It's what has been consistantly reported since the start of this generation.

I don't see how you can see it as too high.

Don't Wii games generally require a similar amount of advertising to perform well?

I think the 8th generation will be the last generation.  We've already reached a point where consoles are continually improving over time through firmware updates and hardware peripherals, and I think when the next set of consoles arrive, the big three will focus more on riding things out for a decade or more while making advancements primarily through software. 

We'll be at a point next gen where most of what they want to do will be limited by code rather than hardware.  Instead of advertising blitzes surrounding new hardware launches, we'll see big marketing pushes around big new features added via software or peripherals (like Microsoft did for the NXE, and will soon do for Natal).  Sony/Nintendo/MS will be content to sell their consoles for many years.

The next gen will last a very long time, with no defined 9th gen ever appearing.  Rather, we'll probably see slight upgrades or reincarnations of current hardware gradually over time (DS > DSi) with small tweaks that will allow the firmware teams to enable more and more features.

At least that's how I see it.  And that's assuming they don't skimp out on ram, something that has always been a bottleneck for consoles.

funny how publishers complain that wii games don't sell cause they think 500-600k is crap when they are usually made for far less than those 7mln$ and without any advertisement campaign still making huge profit. yet they are making 30-40mln$ games with 30+mln$ advertisement budgets for HD platforms just so they can sell 1-2mln copies at best sinking their money and are still happy with sales even without making any money back.

While Wii games may require that, until now (MH Tri) no Wii 3rd party game has actually gotten that or anything close to 3rd party HD advertising campaigns (ok, except Just Dance maybe). At best they get something minor that people get all excited about because they actually saw a commercial OMG, but usually there is practically no advertising campaign beyond maybe a few gaming sites.

Just Dance wasn't advertiset until it became succesful and even then it was small campaign on tv channels and programs for kids and teenagers like Hannah Montana and stuff.

3rd party wii games usually have little to none advertisment and it's usually after the release when the game is selling very good.

Red Steel is still the most advertised 3rd party wii game and its budget was still less than 13mln$ for the whole project(game development and advertisement campaign) from which huge chunk of money gone to buying and porting Unreal Engine 2.5 for wii.

Revenue is not the same as profit.

Sony and MS get more revenue per console sold (and more per game sold) than Nintendo even though they profit less. Revenue is how much money is handed over to Nintendo.

Damn!

We had another recent report with similar figures.  From M2 Research/Develop Magazine...

• multiplatfom HD budgets range from $18-28 million
• single platform HD budgets can go as low as $10 million
• high profile (AAA) HD budgets regularly break $40 million
• MW2 estimated at $50m, GT5 at $60m, GTA4 at $100m (!)
• Advertising/promotional costs for MW2 were $200m (!!!)