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Forums - Sales Discussion - What data about the console market would you like to have?

famousringo on 10 January 2009

I really wish we had accurate breakdowns of how much developers, publishers, retailers, and console manufacturers get from your typical game sale.



"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event."  — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
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megaman79 on 10 January 2009

How exactly, without being too specific, do vgchartz gather and estimate the data on the site?



“When we make some new announcement and if there is no positive initial reaction from the market, I try to think of it as a good sign because that can be interpreted as people reacting to something groundbreaking. ...if the employees were always minding themselves to do whatever the market is requiring at any moment, and if they were always focusing on something we can sell right now for the short term, it would be very limiting. We are trying to think outside the box.” - Satoru Iwata - This is why corporate multinationals will never truly understand, or risk doing, what Nintendo does.

Khuutra on 10 January 2009

Does this need to be a realistic desire?



JHawkNH on 10 January 2009

2 things.

1. How much does each consule sku cost/make for the company.
2. What is the distribution on funds payed for a game?
ie. How much does Sony/MS/Nin charge for royaltys, how much does the media cost, and how much do stores pay for the games



Dgc1808 on 10 January 2009
JHawkNH said:
2 things.

1. How much does each consule sku cost/make for the company.
2. What is the distribution on funds payed for a game?
ie. How much does Sony/MS/Nin charge for royaltys, how much does the media cost, and how much do stores pay for the games

 

QFT



4 ≈ One

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Avinash_Tyagi on 10 January 2009

Sales updated hourly



 

Predictions:Sales of Wii Fit will surpass the combined sales of the Grand Theft Auto franchiseLifetime sales of Wii will surpass the combined sales of the entire Playstation family of consoles by 12/31/2015 Wii hardware sales will surpass the total hardware sales of the PS2 by 12/31/2010 Wii will have 50% marketshare or more by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  It was a little over 48% only)Wii will surpass 45 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2008 (I was wrong!!  Nintendo Financials showed it fell slightly short of 45 million shipped by end of 2008)Wii will surpass 80 Million in lifetime sales by the end of 2009 (I was wrong!! Wii didn't even get to 70 Million)

Nickelbackro on 10 January 2009

An accurate current breakdown of how expensive it is to make each console and which parts cost the most, and if money is being lost or made in selling them. (and i don't mean cost at launch i mean now after all the die shrinks and price cuts)



Kickin' Those Games Old School.       -       201 Beaten Games And Counting

Xponent on 10 January 2009

This is unrealistic, but historic data about console sales pertaining to my home country would be nice.



c0rd on 10 January 2009

Details on multi-console owners and their game purchases.

Accurate software totals (the sum of all games for each platform).

Everything else has been said (game budgets, breakdown on funds, etc).



Squilliam on 10 January 2009
jammy2211 said:
A break down of where someones $49.99 / $59.99 purchase of a retail game goes and how much retail, publisher, developer, production costs go to.

A better idea of how much games cost to develope would be useful too.
  • 25% (aka $15) goes to pay the art and design guys.
  • 20% ($12) goes to pay the programmers and the engineers.
  • 20% (also $12) goes to your friendly neighborhood retailer. EB / GameStop, whoever.
  • 11.5% ($7) goes to a "Console Owner Fee" - ie. whichever one of the Big Boys made your hardware (Sony, MS, Nintendo.)
  • 7% ($4) goes to marketing, and puts Mad World and Marcus Fenix on MTV.
  • 5% ($3) goes to "market development" -- paying for cardboard Standees of the Gears Crew and elbowing other games out of the way for shelf space at your local retailer.
  • 5% ($3) goes to actually manufacturing and packaging the disc.
  • 5% ($3) is spent paying the Man for IP licenses or maybe hiring some big name voice actors. If your game isn't an original IP, here's where you get dinged by Marvel, Disney, or Ray Liotta's agent.
  • 1.5% (just $1) goes into the publisher's pocket.
  • 1.5% (also $1) goes into the distributor's pocket.
  • 0.3% (about 20 cents) goes into corporate costs. Management, overhead, lawyers, etc.
  • 0.05% (less than 3 cents) go into the cost of paying for the Developer's Hardware. Who knew an SDKs can cost tens of thousands of dollars?

And there you go. $60 of Gears, a la carte. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156044

My question is what is the actual break even point for games when you account for overall company overhead? 1M doesn't seem to be cutting it...

 



Tease.