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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Supposed insider Nintendo info

SxyxS on 14 September 2013
JWeinCom said:
SxyxS said:
wow 101 being released on another system=noone would doubt the claims that it need to sell more than 2 mio units
to break even.Why is this such an important topic for wii U and why is it so unlikely??


According to the head of Onlive, a publisher takes inabout $27 of margin on a $60 game. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html) This is after factoring in unsold inventory, shipping, and platform fees.  In the case of first party software, platform fees are non-existant, so Nintendo is taking in 34 bucks per copy of Wonderful 101.

So, 34 bucks per copy of the game, and Nintendo needs to sell 2 million copies to break even.  So, the game costs 68 million dollars to make.  To see if this figure is realistic, lets compare it to other games.

The budget for GTA V is the biggest budget ever with 265 million dollars invested in marketing, development and so on.  So, 68 million is just about 1/4 of that.  Do you think Wonderful 101's budget is 1/4 of GTA V?  GTA IV was 100 million.  Do you think Wonderful 101 was more than half of that? (http://www.ibtimes.com/gta-5-costs-265-million-develop-market-making-it-most-expensive-video-game-ever-produced-report)

Skyrim's budget was estimated at 85 million dollars.  So, Wonderful 101's budget is more than 3/5 of Skyrim?  (http://www.statisticbrain.com/skyrim-the-elder-scrolls-v-statistics/)

Unforutnately, there's little date out there to find how much middle of the road games cost, and most budgets are estimates, so it's hard to give an exact number.  All the same, it's hard to see how a game made by a smallish team cost nearly 68 million.  There is no extensive voice acting, no cutting edge graphics, no huge marketing blitz, no hours of cutscenes, no huge open world, and nothing that would suggest an astronomical budget.  A little common sense would tell us that there is absolutely no reason that the fiscally conservative Nintendo would dump 68 million dollars into a game that doesn't seem to need it.

sounds plausible-i think the overall margin(incl pricedrops ,unsold copies on the one side+ the digital sales(no manufacturing costs,retail)on the other side) should be somewhere between 20-25.

 

but i think 10mio developing costs is possible.New console=problems=new graphic engine etc.

As I know eg open world games are pretty expensive and i'm pretty sure lego city wasn't cheap at all.Maybe just half as expensive as an average(non-gta) open world game.

I woudn't tend to say that all Nintendo games have low production costs though Most of their games do



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Mr Khan on 15 September 2013
JWeinCom said:
SxyxS said:
wow 101 being released on another system=noone would doubt the claims that it need to sell more than 2 mio units
to break even.Why is this such an important topic for wii U and why is it so unlikely??


According to the head of Onlive, a publisher takes inabout $27 of margin on a $60 game. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html) This is after factoring in unsold inventory, shipping, and platform fees.  In the case of first party software, platform fees are non-existant, so Nintendo is taking in 34 bucks per copy of Wonderful 101.

So, 34 bucks per copy of the game, and Nintendo needs to sell 2 million copies to break even.  So, the game costs 68 million dollars to make.  To see if this figure is realistic, lets compare it to other games.

The budget for GTA V is the biggest budget ever with 265 million dollars invested in marketing, development and so on.  So, 68 million is just about 1/4 of that.  Do you think Wonderful 101's budget is 1/4 of GTA V?  GTA IV was 100 million.  Do you think Wonderful 101 was more than half of that? (http://www.ibtimes.com/gta-5-costs-265-million-develop-market-making-it-most-expensive-video-game-ever-produced-report)

Skyrim's budget was estimated at 85 million dollars.  So, Wonderful 101's budget is more than 3/5 of Skyrim?  (http://www.statisticbrain.com/skyrim-the-elder-scrolls-v-statistics/)

Unforutnately, there's little date out there to find how much middle of the road games cost, and most budgets are estimates, so it's hard to give an exact number.  All the same, it's hard to see how a game made by a smallish team cost nearly 68 million.  There is no extensive voice acting, no cutting edge graphics, no huge marketing blitz, no hours of cutscenes, no huge open world, and nothing that would suggest an astronomical budget.  A little common sense would tell us that there is absolutely no reason that the fiscally conservative Nintendo would dump 68 million dollars into a game that doesn't seem to need it.

It's possible that Platinum's terribad at keeping a reasonable budget, which could explain the difficulties they have with publishers...



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

sethnintendo on 15 September 2013
reggin_bolas said:
I think its true. Wii U is already breaking all kinds of bad sales records. It's a lesson in terrible marketing.

There are plenty of systems that have sold less than the Wii U so it isn't setting any bad sales records.  You are right about the bad marketing though.  The Wii would like to play commercials were almost top notch at the time.  I have no idea why they didn't continue it with Wii would like to play with u commercials.



orniletter on 15 September 2013
Mr Khan said:

It's possible that Platinum's terribad at keeping a reasonable budget, which could explain the difficulties they have with publishers...


I think the opposite is far more likely: They still get contracts because they are rather cheap (not Double Helix cheap).

Their games always bomb left and right despite scoring pretty well, they are crics darling and I would consider their games in the "prestige" categorie, games that don´t set the charts on fire but stand out among many other games (similar to Journey, Shadow of the Colossus etc.)

...that is probably the reason why they are working on an XBone exclusive T.T...



JWeinCom on 15 September 2013
Mr Khan said:
JWeinCom said:
SxyxS said:
wow 101 being released on another system=noone would doubt the claims that it need to sell more than 2 mio units
to break even.Why is this such an important topic for wii U and why is it so unlikely??


According to the head of Onlive, a publisher takes inabout $27 of margin on a $60 game. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/02/anatomy-of-a-60-dollar-video-game.html) This is after factoring in unsold inventory, shipping, and platform fees.  In the case of first party software, platform fees are non-existant, so Nintendo is taking in 34 bucks per copy of Wonderful 101.

So, 34 bucks per copy of the game, and Nintendo needs to sell 2 million copies to break even.  So, the game costs 68 million dollars to make.  To see if this figure is realistic, lets compare it to other games.

The budget for GTA V is the biggest budget ever with 265 million dollars invested in marketing, development and so on.  So, 68 million is just about 1/4 of that.  Do you think Wonderful 101's budget is 1/4 of GTA V?  GTA IV was 100 million.  Do you think Wonderful 101 was more than half of that? (http://www.ibtimes.com/gta-5-costs-265-million-develop-market-making-it-most-expensive-video-game-ever-produced-report)

Skyrim's budget was estimated at 85 million dollars.  So, Wonderful 101's budget is more than 3/5 of Skyrim?  (http://www.statisticbrain.com/skyrim-the-elder-scrolls-v-statistics/)

Unforutnately, there's little date out there to find how much middle of the road games cost, and most budgets are estimates, so it's hard to give an exact number.  All the same, it's hard to see how a game made by a smallish team cost nearly 68 million.  There is no extensive voice acting, no cutting edge graphics, no huge marketing blitz, no hours of cutscenes, no huge open world, and nothing that would suggest an astronomical budget.  A little common sense would tell us that there is absolutely no reason that the fiscally conservative Nintendo would dump 68 million dollars into a game that doesn't seem to need it.

It's possible that Platinum's terribad at keeping a reasonable budget, which could explain the difficulties they have with publishers...


Problems with publishers?  I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to.  Since splintering off of Capcom, they've had a pretty stable relationship with Sega, who has published basically all of their games.  Konami brought them in to work on their biggest franchise, and specifically to help fix a project that had gone awry.  I doubt Konami was thinking "Hey, this project has gotten way out of hand.  Why not get the guys with a reputation for going horribly over budget to sink more into it?"  Nintendo also seems very keen on working with them.  I can see Sega wasting money (Aliens lol) but I don't see why Konami and Nintendo would want to work with a company that was so bad at managing their budget.



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Mr Khan on 15 September 2013
JWeinCom said:
Mr Khan said:

It's possible that Platinum's terribad at keeping a reasonable budget, which could explain the difficulties they have with publishers...


Problems with publishers?  I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to.  Since splintering off of Capcom, they've had a pretty stable relationship with Sega, who has published basically all of their games.  Konami brought them in to work on their biggest franchise, and specifically to help fix a project that had gone awry.  I doubt Konami was thinking "Hey, this project has gotten way out of hand.  Why not get the guys with a reputation for going horribly over budget to sink more into it?"  Nintendo also seems very keen on working with them.  I can see Sega wasting money (Aliens lol) but I don't see why Konami and Nintendo would want to work with a company that was so bad at managing their budget.

Sega sent Anarchy Reigns out to die, and then killed Bayonetta 2 outright before Nintendo resuscitated it.



Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.

Nirvana_Nut85 on 17 September 2013
reggin_bolas said:
I think its true. Wii U is already breaking all kinds of bad sales records. It's a lesson in terrible marketing.

Why shouldn't there internal strife? You have smart people like Pacher saying the CEO doesn't know what he is doing and that Nintendo should abandon the hardware industry in favor of becoming a strong third party publisher.

I'd say between 70-80% is true.


Smart people like Patcher??? Are you drunk?



" Rebellion Against Tyrants Is Obedience To God"

justiceiro on 14 June 2014

1 year later, and everything seems more and more true(although some hyperboles are present).

EA confirmed to not support WiiU with FIFA yet another year, but still putting a wii version out there

GTA announced to everything but WiiU

NoE recently had a shutdown on one of their more influent offices in germany

Project robot and project giant are nothing blowing everyone away.

Still looking at this closely



"Hardware design isn’t about making the most powerful thing you can.
Today most hardware design is left to other companies, but when you make hardware without taking into account the needs of the eventual software developers, you end up with bloated hardware full of pointless excess. From the outset one must consider design from both a hardware and software perspective."

Gunpei Yoko

Frogger on 14 June 2014

Knowing the results in retrospect, it's depressive how easy it is for me to believe all of this.



the_dengle on 14 June 2014

Never bump this trash again.