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Nuvendil on 16 October 2022
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sc94597 said:
Nuvendil said:

So I see some people trying to calculate total revenue Platinum got from Bayonetta.  It's worth noting the actual breakdown of sales, both physical and digital.  The breakdown is about this:

So Platinum could expect about $27 to $35 per unit sold at $60 depending on returns and other variables.  Digital is much better as they only have to pay the platform fee, which for consoles is typically somewhere around $15 ot $20 so they make between $40 to $45 on each sale there.

If we assume the first game skewed heavily physical - a wise very good assumption - and a large chunk of games were sold at lower prices, they probably made, on average $20 to $25 a copy, maybe a bit more.  

Bayonetta 2 held its price better and had a better digital splut but also sold much less.  So if we assume a 60/40 physical to digital split - probabaly being generous to digital honestly - that gives them an average of somewhere around $37 a copy (being generous again here).  

That breakdown (which originates from OnLive -- the defunct streaming service with a motivation to skew the estimates) only really applies to third-party games where the developer retains IP rights. It is likely that Nintendo's agreement with Platinum (and Sega) is that the bulk of revenue goes to Nintendo and Nintendo will fund the development, with maybe some profit-sharing for Platinum's executives/lead developers and a royalty fee going to Sega. 

Bayonetta 2 being a 1st party game means there are no platform fees as Nintendo is the platform licenser who charges the fee. That puts the minimum revenue per sale for a retail Bayonetta 2 game at $34 (assuming the $15 merchant fee, $7 returns, and $4 cost of goods hold true and the full sale price of $60/$50.) A digital title wouldn't have the $15 merchant fee, $7 returns, and far lower than $4 cost of goods (basically the per download maintenance cost of the servers.) That'd probably mean somewhere around $50 going to Nintendo for a $60 digital sale and mid-$40s going to Nintendo for $50 digital sale, depending on Sega's cut. 

Bayonetta 2 sold nearly 2 million on both platforms (1.08 million on Switch, .85 million on Wii U.) 

The relationship with Nintendo does make it complicated.  They are publishing the game, but presumably they split that with Platinum in some fashion.  Well, Platinum and Sega.  Because it isn't actually first pary, Nintendo is acting as publisher, they still have an outside partner in Platinum and Sega they have to split with.  At least, that would be my understanding.  But if Platinum is paid up front, then that means they basically don't "make" anything on Bayonetta, Nintendo just funds their development plus tosses in extra after sales.  At any rate, Bayo 1 was a normal 3rd party release so my estimate there is probably still solid.  Could be a bit higher.

If Bayonetta 2 sold that much, that does help.  But the revenue still comes up way, way short.  And everything else I said still stands.  This is not some juggernaut money maker.  And most of that revenue either got sunk into marketing and merchandise and reinvestment into the company (Bayo 1) or sliced up into multiple pieces to satisfy various partners (Bayo 2 (as well as all that other stuff, though Bayo 2 was more restrained)).  

Oh and that breakdown is based on simple percentages that are pretty standard and has never, to my knowledge, been disputed. 

My broader point was, the revenue is way short of 450, let alone the profit.  And if you want to try and make estimates, use actual data.  Don't just pull numbers out of thin air.  I was doing a quick estimate with numbers from memory, you could do a more methodical one and get a more accurate picture.  But that picture isn't going to look anything like nearly half a billion.