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Forums - Gaming - So, Final Fantasy 13 will have cost $100+ million to make?

Zuhyc on 07 August 2009
Hephaestos said:
between the development costs, the man hours and the advertisement they are gonna do, I highly doubt that this game can cover it's costs.... especially with the userbase it releases to in JP...

Now if you discount the development to the 10 next games, sure... why not discount the man hours too cause that's experience gained on the HD consoles? Or the advertizing cause it increases brand recognition?

FFXIII is mostly sunk cost for Square, but that's in the previous fiscal years already.

SE should hire you, they'll never loose money that way



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outlawauron on 07 August 2009
Zuhyc said:
Slimebeast said:
Soriku said:
Anyone have a break down on what the game might have to sell to make a profit on both consoles? For sure I don't think they're gonna be making a lot of money on this game...


Costs:
Development: $100 mill
Marketing and promotion: $30 million
-------------

= $130 million

Each shipped copy gives the publisher $25.

130 mill/25= 5.200,000 copies of FF13 on PS360 need to be shipped to break even.

Can you tell me how expensive XIV is? And Versus XIII? Agito XIII? Birth By Sleep? Kingdom Hearts III? FF XV?

Thanks

Look. He has no idea and he's using nothing to base his numbers. This no source or credit to the development budget and no source or credit to a marketing budget.



"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."

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invetedlotus123 on 07 August 2009
Slimebeast said:
Soriku said:
Anyone have a break down on what the game might have to sell to make a profit on both consoles? For sure I don't think they're gonna be making a lot of money on this game...


Costs:
Development: $100 mill
Marketing and promotion: $30 million
-------------
= $130 million

Each shipped copy gives the publisher $25 in revenue.

$130 mill/$25= 5.200,000 copies of FF13 on PS360 need to be shipped to break even.


Your accounts are a little wrong, considering FFXIII alone costs 100 million plus 30 million for marketing it would need less to break even. Here in Vgchartz they posted the split of profit for each copy sold, and for each HD game dev gets 35 dollars selling it for 60$, considering this game moves lots of special editions that depending of the extra contents costs to 20~30 dollars more than standard edition, what would mean for each 90$ LE sold they would get 10~15 dollars more than from standard edition. So, 35 dolars for each standard edition and 45 for each special edition (let's consider the minimum increase of profit).

 

And remember that the same game that is sold for 60 dolars in US is sold for 60 EUR in Europe, EUR value more than dolar. So, for each copy in EU they get 35 EUR from standard and 45 EUR from each special edition. And in Japan the game is released for the equivalent of 80 dolars(DQ and FF use to be overpriced in release), Dev get more than 50% of the game, so a 45 dolars for each copy in Japan is pretty reallistic.

 

Well, so this game would need much less than 5.2 million to break even, 4 million would break even already.



Slimebeast on 07 August 2009
outlawauron said:
Zuhyc said:
Slimebeast said:
Soriku said:
Anyone have a break down on what the game might have to sell to make a profit on both consoles? For sure I don't think they're gonna be making a lot of money on this game...


Costs:
Development: $100 mill
Marketing and promotion: $30 million
-------------

= $130 million

Each shipped copy gives the publisher $25.

130 mill/25= 5.200,000 copies of FF13 on PS360 need to be shipped to break even.

Can you tell me how expensive XIV is? And Versus XIII? Agito XIII? Birth By Sleep? Kingdom Hearts III? FF XV?

Thanks

Look. He has no idea and he's using nothing to base his numbers. This no source or credit to the development budget and no source or credit to a marketing budget.

lol@you



Zuhyc on 07 August 2009
outlawauron said:
Zuhyc said:
Slimebeast said:
Soriku said:
Anyone have a break down on what the game might have to sell to make a profit on both consoles? For sure I don't think they're gonna be making a lot of money on this game...


Costs:
Development: $100 mill
Marketing and promotion: $30 million
-------------

= $130 million

Each shipped copy gives the publisher $25.

130 mill/25= 5.200,000 copies of FF13 on PS360 need to be shipped to break even.

Can you tell me how expensive XIV is? And Versus XIII? Agito XIII? Birth By Sleep? Kingdom Hearts III? FF XV?

Thanks

Look. He has no idea and he's using nothing to base his numbers. This no source or credit to the development budget and no source or credit to a marketing budget.

Dang, here I am thinking he knew everything



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Slimebeast on 07 August 2009
invetedlotus123 said:
Slimebeast said:
Soriku said:
Anyone have a break down on what the game might have to sell to make a profit on both consoles? For sure I don't think they're gonna be making a lot of money on this game...


Costs:
Development: $100 mill
Marketing and promotion: $30 million
-------------
= $130 million

Each shipped copy gives the publisher $25 in revenue.

$130 mill/$25= 5.200,000 copies of FF13 on PS360 need to be shipped to break even.


Your accounts are a little wrong, considering FFXIII alone costs 100 million plus 30 million for marketing it would need less to break even. Here in Vgchartz they posted the split of profit for each copy sold, and for each HD game dev gets 35 dollars selling it for 60$, considering this game moves lots of special editions that depending of the extra contents costs to 20~30 dollars more than standard edition, what would mean for each 90$ LE sold they would get 10~15 dollars more than from standard edition. So, 35 dolars for each standard edition and 45 for each special edition (let's consider the minimum increase of profit).

 

And remember that the same game that is sold for 60 dolars in US is sold for 60 EUR in Europe, EUR value more than dolar. So, for each copy in EU they get 35 EUR from standard and 45 EUR from each special edition. And in Japan the game is released for the equivalent of 80 dolars(DQ and FF use to be overpriced in release), Dev get more than 50% of the game, so a 45 dolars for each copy in Japan is pretty reallistic.

 

Well, so this game would need much less than 5.2 million to break even, 4 million would break even already.

$35 per copy is a myth based on the split on Gears of War. On average devs/publishers get less than that. But maybe $30 is possible with FF13, in best case scenario.

Europe revenue from games sold is same as American sales though. You misunderstood the pricing in Europe.



TheSource on 07 August 2009

I don't think FFXIII cost $100 million. I could see $50 million. But its releasing on Xbox 360 and PS3. It is going to do 5-10m worldwide so it will be profitable pretty easily.

For an average $60 PS3/360 game, a third party gets $35 back in the USA for the first 200,000 copies, then more after 200,000, more after 400,000, more after 1,000,000 from what I've been told.

So the first 200k is $7m, the next 200k is $7.2m, then next 600k is $22.2m, the next 1m is $38m etc. So you can make $72.6m or so if you sell a million copies. That means if the development is $50 million then they're fine. The port probably adds another couple million, and I would expect it to have a big ad campaign. But it should be profitable week one in Japan - what it sells outside of Japan is gravy.



People are difficult to govern because they have too much knowledge.

When there are more laws, there are more criminals.

- Lao Tzu

invetedlotus123 on 07 August 2009
TheSource said:

I don't think FFXIII cost $100 million. I could see $50 million. But its releasing on Xbox 360 and PS3. It is going to do 5-10m worldwide so it will be profitable pretty easily.

For an average $60 PS3/360 game, a third party gets $35 back in the USA for the first 200,000 copies, then more after 200,000, more after 400,000, more after 1,000,000 from what I've been told.

So the first 200k is $7m, the next 200k is $7.2m, then next 600k is $22.2m, the next 1m is $38m etc. So you can make $72.6m or so if you sell a million copies. That means if the development is $50 million then they're fine. The port probably adds another couple million, and I would expect it to have a big ad campaign. But it should be profitable week one in Japan - what it sells outside of Japan is gravy.


How will they'll go getting more from each copy as they sell more? They just get increasing their price to retailers?



Slimebeast on 07 August 2009
TheSource said:

I don't think FFXIII cost $100 million. I could see $50 million. But its releasing on Xbox 360 and PS3. It is going to do 5-10m worldwide so it will be profitable pretty easily.

For an average $60 PS3/360 game, a third party gets $35 back in the USA for the first 200,000 copies, then more after 200,000, more after 400,000, more after 1,000,000 from what I've been told.

So the first 200k is $7m, the next 200k is $7.2m, then next 600k is $22.2m, the next 1m is $38m etc. So you can make $72.6m or so if you sell a million copies. That means if the development is $50 million then they're fine. The port probably adds another couple million, and I would expect it to have a big ad campaign. But it should be profitable week one in Japan - what it sells outside of Japan is gravy.


Your numbers are so off. If it were like that, all the publishers would have 50% profit margins.



outlawauron on 07 August 2009

@ TheSource

You have to consider the different prices in Japan. Final Fantasy XIII will cost $90-100 at the very least at launch in Japan. That's over 1.5 million copies bought at 1.5x the American retail.



"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.