| Metallox said: Breath of the Wild will be profitable once the game sells more than 2 million units, which is odd, because it sounds like a tiny quantity for the most ambitious Nintendo game of all time. |
Even taking into account the scope and size of the game, the actual staff that worked on it is smaller than what the average AAA game demands with BotW taking up around 100 full-time staff (300 in the credits) over 5 years of development while the average AAA title employs 400-600 total staff and a shorter development cycle. Along with that, a disproportionate amount of a AAA game budget is typically spent on advertising and luxury investments like pricy voice actors -- two things that Nintendo typically shy away from when it comes to their games, instead relying on things like name brand and word of mouth to advertise their games.
Also, Nintendo is most certainly going to get their investment on BotW back by utilizing the game's engine on other projects to shorten development cycles and costs as Shinya Takahashi stated during the Q&A portion of the investors meeting.
