By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sony - Uncharted's budget was...

weezy on 22 February 2008
Bodhesatva said:
krik said:
DMeisterJ said:
So uncharted has sold 1.25 million copies * sixty bucks a copy, equals 75 million in revenue? I mean, I know some of that goes to the store and Sony, but it basically made profit, right?

So with all of those "ZOMG Killzone 2 costs 50 million" threads will be quenced, so long as it sells ~2 million copies? cool.

Actually it all goes to Sony, Naughty Dog is owned by Sony...


No, not all. Retail take alone is ~15 dollars, let alone manufacturing, packaging, and distribution costs. 40 dollars would be a generous estimate. 

But this isn't just about Uncharted in particular, right? This was about PS3 development costs, and the profitability of said development. The fact that Sony happens to be the publisher in this specific case doesn't help other developers or publishers more generally. 

Naughty Dog happens to be owned by Sony who happens to make this console. What about developers who aren't also publishing their games? What about publishers who aren't making their own console? 

 


probably equal less profit.



I am WEEzY. You can suck my Nintendo loving BALLS!

 

MynameisGARY

Around the Network
Munkeh111 on 22 February 2008

@ bod: doesn't making your own engine just for this game add extra development costs?



Non Sequor on 22 February 2008

I'm pretty sure this is without the cost of marketing. The only information on Uncharted's marketing budget I can find is that they spent 1 million pounds in the UK. The UK has roughly one tenth of the PS3's userbase so it's safe to assume that Sony spent somewhere between $10m and $20m on marketing worldwide.

Also, keep in mind it's more than just making money. It's about the rate of return on your investment. It's very unlikely that Sony will get more than a 2% return on their investment even if Uncharted has long legs.

Keep in mind that a 5 year US Treasury note will give you at least 2.5% (it depends on the market price when you buy one, but the average rate has been 4.5% over the last 10 years) with no risk.



"Ho! Haha! Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Ha! Thrust!" -- Daffy Duck
weezy on 22 February 2008
Munkeh111 said:
@ bod: doesn't making your own engine just for this game add extra development costs?

arent you proving bods point



I am WEEzY. You can suck my Nintendo loving BALLS!

 

MynameisGARY

PooperScooper on 22 February 2008

weezy havent you learned last time you were caught not knowing what you are talking about to leave



Around the Network
weezy on 22 February 2008

I get caught doing alot of things



I am WEEzY. You can suck my Nintendo loving BALLS!

 

MynameisGARY

Munkeh111 on 22 February 2008
weezy said:
Munkeh111 said:
@ bod: doesn't making your own engine just for this game add extra development costs?

arent you proving bods point


 In what way? Many third parties either use something like the Unreal Engine, or they recycle engines for many games, and they have a cross platform one so that they can get the game on PS3 and 360 more easily.

What uncharted shows is that good games sell, if a dev makes a good game it will sell (with the exception of Folklore)



fkusumot on 22 February 2008
krik said:
fkusumot said:
 

What's the source for your number of 20 million?


Richard Lemarchand, the lead designer for Uncharted. At the end of the session during the Q&A, some guy asked him how much was the budget and he clearly answered $20M.


 Did that include marketing costs or just production costs?



I Blame Wii Fit!

phil on 22 February 2008

Bodhesatva said:
phil said:
Bodhesatva said:

This is a classic debating tactic.

First, you insist that your "opponent" has claimed some ridiculously high (or low) statistic.

Then, you show that the actual value of that statistic is lower than the ridiculous claim.

"Some people claim that over a million people die each year due to gun related violence in the US. In reality, it's less than two hundred thousand!"

 

 

This makes it look your figure is actually low, when it's only low in comparison to some ridiculously high figure.

I don't think any reasonable person here thought that games were averaging 40 million, just that some of the higher end games did cost that much (such as Killzone2 and MGS4). I honestly don't know of anyone who thought this was the norm.

20 Million is very high, and puts the given estimates for copies needed to break even right where we've heard they are for higher end games: 700-1000k units. Sounds about right to me, and only further cements my perception that the PS3 is, indeed, very expensive to develop for.


Here's the problem: you aren't actually quoting any real statistics EITHER. All you're doing is saying "well, it's 2x the cost of development of a last generation game." Well no friggin crap. And it cost more to develop on PS2 than it did for PS1. Was it double the cost, I dunno, but logically, it's more.

So, if you're terribly interested in intellectual honesty, how about, instead of saying that you think it simply must be expensive, give us some statistics to back your point up, such as budgets for games of comparable quality for the PS3/360.


You seem to have missed my point.

Another classic debate tactic... someone calls you on something and you go back on it and say that isn't what you meant.  I suspect a strained parsing of your own words is to come.

If your point is that developing a game on the PS3 is expensive for mere mortals, than your point is moot, because everyone already knew that. The same probably applies to every video game system on the planet. If your point is that the PS3 is expensive to develop for, even relative to it's competition, then your point may not be moot, but you've failed to give evidence for your claim.

If those aren't your points, please enlighten me.



HappySqurriel on 22 February 2008

$20 Million for a game which lasts less than 10 hours (with no multiplayer) is far from what I would call an inexpensive game. To maintain this level of content for a game that would last the more reasonable (and expected at one point in time) 20 to 40 hours would be somewhere between $40 and $80 Million.

Remember, this also isn't the total cost being that a game with this large of a development budget probably had a similar marketing budget; with how often Uncharted advertisements were on the air (including some spots on very popular shows) the marketing budget may even be larger than the development budget.

What this all means is that a PS3 game like Uncharted probably needs sales that are (at least) 1 Million to truely break even, and probably needs sales that are 1.5 to 2 Million to justify the development of the game (to cover the opportunity loss).