Icyedge said:
HappySqurriel said:
Icyedge said:
HappySqurriel said:
cura said:
HappySqurriel said:
Grand Turismo 3 was my last installment in the Gran Turismo series because I found it to be very pretty but shallow ... I'm not a fan of simulation racing in general because I find this is a common failing of the genre.
With that said, when you're spending (what has been rumoured to be) over 5 years and $100 Million to develop a game and your competition releases 3 $20 Million games in the same time your game better be dramatically better; and sell dramatically better too. If you spend dramatically longer and dramatically more money to achieve an incremental improvement you have really been wasteful.
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I presume you have sources to back your statements up? Or are we just suppose to take your word for it?
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Last I heard the development team was (roughly) 200 people working for 5 years ... Even if half of the workers were in a sweatshop in China you'rer still dealing with a $50+ Million budget. Regardless, if Rainbird is correct and it is a $60 Million game, if you spend 3 times as much and 3 times as long as your competition to produce a game your game better be dramatically better.
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If the budget allocated for your example would be real a lot of people would go to China to work in a sweatshop...
Working in a sweatshop does not gives an income of 100 K per year.
100 persons * 100 000 per year = 10 M * 5 years = 50 M
Now if those 200 working at PD are paid 50 K per year as average, which should be reasonable, you get a budget of 50 M in 5 years in payroll. And then add the other fee like computer, local, electricity which should get you around 60 M.
I agree with your last statement tho, the game better be dramatically better.
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An employee's salary represents 1/4 to 1/2 of the cost to employ them, so 200 people at 5 years with average earnings of $50,000 (which is remarkably low for high quality development talent) would be $100 Million to $200 Million in total budget.
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I would like to know where your getting your numbers, because were talking about what I studied in. In a type of product like video games, salary easily represant more than 1/2th of total exploitation cost. A building for 200 employees, electricity, insurance and 300 computers does not even represent 20 Million (take some time to think about the price of each thing), dont forget that you keep the building and computers to work on many many projects. Were not talking about construction here, where cost of materials easily surpasses cost of your employees. Though, I may be wrong with my evaluation of 50 K average earning since were talking of salaries in Japan, and sincerely I have no clues about the average salaries in Japan. Also do not forget that my evaluation is in line with what PD told the press about the development cost of GT5
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A minor note, but Polyphony Digital's website list their headcount as approx 110. I'm not sure where you're getting 200 from.
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