So this is kinda something that crosses my mind with a lot of low budget JRPGs, I always wonder how many units they have to sell, but with a game like the Last of Us which has huge production values, I honestly have no idea how many they would have to sell.  If I had to guess I'd say 2.5m.  Currently the game is at 3.01m on vgchartz and I'm sure that number would be much higher with digital sales.  So how many copies do you think they had to sell to make the game profitable?

lol i always think the same thing with samll JRPGs. i dont know but im saying its definitely already profitable.

Uncharted 2 had a budget of 20 million so I doubt TLOU's is much more than that. Maybe 30 million? I think 2 million copies sold will make them profitable.

1.5 million copies at U$60 = 90 million

Given that we probably undertrack TLoU by some amount (judging by NPD numbers) and counting Digital Sales, that have gone with a decent price and few incentives. And considering we are still waiting for the first price drop if I'm not mistaken. I would say the game has already made a decent profit and is now only printing moneyz and will continue to do so for a long time.

2.5M copies sold = 150 million in revenue. It is very unlikely the project cost that much, considering that Uncharted 2 budget was around 20 million + marketing costs . ND is known for making every dollar counts .

I'd say less than 1.5M copies sold.

it depends how much was spent on marketing as well.

I read an article that said that the first week of The Last of Us made more money than the first US weekend of Man of Steel at Box Office !

Man of Steel made $116 millions the first weekend US ... so The Last of Us is profitable for a long long time, as long as its release :)

Game including marketing cost $40-50 million.

1.5 million copies, and $30 from each copy going to Sony, would equal $45 million and make the game break even.

2.5M-3M at full retail price.