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theprof00 on 07 April 2010
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jarrod said:
theprof00 said:
saicho said:
theprof00 said:

did you read that link I put up earlier? Most promotion is paid for through game sales. Bayonetta sold 13k this week. That's about 50k$ worth of advertising they can use without cutting into profit.

Plus, making a game on the wii isn't cheaper by much. You still have to hire the same people to do artwork, sound, etc, and it's really only the developing that is easier. All the assets cost the same.

while I understand your point, you are seriously misinformed on the cost for assets in SD and in HD. There are numerous discussions on the topic to show that.

yes, you're very right. I stand corrected by saicho and jarrod.

However, even at costing $15M for development, 45% of a game's profit goes to dev costs. For a 1M copy selling game, there's about 25-30M in dev revenue.

Additionally, I have a sneaking suspicion that the dev costs jarrod posted earlier include the purchase of computers, dev kits, and engine building.

I agree, tech is probably a good chunk of it.  This is why engine reuse and licensing is so lucrative this generation.

For example Red Steel's R&D budget was evidently $12m, but a lot of that was spent on just initial R&D work on Wiimote implementation and converting UE2.5 to Wii spec.   On the other hand, Gears of War's R&D budget was just $10m, but that doesn't include any technology costs since it was build alongside UE3 "for free".  It's $10m for just assets, design, audio, script, etc.  

Of course, if you dig around that Develop link, you find some scary high budget figures thrown around.  GT5 is $60m (and still going) for just R&D.  GTA4 was $100m for just R&D.  MW2 was $50m for R&D and a whopping $200m for advertising!  Budgets really have spiraled out of control this gen (and AAA HD games regularly balloon over $40m just for R&D), which is precisely why you so many many studios laying off, being bought out or just shutting down completely.  Not just studios either, but even semi-major publishers like Eidos and Midway.

I saw that gt5 cost and was like "wow! It's a good thing they released gt5p, it's probably already profitable!"

But yeah I agree, the dev costs are sad at this point. It doesn't bode well for the future if you need to sell this many copies to make a profit.