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Samus Aran on 25 December 2014
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baloofarsan said:
bigtakilla said:
PixelPerfect said:
Still my most hyped Wii U game of 2015, even more than Zelda U.

Mine as well, and if I may say so and not get shunned by the Nintendo community for life, the most ambitious game anyone will have made for the console. The amount of talent (and therefore money) they have put into this game (inside and out of Nintendo) is above and beyond most games in general, let alone jrpgs. 

VERY rough caculation on the development cost of this game, and how many copies it has to sell to break even:

According to Wikipedia Monolith Soft have 123 people employed.   http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Soft

 Since their last Xenoblade Chronicles title in late 2010 they have not released any major game (Development co-operation for LoZ Wii + 3DS, AC New Leaf and Pikmin 3)

The salary for a Tokyo Software Engineer is around [¥5 000 000 = $41 500 ]according to what I get from a quick Google search. ( Please make this number more correct if you have better information, also this is not the total cost for the company!)  EDIT! According to this  http://www.develop-online.net/news/square-enix-dev-salaries-twice-as-high-as-sony/0112373  the salary is more like ¥14 000 000 = $116 500!

A devoloper/publisher like Nintendo/Monolith will get about half, $30, of the retail price.   http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html

 

This will all make my VERY simple calculation look like this:

123 software engineers for 4 years earning [$41500]  $116 500 a year gets $30 for every copy of the game they sell.

[123 * 4 * 41500 / 30 = 680 600]

EDIT: 123 * 4 * 116 500 / 30 = 1 900 000

[They have to sell 700 000 copies to break even.]

EDIT: They have to sell 2 000 000 copies to break even.

 

Please improve on this calculation with better information!!

[the formating of the text does not work properly]

First of all, Monolith Soft is NOT Square Enix anymore. Second of all, the company is split into two. In 2011 they created the Kyoto Software Development Studio which had at least 30 developers in 2013. This studio co-develops games with Nintendo EAD. So at best there are 93 developers working on Xenoblade Chronicles X (and it's unlikely that this number never changed during the 4 year development cycle). Not every employee is a software engineer for that matter! Not by a longshot! 

Take this for example: 

"Article ends with a call for job applications for 3D CG designers, effect designers, and motion designers. 
-The absolute minimum monthly salary for an experienced worker is 185,000 yen (US$1,837), up for negotiation based on experience and skills. There's also 2 annual bonuses, an annual wage rise, health insurance, and up to ~US$500 support for work related transport costs on top of the salary."

"Staff has a high proportion of women, many staff in their late-20s"

http://gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=206706

Nintendo would never allow for development costs so high. They are unwilling to make a standalone Fire Emblem game because they predicted it would need to sell 700.000 copies on the Wii U in order to be profitable. That's why they decided to make a crossover with Shin Megami Tensei (to split development costs and to broaden the audience). 

http://wiiudaily.com/2013/07/fire-emblem-for-wii-u/

The development cycle for this game is unusually long however, which makes me wonder why.