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

Forums - Sony - ps3 production budget for big games

neotea on 29 December 2008

Yup breaking even is not good.  In busieness to make money not break even and a below 20pct return on profit is not entirely bad but not good either since the profit are use to reinvest in back into the company.



I TAKE NO SIDES

Around the Network
Ail on 29 December 2008
RPG said:
BengaBenga said:
We know that GTA4 was 100 million and Lost Planet little over 20 million to make. Those are afaik the only two specific numbers we have for this gen.

MGS4 is estimated around 50 million, Killzone is rumoured to be 65 million. This is likely including advertising.

On average 20-30 dollars of a game go to the publisher, but for first party games there are no licensing fees, so this is $8 per sold game higher for PS3 for Sony published titles.

So GTA4's break even point was 3.3-4 million units, Lost Planet 700k-1 million. Be aware that break even is a bad result for a company, I think a return on investment of 20% is the lower end of success.

 

MGS4 must have given Konami a very tidy profit then. GT5 is most definitely the most expensive first party game, dont even need numbers when I know PD is huge and the game has been in production for years. Sony cater to every whim and need of PD as well most probably, cant blame them after what they have done. I doubt Killzone 2 will ever make a profit but that game seems to be a "look at what the PS3 can do" game and simply establishes Guerrilla as a major first party.

Home is what I am most interested in, any estimations on how much that cost to make?

 

MGS4 has sold over 3.5 million copies so far, so profit is probably already around 25 million $, a 50% return, not very tidy in most business books.........



PS3-Xbox360 gap : 1.5 millions and going up in PS3 favor !

PS3-Wii gap : 20 millions and going down !

neotea on 29 December 2008
RPG said:
BengaBenga said:
We know that GTA4 was 100 million and Lost Planet little over 20 million to make. Those are afaik the only two specific numbers we have for this gen.

MGS4 is estimated around 50 million, Killzone is rumoured to be 65 million. This is likely including advertising.

On average 20-30 dollars of a game go to the publisher, but for first party games there are no licensing fees, so this is $8 per sold game higher for PS3 for Sony published titles.

So GTA4's break even point was 3.3-4 million units, Lost Planet 700k-1 million. Be aware that break even is a bad result for a company, I think a return on investment of 20% is the lower end of success.

 

MGS4 must have given Konami a very tidy profit then. GT5 is most definitely the most expensive first party game, dont even need numbers when I know PD is huge and the game has been in production for years. Sony cater to every whim and need of PD as well most probably, cant blame them after what they have done. I doubt Killzone 2 will ever make a profit but that game seems to be a "look at what the PS3 can do" game and simply establishes Guerrilla as a major first party.

Home is what I am most interested in, any estimations on how much that cost to make?

 

Not sure what kinda profit MGS4 had for konami.  I know MGS4 had a big advertisement push.  Your probably looking at a total of 70mil and up for MGS4 which is 50mil develpment cost and 20mil advertisement cost and that is conservative.



I TAKE NO SIDES

RPG on 29 December 2008
Ail said:
RPG said:
BengaBenga said:
We know that GTA4 was 100 million and Lost Planet little over 20 million to make. Those are afaik the only two specific numbers we have for this gen.

MGS4 is estimated around 50 million, Killzone is rumoured to be 65 million. This is likely including advertising.

On average 20-30 dollars of a game go to the publisher, but for first party games there are no licensing fees, so this is $8 per sold game higher for PS3 for Sony published titles.

So GTA4's break even point was 3.3-4 million units, Lost Planet 700k-1 million. Be aware that break even is a bad result for a company, I think a return on investment of 20% is the lower end of success.

 

MGS4 must have given Konami a very tidy profit then. GT5 is most definitely the most expensive first party game, dont even need numbers when I know PD is huge and the game has been in production for years. Sony cater to every whim and need of PD as well most probably, cant blame them after what they have done. I doubt Killzone 2 will ever make a profit but that game seems to be a "look at what the PS3 can do" game and simply establishes Guerrilla as a major first party.

Home is what I am most interested in, any estimations on how much that cost to make?

 

MGS4 has sold over 3.5 million copies so far, so profit is probably already around 25 million $, a 50% return, not very tidy in most business books.........

..................................cant detect sarcasm on the internet, were you being serious?

 



 

BengaBenga on 29 December 2008
RPG said:
BengaBenga said:
We know that GTA4 was 100 million and Lost Planet little over 20 million to make. Those are afaik the only two specific numbers we have for this gen.

MGS4 is estimated around 50 million, Killzone is rumoured to be 65 million. This is likely including advertising.

On average 20-30 dollars of a game go to the publisher, but for first party games there are no licensing fees, so this is $8 per sold game higher for PS3 for Sony published titles.

So GTA4's break even point was 3.3-4 million units, Lost Planet 700k-1 million. Be aware that break even is a bad result for a company, I think a return on investment of 20% is the lower end of success.

 

MGS4 must have given Konami a very tidy profit then. GT5 is most definitely the most expensive first party game, dont even need numbers when I know PD is huge and the game has been in production for years. Sony cater to every whim and need of PD as well most probably, cant blame them after what they have done. I doubt Killzone 2 will ever make a profit but that game seems to be a "look at what the PS3 can do" game and simply establishes Guerrilla as a major first party.

Home is what I am most interested in, any estimations on how much that cost to make?

I'm sure Konami is happy with MGS4 results, however the income for the game compared to previous titles has probably decreased a lot.

I think GT5 will be the most expensive game we'll see this gen, but it will also likely earn a lot of money. It's not the big franchises that are a big risk. GT5 will easily sell 5 million units, resulting in at least $150 million revenue for Sony. It's the smaller/new series that have to sell around a million to break even that are huge financial risks. Stranglehold almost killed a big publisher.

MGS4 has sold over 3.5 million copies so far, so profit is probably already around 25 million $, a 50% return, not very tidy in most business books.........

I think for game develoeprs that's not an enormous amount of ROI, especially not considering it's Konami's biggest franchise. Again, it's a good result, but you have to take into acount that a game like MGS should cover for the risk of developing new franchises and engines etc.

Yup breaking even is not good.  In busieness to make money not break even and a below 20pct return on profit is not entirely bad but not good either since the profit are use to reinvest in back into the company.

Or paying the shareholders...which is the #1 goal for a company.

 

 



Around the Network
RPG on 29 December 2008

I would just like to say that PES is the bigger franchise for Konami, by far I might add. Say GT5 cost 100 million, it is already paying off with the prologue, it might even be the case where PD have already paid off 50% of the debt for creating the game.



 

gebx on 29 December 2008

Two things

1) the article is over two years old... similar threads where created two years ago...

2) the average PS3 game two years ago were ports



Proud Member of GAIBoWS (Gamers Against Irrational Bans of Weezy & Squilliam)

                   

outlawauron on 29 December 2008
neotea said:
You got to factor in that the 20mil and 15 mil budget does not account for advertisement. The 20mil and 15mil is the development cost. Advertisement is seperate and avg 10mil to 20mil for avg game low end to higher end 20mil. A lot of people seem to forget the advertising and distribution cost which are not factored in the development cost.

Yes, yes it does.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

coolestguyever on 29 December 2008
colonelstubbs said:
Isnt Killzone 2 about $50 million or so?

 

 I thought i heard $60 mil in a previous thread.

I think they cost most on PS3 because of HD and Blu Ray



Thrillhouse on 29 December 2008

Here is simple math (Broken down in easy speak)
Obviously this isn't rocket science, but I bet it comes within 25% of reality.

If your game costs $20 million to make
(AFTER EVERYTHING HAS BEEN APPLIED)

And your game costs $60 a pop...

You need to sell 333,334 copies to break even... yay!

=)



Predictions For Last Full Week of Sales in 2010)

WII - 80.35 Million

360 - 43.88 Million

PS3 - 41.40 Million

More terrible predictions coming Jan. 2011!!!