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HappySqurriel on 14 June 2008
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FishyJoe said:
Bodhesatva said:

One other thing to consider is that a game that costs 20 million to produce on the 360 and sells 5 million copies makes more money than a game that costs 10 million to produce on the Wii and sells 5 million copies. Therefore, the AAA games that sell 5-10 million (like Gears or CoD4) are particularly profitable on the PS3/360. This is one of the things discouraging blockbuster development on the Wii.

 


Huh? How is this possible? 

 


Regardless of whether it is or is not possible, I think it is a foolish and dishonest way to look at the market ...

Of the 2000+ titles that were released on the PS2 there were 12 that sold 5 Million (or more) copies, and only (roughly) 200 sold 1 Million copies; the question shouldn't be "how profitable are games when they sell 5 Million copies?", the question should be "How profitable are games when they sell 500,000 copies?"

Beyond that, the next important thing to consider is the titles that are selling particularly well on the PS3 and XBox 360 are not the titles that cost $20 Million to develop and market, and there are few Wii titles that have spent nearly $10 Million on their total development and marketing costs. Consider Metal Gear Solid 4 as an example, Konami said that there were 200 developers working on it and it took 3 years to develop ... even modest estimates would put that game at a development cost of $40 to $60 Million without considering marketing costs; it was rumored (not that long ago) that Grand Theft Auto 4 cost over $100 Million when all costs are factored together.

 

The most realistic way to look at the profitability of HD games vs. Wii games on the Wide scale is "Which is more profitable a $5 Million Wii game or a $20 Million HD game when both copies only sell 500,000 copies?"