Oh and here's a fun link for you. Looks like retail developers get far less money per game sold than I originally thought. http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/2002futurecontentconf.shtml
"Profits will increase as the industry transitions to electronic distribution, he added. Companies could earn $30 per copy, up from about $7.50 per physical box. "
$7.50 per physical box. I would assume he's referencing PC games, which retail for $50 instead of $60, so we'll be nice and say developers of 360 and PS3 games get $10 of physical box price. And, given the fact the link is 6 years old, we can hope that maybe developers see a little more of that cut and raise it all the way to double his estimate: $15.
That would mean 2 games totalling $40 million in development would need to sell 1.3 million copies apiece to break even. Even if we went with Dodece's lowest estimates of $15 million apiece for development the games are only 1/2 of the way to breaking even. Ouch.
@dababus: Microsoft in no way owns Uematsu (they do own Sakaguchi). Uematsu is freelance. Hence the work he did on Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
