo said:
greenmedic88 said:
Nobody can prove whether the Conduit was or wasn't profitable because they either don't have or aren't privy to the specific information regarding that particular project.

Of course the same could be said for most HD games in all but the most extreme cases when sales were significantly below the initial production run (ie. Bionic Commando).

Mostly it boils down to preferential, biased guesstimations used in support of which console they own/like best, presented in a pseudo objective way.

It's trickier to gauge costs with the Conduit, because much of the R&D that went into that game (the engine) will be used in future projects by HVS, meaning subsequent titles should cost less to develop (see Gears of War 2).

The only "failure" would be if Sega dropped HVS, indicating a clear underperformance. Since that hasn't happened and we will presumably be seeing more titles on the Wii by HVS, that should be considered enough of a success for HVS and Sega, just not for the Wii fans who tried to convince other gamers how much of a field changer the Conduit would be for the Wii.

My best guess would be it has made Sega money, but HVS is still uncertain. They certainly seem to be making enough games for the system, but that could just be how they want to roll. Or they could not have the budget to fund a game for the PS360. Its a bit of a fuzzy picture.

I would find it hard to believe Sega isn't making cash on this one though. HVS funded the vast majority of the development. They had an idea for a game they wanted to make, so they likely traded funding for creative control and ownership of the IP. If a publisher let a company keep an IP then there is obviously some kind of weird deal involved that saves the publisher a lot of cash. Publishers like owning IPs. Even the bad ones. So covering publishing costs, and probably some minor funding would be pretty easy. That is an assumption of course, but its based on HVS seeming to be extremely protective of their game, and willing to spend their own cash to not compromise their vision of the final product.

@Barozi
Whatever makes you happy.

I'm pretty certain that HVS is fully invested in the Wii platform now. Even if they wanted to move to another platform, it would be a token effort at best.

I think HVS is well aware of this, and would just as soon not compete with the Halos, the Modern Warfares, the Gears of War, the Uncharteds, etc.

Seeing as how all Sega did was pick up the publishing rights (along with marketing, distro, etc.), unless they gave HVS an incredible deal on revenue percentages, I have a hard time seeing them not coming out in the black on the Conduit.

It was good for Sega to get the chance to pick up a new IP with some solid Wii R&D as well as lock down any potential future new hit IPs, even if there is an element of risk involved (as with everything) with a relative unknown.

HVS has struck me as a relatively small fish in the development world, aspiring to be a big fish in the larger pool of the Wii user base that is free of any of the serious competition they would be up against had they developed for the Xbox or PS3.