^I linked the info given by another user, who I understand worked in commercial development of games. The difference you're seeing (even counting something around $10 of license to the platform holder) might be in the shipping/media costs?
It might very well be that a $60 game gives a bigger share to the publisher, I merely extrapolated the difference from $40->$50 to $60 - and that's what I meant when I said $4-5 per $10 difference, not intended over the total price.
Of course a bigger share for a $60 game once again doesn't change the gist of the argumentation, but I really can't give you the absolute values with any certainty.

Thanks. I was just wondering where you got your figures from.

I think the games are more profitable, especially when they are a major title like a GTA or MW. Many costs in advertising are picked up by retailers, Microsoft and Sony.  And many times the royalty fees are dropped for the major titles. I would guess the retailer takes a $10 chunk, packaging/materials/shipping is another $5, and royalty fees range from $6-$10. The games should generate something like $36-$42 in revenue for the publisher at a 59.99 sku. And let's not forget that for many publishers, nearly half of their sales will go overseas now. The currency exchanges and I believe the higher retail costs in Europe should be beneificial to U.S. publishers.

Actually there's one more factor to take into account in EU sales, which is taxes. In a 50€ game, roughly 10€ is VAT.

As for Euro sales... actually there was a release just recently based on that. Retailer appeared to take a higher margin as well as the VAT.

One thing i think being missed though is that Infinity Ward and Rockstar, i doubt are paid the same amount as someone like Ninja Theory. You gotta think they both get dev costs covered and a cut of the sales.

Perhaps this is the reason we have titles like Game Party, Game Party 2 and Game Party 3? I read the reviews of these games and they say that not only are the graphics nor gameplay enhanced in any susbequent edition of the game, but some of the actual games are carried over from iteration to iteration as well. I think that's a perfect example of a 'budget title' that recycles and reuses the resources at hand, which lowers the overall cost of the game, which would decrease the threshold needed to turn a profit. And the series has sold over 3 million copies. I'm pretty sure they've turned a real nice profit on those games.

That $60 pricepoint is the main weapon used against developing Wii games, and seems to be the only one that works.

I guess if useless junk was bundled into a Wii game to force it into that price point, things would be even?
Don't think so.......

Wasn't this topic brought up like a year ago, then Reggie clarified that he was misquoted. Why is it popping up again?

Apologies for the copy and paste but I added this comment to the daft article that started these discussions:

Now here’s something for Jonah and Jordan to think about.

Let’s assume, going by what the fellah from Namco Bandai said, that a publisher needs to shift 500,000 or more units of a PS3 or 360 title to make a profit. Let’s also assume, going by what the fellah from EA said, that a Wii title needs to shift 300,000 units to make a profit.

360: 187/850 titles have made a profit. That’s 22%.

PS3: 135/517 titles have made a profit. That’s 26.1%.

Wii: 243/602 titles have made a profit. That’s 40.4%.

Have a look at those percentages and then have a look at the likes of Anubis II, Ninjabread Man and other shovelware that’ve probably made a profit after shifting less than 100,000 units. Have a look at your poorly researched and poorly written article. And bin it lol.

It wouldn’t surprise me if more than 50% of Wii titles have been profit making for the Wii if truth be told.



I worked out the same sort of thing a while back and the 360 had more titles than the PS3 that had sales of 500,000 or more, although I've no idea what has changed things around for the PS3.

Maxwell, Reddeadguy, thanks for pointing those out. Those "can't make as much money on the Wii" comments are assumed numbers and outcomes that haven't happened yet.

@Lord: It's just simple mathematics and what the publishers are doing, is eventually going to destroy them.

If you're disagreeing with the math, you make a claim, that publishers do not make more money per copy sold on HD systems, than they make per copy sold on Wii.