How far away are we from seeing games like Horizon: Zero Dawn and Spiderman 2018 on Switch/Switch 2?

Tico

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Tico 2 days ago

Soundwave said:

Except ... they do? Real Madrid pays outrageous salaries to their players. Equating the "staff" like trainers at Real Madrid is like talking about the janitor or window cleaners that works at Insomnaic ... they don't develop the games. The "staff" at game studios like designers/producers/programmers/artists are more like *players*.

Some examples:

Makelele wanted more money “because I am the best midfielder and I should be paid as such.” And they showed him the door.

Vicente del Bosque wanted more money “because I am a five-star coach and I should be paid as such.” And they showed him the door.

Camacho and Zidane left but not because of money, but because of opinions incompatible with those of the president.

zeldaring

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zeldaring 2 days ago

Soundwave said:

zeldaring said:

We have leaked data from Sony clearly showing what the development cost and it was 89 million.

I've seen more detailed breakdowns

This includes costs of things like post game patches too, you can see there an almost $500k charge for what is presumably a patch on Sept. 1st 2021 period. This is a much more detailed breakdown of the costs, as I've said you can see why Sony is scared of $300-$400 million dollar budgets in their internal memos.

Title	Year	Location	Dev Rate	Dev cost	Years	Peak FTE	COGS	Marketing	Dev+Marketing
GTA6	2025	Edinburgh		600				500	1,100
COD	2022	CA mainly	143	300	3	700		200	500
Spiderman 2	2023	California	135	308	6	380	188	35	343
C2077	2020	Warsaw	41	174	8	530		142	316
TLOU II	2020	California	157	220	5	300			220+
Horizon FW	2022	Amsterdam	141	212	7	200			212+
GoW Ragnorak	2022	California	133	200	5	300			200+
Starfield	2023	Austin	133	200	6	250			200+
C2077 PL	2023	Warsaw	67	104	3	514		22	126
Immortals of A	2023	California	142	85	6	100		40	125
Spiderman MM	2020	California		82			29	25	107
RC Rift Apart	2021	California		81			8	14	95
Alan Wake II	2023	Espoo		55	5			22	77
Lords of Fallen	2023	Warsaw	105	42	8	50		19	66
Ghost of Tsushima	2020	Washington	63	60	6	160			60+

Crazy that spiderman 2 is the highest budget game of all time lol.

Title	Year	Location	Dev Rate	Dev Cost	Years	Peak FTE	COGS	Marketing	Dev+Marketing
GTA5	2013	Edinburgh	95	137	4	360		128	265
Spiderman	2018	California		140			45	18	185
Destiny	2014	Washington	93	140	5	300			140+
Shadow of Tomb R	2018	Cali/Montreal	93	75	4	400		35	110
Watch Dogs	2014	Montreal	34	68	4	500			68+
Witcher 3	2015	Warsaw	38	32	3.5	240		35	67
Crysis 3	2013	Frankfurt	300	66	2	100			66+
Control	2019	Espoo	57	36	3	210		10	46
RC PS4	2016	California		14

Title	Year	Location	Dev Rate	Dev Cost	Years	Peak FTE	Marketing
COD MW2	2009	California	138	50	3	120	150
GTA4	2008	Edinburgh	78	100	4	320
Dead Space 2	2011	California	133	60	3	150	60
Halo 2	2004	Washington	133	40	3	100	80
Skyrim	2011	Austin	212	85	4	100	15
GT5	2010	Tokyo	67	60	6	150
Halo 3	2007	Washington	83	30	3	120	30
Heavy Rain	2010	Paris	55	22	4	100	30
Killzone 2	2009	Amsterdam	67	50	4	120
Gears 3	2011	Maryland	80	48	4	150
God of War 3	2010	California	83	44	4	132
Lost Planet	2008	Osaka	50	20	4	100	20
Uncharted 2	2009	California	40	20	2.5	200
AC	2007	Montreal		20	3
Witcher 2	2011	Warsaw	15	10	4	170

Soundwave

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Soundwave 2 days ago

zeldaring said:

Soundwave said:

I've seen more detailed breakdowns

This includes costs of things like post game patches too, you can see there an almost $500k charge for what is presumably a patch on Sept. 1st 2021 period. This is a much more detailed breakdown of the costs, as I've said you can see why Sony is scared of $300-$400 million dollar budgets in their internal memos.

Title	Year	Location	Dev Rate	Dev cost	Years	Peak FTE	COGS	Marketing	Dev+Marketing
GTA6	2025	Edinburgh		600				500	1,100
COD	2022	CA mainly	143	300	3	700		200	500
Spiderman 2	2023	California	135	308	6	380	188	35	343
C2077	2020	Warsaw	41	174	8	530		142	316
TLOU II	2020	California	157	220	5	300			220+
Horizon FW	2022	Amsterdam	141	212	7	200			212+
GoW Ragnorak	2022	California	133	200	5	300			200+
Starfield	2023	Austin	133	200	6	250			200+
C2077 PL	2023	Warsaw	67	104	3	514		22	126
Immortals of A	2023	California	142	85	6	100		40	125
Spiderman MM	2020	California		82			29	25	107
RC Rift Apart	2021	California		81			8	14	95
Alan Wake II	2023	Espoo		55	5			22	77
Lords of Fallen	2023	Warsaw	105	42	8	50		19	66
Ghost of Tsushima	2020	Washington	63	60	6	160			60+

Crazy that spiderman 2 is the highest budget game of all time lol.

Title	Year	Location	Dev Rate	Dev Cost	Years	Peak FTE	COGS	Marketing	Dev+Marketing
GTA5	2013	Edinburgh	95	137	4	360		128	265
Spiderman	2018	California		140			45	18	185
Destiny	2014	Washington	93	140	5	300			140+
Shadow of Tomb R	2018	Cali/Montreal	93	75	4	400		35	110
Watch Dogs	2014	Montreal	34	68	4	500			68+
Witcher 3	2015	Warsaw	38	32	3.5	240		35	67
Crysis 3	2013	Frankfurt	300	66	2	100			66+
Control	2019	Espoo	57	36	3	210		10	46
RC PS4	2016	California		14

Title	Year	Location	Dev Rate	Dev Cost	Years	Peak FTE	Marketing
COD MW2	2009	California	138	50	3	120	150
GTA4	2008	Edinburgh	78	100	4	320
Dead Space 2	2011	California	133	60	3	150	60
Halo 2	2004	Washington	133	40	3	100	80
Skyrim	2011	Austin	212	85	4	100	15
GT5	2010	Tokyo	67	60	6	150
Halo 3	2007	Washington	83	30	3	120	30
Heavy Rain	2010	Paris	55	22	4	100	30
Killzone 2	2009	Amsterdam	67	50	4	120
Gears 3	2011	Maryland	80	48	4	150
God of War 3	2010	California	83	44	4	132
Lost Planet	2008	Osaka	50	20	4	100	20
Uncharted 2	2009	California	40	20	2.5	200
AC	2007	Montreal		20	3
Witcher 2	2011	Warsaw	15	10	4	170

Think that GTA6 number is off too, that number will be $2 billion for development + marketing.

That's the other problem, these people are all in the same industry and they talk. If I'm a talented employee at Insomniac, odds are if someone doing my job on GTA6 is getting paid 2x-3x more and I feel I'm better than them ... well of course I'm going to ask for a raise eventually too.

That Starfield number is low too I think, it was supposed to cost $200 million originally, but ended up at $400 million:

https://www.neogaf.com/threads/starfield-budget-started-at-200m-final-estimate-at-400m-and-500-devs.1660457/

The next Elder Scrolls game will probably double this to $800+ million.

Last edited by Soundwave - 2 days ago