| MonstaMack said: For once I think Pachter is right. Retailers do get a good chunk ($12 seems fair) for each game. I think with a 50 million dollar budget a game should easily break a million or more (if not It would be a flop, wouldn't it?) but it makes you wonder how much the average Wii game costs, or games like Deadly Premonition. Obviously not every game costs the same to make.
I work in retail and the mark up % did account to close to $12 profit per game. I think it was around $4 for a $20 game, so that means budget games have to sell a lot more or actual be budget in budget development costs (lol). So I hope Deadly Prem didn't run them much. Does he also factor in price cuts? I mean if the game drops to $40 it has to obviously sell more to make up for the difference. |
Average multiplatfom HD game R&D budget: $15-30m, AAA HD games regularly exceed $40m
Average Wii game R&D budget: $5-7m
Average budget for GC/PS2/Xbox games last gen: $3-5m
For AAA HD games, typically advertising budgets match or exceed development budgets.
And a few random R&D budgets...
- Gears of War: $10m (no engine/tech costs, built "for free" alongside UE3)
- Red Steel: $12m
- Spore: $35m
- Gran Turismo 5: $60m
- Grand Theft Auto IV: $100m+
- Modern Warfare 2: $40-50m ($200m advertising budget)
