drkohler said:
Dude, mastering several DVDs is not the same as selling unformatted bulk DVDs.. But the additional costs are indeed not relevant if you sell enough software afterwards. |
You're right, but you're still wrong, it's cheaper.
Mastering is a one-time fee, so while it has a cost, it isn't that significant to the total production run. Not only that but he cost of mastering is roughly the same regardless of whether it's a CD, DVD, or Blu-Ray disc. In addition, once the master is completed, any subsequent reproduction that exists down the line is simply the cost of media.
Where the significant cost comes into play is the actual disc and art. A DVD-R has a retail cost of roughly 20¢, a 25GB BD-R disc runs about $1.00. So for a run of 1 million discs each, you're looking at a price difference of 60¢(20¢(x2) vs $1.00). You tell me, which is more significant?
Mastering: $1,000/disc = $2,000.
Reproduction of DVDs: 2m @ 20¢ = $400,000
Grand Total: $402,000
or
Mastering: $1,000/disc = $1,000
Reproduction of Blu-Ray Discs: 1m @ $1.00 = $1,000,000
Grand Total: $1,001,000
Don't look at the case to add to the cost either, a double-disc DVD case runs about 10¢ more at retail than a single-disc case. That would make the difference in cost about $500,000 rather than $600,000.
Note: While i mentioned the disc art in the cost of a disc, I didn't actually figure that into any pricing. 4-color screen-printed art would be the same regardless of the media type anyway, but when it comes down to the brass tacks, disc art is the most expensive per-disc cost (outside of a booklet) that exists in media reproduction. The exception to this may be with Blu-Ray discs.
