| Desroko said: As a rule of thumb, the publisher/developer will see $25-30 from a $60 game, and 20-25 for a $50 game. So if you had a high-end budget of 20m and you're selling your game on 360 or PS3 at $60, you'd need to sell about a million copies, yes. Maybe a little less, around 800K. That's a pretty high barrier, but 20m is pretty big budget. Most games (not just non-budget, but most) don't come in that high. |
$25-$30 back to the developer seems really, really high. Don't forget that Sony takes a huge chunk out of that $60 -- more than Nintendo or Microsoft -- in royalty costs. North of $15, I'd imagine. The retailer takes between $5 and $10 per full price game. The publisher takes its cut as well, since it provides the distribution, packaging, *marketing*, etc.
The previously stated number was that the average development would have to reach at least 500k sales to break even on the PS3. The PS3 does have abnormally high costs, and Sony takes a big royalty, so these numbers don't surprise me. But it's almost hopeless for developers making exclusives on the PS3.
