NexGen and Innovation

[HappySqurriel]

staticneuron said: Would imagine that average games for Playstation 2 =1.3 million Nintendo 64= 520,000 Dreamcast= 410,000 Game Boy Advance =360,000 PSone = 180'000 Game Boy = 40,000 FFVII =26 million FFVIII = 30 million FFIX = 38 million FFX = 40 million FFXI = 12 million Mario 64 = 25 million shenmue 42-45 million "Microsoft's Xbox is the most costly platform for game development, followed by Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube, says the latest report by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) in Japan. This week's issue of Famitsu covers figures from 2004 given by CESA, which calculated the average development costs for games on current-gen platforms. The reported figures are based on development fees that were voluntarily disclosed by 28 companies. According to CESA, the Xbox is the most expensive due to the platform's high-end hardware specs. Development figures taken from 13 Xbox games came to an average of 202 million yen ($1.85 million), more than double the cost of other platforms. Mbr> The PlayStation 2 ranked as the second-most-costly platform to make games for, with development figures for 194 games averaging 96 million yen ($877,000). The GameCube came in third, with figures taken from 11 games averaging 90 million yen ($822,000). Surprisingly, games for the handheld PlayStation Portable reportedly cost the same to make as GameCube ones." The average game last gen probably 7 to 8 mill (big titles) and probably rose 1 to 2 mill. So called triple A are astronmical. Probably cost ro make engines and less reliance on middleware and so forth may make for some of the high costs.

Just as a question, do you have links for your game numbers? I remember comericals for Final Fantasy 7 where Square was claiming it was the most expensive game every made at (IIRC) 2 Million Dollars; this was after Mario 64 was made ... At the same time, most reports I have seen on PS2/XBox/Gamecube game development was for a team of 20 to 40 people working for 18 to 24 months ... I have also seen interviews with people at EA who claimed that most of their next-gen games were being developed by teams of "Nearly 100 people" ...