By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Slimebeast on 21 June 2012
Edit Thread
Persistantthug said:
Slimebeast said:

I think normally with an expected 4 year development time for this type of game and a typical ~$20 million dev budget it would have had a decent chance at breaking even. Even making a good profit if it met all expectations selling 1.5-2 million.

Now with a 8 year dev time if it comes out in 2014 (and I'm being generous here since SotC came out in 2005), and dev costs with a 50 member team is ~$5 million per year, and add to that $5-10 million total for promotion and marketing, we end up at a total cost of $45-50 million.

Sony collects around $30 per copy sold in a best case scenario, meaning the game could break even at ~1.5 million lifetime copies. Unlikely but not entirely impossible.

HEAVY RAIN moved well over 2 million units....

 

So why can't TLG?

Good point. Around two years ago I argued here that TLG would go on and sell 2 million. Almost nobody agreed with me though, saying it will be ICO/SotC all over again - great reviews, niche sales.

I still think that under normal circumstances, had the game come out when planned in around 2010, it would have had a good chance at selling 2 million.

But now. This game has HUGE problems. I expect it to need at least 1.5 more years of dev time judging from the comments. And I think it's a PS3-only game (later to PS4 in a remastered version perhaps) that will come in a bad time when sales from this generation are almost dead.

I hope they make it a crossover title if they release in 2014. One version on PS3 and a slightly better version on PS4.