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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Top 10 most expensive video games budgets ever

Wagram on 20 February 2010

I know that GT5, Killzone 2, FF XII, and GTA4 all profited.

GT5 isn't even out yet and has profited already, INSANE.



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psrock on 20 February 2010
disolitude said:
psrock said:
disolitude said:
This guy pulls budget numebrs out of his ass.

Halo 3's budget was estimated around 30 million and advertising budget was 40 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3_marketing

People will write anything for page hits...

How ironic you use wikpedia to prove him wrong.

Trust me, MS spent more than 40 million dollars to advertise Halo 3.

No...trust me they didnt. I work in online advertising industry and am an active member on Bungie boards. Their advertising budget was 30 mil...but they spent around 10 more.

Have a read here if you'd like...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2007/sep/24/halo3amoviebeaterinprofit

Microsoft profited for the first time in their gaming division when halo 3 came out (165 million or so), and it doesn't make sense that they spent 200 mil on advertising and 50 mil on the game if the game made them 175 million firts week and probably around 250 million during the first month. They barely would have recovered the money invested in the game for that quarter.

 

Edit - I think you are confusing advertising budget with launch budget. Call of duty MW2 has "launch budget" of 200 million. They shipped 10 million copies of the game...lets say that averga cost of making and shipping the case, disc, manual is 10-15 dollars X 10 million...thats  100-150 million right there. And they had a more intense ad campaign than halo...so ~100-50 million advertising. 

Nothing had more intense campaign than Halo 3. It was everywhere.

 



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11/20/09 04:25 makingmusic476 Warning Other (Your avatar is borderline NSFW. Please keep it for as long as possible.)
disolitude on 20 February 2010
psrock said:
disolitude said:
psrock said:
disolitude said:
This guy pulls budget numebrs out of his ass.

Halo 3's budget was estimated around 30 million and advertising budget was 40 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3_marketing

People will write anything for page hits...

How ironic you use wikpedia to prove him wrong.

Trust me, MS spent more than 40 million dollars to advertise Halo 3.

No...trust me they didnt. I work in online advertising industry and am an active member on Bungie boards. Their advertising budget was 30 mil...but they spent around 10 more.

Have a read here if you'd like...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2007/sep/24/halo3amoviebeaterinprofit

Microsoft profited for the first time in their gaming division when halo 3 came out (165 million or so), and it doesn't make sense that they spent 200 mil on advertising and 50 mil on the game if the game made them 175 million firts week and probably around 250 million during the first month. They barely would have recovered the money invested in the game for that quarter.

 

Edit - I think you are confusing advertising budget with launch budget. Call of duty MW2 has "launch budget" of 200 million. They shipped 10 million copies of the game...lets say that averga cost of making and shipping the case, disc, manual is 10-15 dollars X 10 million...thats  100-150 million right there. And they had a more intense ad campaign than halo...so ~100-50 million advertising. 

Nothing had more intense campaign than Halo 3. It was everywhere.

 

Yeah ok...I respect your "hunch" but lets be serious. So microsoft spent 200 on marketing, 60 on the game and about 100 mil to distribute it. So halo needed to sell over 7 million copies at full price to break even. Right... MS is smart. Game cost 30, and thats a fact...check bungie boards. Advertising was set to 30 as well but was bumped to 40 . The 40 million for advertising is more than an average movie would spend...hence why it was such a big deal.



psrock on 20 February 2010
disolitude said:
psrock said:
disolitude said:
psrock said:
disolitude said:
This guy pulls budget numebrs out of his ass.

Halo 3's budget was estimated around 30 million and advertising budget was 40 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3_marketing

People will write anything for page hits...

How ironic you use wikpedia to prove him wrong.

Trust me, MS spent more than 40 million dollars to advertise Halo 3.

No...trust me they didnt. I work in online advertising industry and am an active member on Bungie boards. Their advertising budget was 30 mil...but they spent around 10 more.

Have a read here if you'd like...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2007/sep/24/halo3amoviebeaterinprofit

Microsoft profited for the first time in their gaming division when halo 3 came out (165 million or so), and it doesn't make sense that they spent 200 mil on advertising and 50 mil on the game if the game made them 175 million firts week and probably around 250 million during the first month. They barely would have recovered the money invested in the game for that quarter.

 

Edit - I think you are confusing advertising budget with launch budget. Call of duty MW2 has "launch budget" of 200 million. They shipped 10 million copies of the game...lets say that averga cost of making and shipping the case, disc, manual is 10-15 dollars X 10 million...thats  100-150 million right there. And they had a more intense ad campaign than halo...so ~100-50 million advertising. 

Nothing had more intense campaign than Halo 3. It was everywhere.

 

Yeah ok...I respect your "hunch" but lets be serious. So microsoft spent 200 on marketing, 60 on the game and about 100 mil to distribute it. So halo needed to sell over 7 million copies at full price to break even. Right... MS is smart. Game cost 30, and thats a fact...check bungie boards. Advertising was set to 30 as well but was bumped to 40 . The 40 million for advertising is more than an average movie would spend...hence why it was such a big deal.

I never said MS spent 200 million dollars on advertisement, I am saying they spent more than 40 million.



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11/20/09 04:25 makingmusic476 Warning Other (Your avatar is borderline NSFW. Please keep it for as long as possible.)
yinkadare on 20 February 2010

If FFXII is on the list, how is FFXIII not on the list? You would think a HD FF would cost more to make.



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hunter_alien on 21 February 2010

BS list... they probably pull numbers out of thin air. GT5 costs 80 million? Who told them? I would seriously like to know



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AnarchyWest on 21 February 2010

shouldn't Red Dead Redemption be on here since it needs to sell 5M copies to break even and I remember hearing MGS4 had a 40M budget...I guess 20M was spent on advertising?



Chairman-Mao on 21 February 2010
zexen_lowe said:
Chairman-Mao said:
LA Noire is very expensive. Didn't realize it was such a big project.

I wonder if GT5 Prologue sales covered the $80 million.

It shipped 4.65 million, let's assume 1 million was in bundles, and a revenue of $25 per copy (given it costs $40)

3.65*25 = $91.25 million.

If you vary the revenue slice, it changes a bit, but let's just say that if it didn't cover it fully, it covered the budget for the most part

Wow that's a great deal for Sony/Polyphony. Sucks everyone who bought this game for $40 and will then have to spend $70 on the full game though.



Chairman-Mao on 21 February 2010

Too Human had to be one of the biggest flops in history. At least $60 million to develop and only sold 2/3 of a million units.

The game didn't even make 60 million in REVENUE (670k x $60 = ~$40million) let alone any PROFIT. Kind of sad really.



ShadowSoldier on 21 February 2010

Did MGS4 make money?....I heard it broke even on the first day



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