I believe we have had similar threads before, but since i couldn't find one, i made a new topic. So, how much does publisher/developer earn per copy? Generally price difference between 1st party and 3rd party games is 5-15€, depending on the game, importer and platform in question. The price difference should mostly offset the licensing fees. As we know, atleast Nintendo has the "budget" pricing for "budget" games licence fees, which is something around 5$ per copy. Nintendo was selling SMG for 35€ for retailers and MKWii for 30€, which includes manufacturing of discs and boxes and shipping to retail/importer/to Nintendos logistic center. Any guesses? Or information? My own estimation would be between 10-20$ per copy.

The average US game is around $50, the retailers probably make around $20 a game. Then the license fee is probably $5-10 leaving around $20-25 for the publisher.

Too many circumstances to even ball park this. It can be different from publisher to publisher, country to country, game to game, retail to retail, distributor to distributor, volume shipped, etc...

These figures aren't readily available because they waiver so much from game to game.

They range from as low as $4.00 to as high as $20.00 but the circumstances are wide.

Shipping is, at least here in Norway, paid by the store.

According to this: http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_pricing

Blu-Ray discs will cost at least 3X as much (to produce) as DVDs this generation. I assume that HD-DVD then costs somewhere in betweenof DVD and Blu-Ray

Now, I can't find any info on how much the DVD costs, but I guess about 1 dollar. That would mean that each disc costs 1 dollar for Wii, 2 for 360 and 3 for Ps3. Remember, much of this is assumptions.

I can't find the link, but I think that Nintendo takes about 800 yen to let you publish on their console, which would make it about 7.5 dollars. I can't find the link, sorry.

Then there is the store. A worker at my local store told me that they took about 100NOK to take in a game. That's about 18 dollars or 12 Euro. Of course, Norway is an expensive country, so the actual price should be lower, at about 10 Euroes or such (15 dollars)

I don't know if I have forgotten anything, but for the things I have put up, it should be a cost of 20-30 dollars at least. Of course, 1st party titles then have about 7 dollars less in price.

Viper1 said: Too many circumstances to even ball park this. It can be different from publisher to publisher, country to country, game to game, retail to retail, distributor to distributor, volume shipped, etc... These figures aren't readily available because they waiver so much from game to game. They range from as low as $4.00 to as high as $20.00 but the circumstances are wide.

I think you need to add sellthrough (as in number of manufactured -> shipped to retail) to variables. I was thinking more like "standard" priced game with "standard" licence fees, which i believe varies between 10 and 20$. In the other hand, it must be more since 20M budget isn't rare these days, but with 20$ per copy, a million selling game would only break even.

Oyvoyvoyv, Wii and X360 use basically the exact same optical medium so disc prices would also be practically the same.

^

There can't be that many 20M + games, SMG cost 14M to make (no link, someone said it somewhere with a link, but can't find it)

How many games could possibly be a lot more costy than SMG?

Oyvoyvoyv said: Shipping is, at least here in Norway, paid by the store. According to this: http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_pricing Blu-Ray discs will cost at least 3X as much (to produce) as DVDs this generation. I assume that HD-DVD then costs somewhere in betweenof DVD and Blu-Ray Now, I can't find any info on how much the DVD costs, but I guess about 1 dollar. That would mean that each disc costs 1 dollar for Wii, 2 for 360 and 3 for Ps3. Remember, much of this is assumptions.

Mass produced DVDs cost cents to make, no way near $1, 3x cents is still cents, it's really not a major factor, the cost per game is insignificant.

360 uses DVD, not HD-DVD. You might aswell forget about HD-DVD, with MS not using it for games, and Movie Studios not using it for movies it's a dead format.

Ok, sorry my mistake.

Oyvoyvoyv said: ^ There can't be that many 20M + games, SMG cost 14M to make (no link, someone said it somewhere with a link, but can't find it) How many games could possibly be a lot more costy than SMG?

Was that sarcasm? GTA4, 100M, MGS4 estimated 70M, FF13 propably is around 100M range too. Ubisofts PS360 games average above SMG budget... Retail pays the shipping from publishers warehouse to retail, but publisher pays factory to warehouse. @BKK: If i recall, CD:s were around 10 cents a piece, so i'd take DVD costs around the same, but is it with the box or without it and with or without the cover paper (printing and packaging).