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Forums - Sales Discussion - Heavenly Sword sold about 1.5m but devs didn't break even

Kasz216 on 29 March 2010
darthdevidem01 said:
jarrod said:
leo-j said:
that's really sad..

the game is 5 hours, and the budget was higher than MGS4s potentially.

Very sad

Eh, more than twice as many people worked on MGS4, and it was in development twice as long... pretty sure it's budget likely dwarfed Heavenly Sword's.

The MGS4 devs said they need to sell 1 million on day 1 to break even....they did that.

Ofcourse Heavenly Sword sold over 1 million over a looooong period of time.

@leo-j

Its sad for sure, but the game wasn't all that great.

Maybe the MGS4 devs got a nice bit of funding in their exclusivity deal.

Or just a much better deal then Ninja Theory.  Kinda just sounds like Sony screwed them over in their deal.



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Almi on 29 March 2010

sad :(
i loved the game, still one of my favourites this gen. yes, it is really short, but the fact that you can finish it in two session made it the only game on the ps3 i played through multiple times just for fun (and not for trophies).



Rainbird on 29 March 2010
Lafiel said:
but they are using Andy Serkis for Enslaved as well (and I think he did a terrific job in HS)

Agreed, I'm really happy to see him return. I just hope they cast better voiceactors this time around. The voiceactors of HS did a fine job, but many of them were annoying to listen to, especially that general or whatever he was.



letsdance on 29 March 2010
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
leo-j said:
that's really sad..

the game is 5 hours, and the budget was higher than MGS4s potentially.

Very sad

Eh, more than twice as many people worked on MGS4, and it was in development twice as long... pretty sure it's budget likely dwarfed Heavenly Sword's.


I doubt it. I think Kojima went the more traditional way in developing the MGS4. Ninjatheory was very ambitious in their developing with facial mocap and voicing famous people.

Uh, you know MGS4 used far, far more extensive mocap (including facial capture) than HS, right?  Just check the credits, MGS4's mocap credits alone rival the entire R&D teams for many other games.  MGS4 also had a huge voice cast, extensive CG and the entire network infrastructure R&D for MGO in there.  If you credit check, MGS4 credits almost 400 people!  

And that's just production, we're not even talking about promotional budgets...

They didn't have andy serkis. All those voice actors probablly got a couple of grand with the Snake maybe getting 100k. Niko in GTA4 only got 100k. I bet andy got a few million.

Andy who?

Sorry, just pour through the credits yourself (MGS4, Heavenly Sword).  There's pretty much no way HS was a higher cost production than MGS4...


Andy alone probably got paid as much as all of MSG4s entire cast.



jarrod on 29 March 2010
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
leo-j said:
that's really sad..

the game is 5 hours, and the budget was higher than MGS4s potentially.

Very sad

Eh, more than twice as many people worked on MGS4, and it was in development twice as long... pretty sure it's budget likely dwarfed Heavenly Sword's.


I doubt it. I think Kojima went the more traditional way in developing the MGS4. Ninjatheory was very ambitious in their developing with facial mocap and voicing famous people.

Uh, you know MGS4 used far, far more extensive mocap (including facial capture) than HS, right?  Just check the credits, MGS4's mocap credits alone rival the entire R&D teams for many other games.  MGS4 also had a huge voice cast, extensive CG and the entire network infrastructure R&D for MGO in there.  If you credit check, MGS4 credits almost 400 people!  

And that's just production, we're not even talking about promotional budgets...

They didn't have andy serkis. All those voice actors probablly got a couple of grand with the Snake maybe getting 100k. Niko in GTA4 only got 100k. I bet andy got a few million.

Andy who?

Sorry, just pour through the credits yourself (MGS4, Heavenly Sword).  There's pretty much no way HS was a higher cost production than MGS4...


Andy alone probably got paid as much as all of MSG4s entire cast.

Looking him up, it's doubtful.  He's nowhere near A-list, frankly I doubt he made over 500k.  Hell, from what we know of the LOTR films, he probably didn't even make 500k for the trilogy...



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Kasz216 on 29 March 2010
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
leo-j said:
that's really sad..

the game is 5 hours, and the budget was higher than MGS4s potentially.

Very sad

Eh, more than twice as many people worked on MGS4, and it was in development twice as long... pretty sure it's budget likely dwarfed Heavenly Sword's.


I doubt it. I think Kojima went the more traditional way in developing the MGS4. Ninjatheory was very ambitious in their developing with facial mocap and voicing famous people.

Uh, you know MGS4 used far, far more extensive mocap (including facial capture) than HS, right?  Just check the credits, MGS4's mocap credits alone rival the entire R&D teams for many other games.  MGS4 also had a huge voice cast, extensive CG and the entire network infrastructure R&D for MGO in there.  If you credit check, MGS4 credits almost 400 people!  

And that's just production, we're not even talking about promotional budgets...

They didn't have andy serkis. All those voice actors probablly got a couple of grand with the Snake maybe getting 100k. Niko in GTA4 only got 100k. I bet andy got a few million.

Andy who?

Sorry, just pour through the credits yourself (MGS4, Heavenly Sword).  There's pretty much no way HS was a higher cost production than MGS4...


Andy alone probably got paid as much as all of MSG4s entire cast.

I think you overestimate the cost of high level voice acting.  I mean, Mike Myers got 10 million for Shrek 2.  That's a movie, I'd be surprised if anyone in a videogame makes more then 500K VA.



palancas7 on 29 March 2010
gekkokamen said:
How much money did the spend in this game, again? Is Andy Serkis that an expensive actor? maybe they made some rough deal with Sony? 1.5 million sold is quite a figure, even without considering limited PS3 installed-base in fall 2007. I think they got screwed, this game didn't even received good advertising (as other first-party releases in 2007 for PS3 didn't)...they probably went overboard with the budget? I still find this fishy, I think they made a bad deal where their cut was too a small percentage from retail price.

Actually, it did. Massive.

At least in Europe. I can confirm for UK and Portugal (they kinda exaggerated in the latter. Almost every fucking break >_<)



 

letsdance on 29 March 2010
Kasz216 said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
leo-j said:
that's really sad..

the game is 5 hours, and the budget was higher than MGS4s potentially.

Very sad

Eh, more than twice as many people worked on MGS4, and it was in development twice as long... pretty sure it's budget likely dwarfed Heavenly Sword's.


I doubt it. I think Kojima went the more traditional way in developing the MGS4. Ninjatheory was very ambitious in their developing with facial mocap and voicing famous people.

Uh, you know MGS4 used far, far more extensive mocap (including facial capture) than HS, right?  Just check the credits, MGS4's mocap credits alone rival the entire R&D teams for many other games.  MGS4 also had a huge voice cast, extensive CG and the entire network infrastructure R&D for MGO in there.  If you credit check, MGS4 credits almost 400 people!  

And that's just production, we're not even talking about promotional budgets...

They didn't have andy serkis. All those voice actors probablly got a couple of grand with the Snake maybe getting 100k. Niko in GTA4 only got 100k. I bet andy got a few million.

Andy who?

Sorry, just pour through the credits yourself (MGS4, Heavenly Sword).  There's pretty much no way HS was a higher cost production than MGS4...


Andy alone probably got paid as much as all of MSG4s entire cast.

I think you overestimate the cost of high level voice acting.  I mean, Mike Myers got 10 million for Shrek 2.  That's a movie, I'd be surprised if anyone in a videogame makes more then 500K VA.


A movie that was shorter than HS along with the fact that no game has had a VA who is as well known as "MY PRECIOUS" ontop of the fact that it just wasnt in the sound studio he also had to act it out. Unlike Mike. I bet Andy put more time in HS than mike in Shrek. I bet if a game studio was like "Hey mike we got a job for you. We want you to spend a year or two of your life in a sound studio and motion capture and we'll give you 500k" he'd say "fuck off I'm gonna make another shrek for 20 times that"



Kasz216 on 29 March 2010
letsdance said:
Kasz216 said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
letsdance said:
jarrod said:
leo-j said:
that's really sad..

the game is 5 hours, and the budget was higher than MGS4s potentially.

Very sad

Eh, more than twice as many people worked on MGS4, and it was in development twice as long... pretty sure it's budget likely dwarfed Heavenly Sword's.


I doubt it. I think Kojima went the more traditional way in developing the MGS4. Ninjatheory was very ambitious in their developing with facial mocap and voicing famous people.

Uh, you know MGS4 used far, far more extensive mocap (including facial capture) than HS, right?  Just check the credits, MGS4's mocap credits alone rival the entire R&D teams for many other games.  MGS4 also had a huge voice cast, extensive CG and the entire network infrastructure R&D for MGO in there.  If you credit check, MGS4 credits almost 400 people!  

And that's just production, we're not even talking about promotional budgets...

They didn't have andy serkis. All those voice actors probablly got a couple of grand with the Snake maybe getting 100k. Niko in GTA4 only got 100k. I bet andy got a few million.

Andy who?

Sorry, just pour through the credits yourself (MGS4, Heavenly Sword).  There's pretty much no way HS was a higher cost production than MGS4...


Andy alone probably got paid as much as all of MSG4s entire cast.

I think you overestimate the cost of high level voice acting.  I mean, Mike Myers got 10 million for Shrek 2.  That's a movie, I'd be surprised if anyone in a videogame makes more then 500K VA.


A movie that was shorter than HS along with the fact that no game has had a VA who is as well known as "MY PRECIOUS" ontop of the fact that it just wasnt in the sound studio he also had to act it out. Unlike Mike. I bet Andy put more time in HS than mike in Shrek. I bet if a game studio was like "Hey mike we got a job for you. We want you to spend a year or two of your life in a sound studio and motion capture and we'll give you 500k" he'd say "fuck off I'm gonna make another shrek for 20 times that"

Jobs aren't paid based on how hard the work is.  Jobs are paid by how valuable the work is.

Mike Myers work in Shrek 2 was way more valuable then Andy's in HS.

Shrek 2 had a budget of 150 million.   It made just short of a billion... just in theatres.  Not counting DVDs, Merchandising etc..

 

Heavenly sword made what... 90 million... of which... they didn't even see 30% of that money?

You think they spend 30 million on 2 voice actors?  What kinda sales do you think they expected?



markers on 29 March 2010

Bad management. Multiplatform can not save you from that. Loved Heavenly Sword and would like to see them work on it again and finish the trilogy.