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Forums - Microsoft Discussion - Gears of War 2 had a $12 million development budget

Seinfeld on 23 August 2009
Wandamaximoff said:
This is the problem! Ps3 games make such little money!!!!!

Sony made the ps3 based on it being the market leader and its being bigger than ps2! They were relying on huge volumes of games being sold making it profitable for games developers!

Such a shame!!!

I remember reading Crackdown only broke even. With that said I'd be surprised if many of the Sony games have even made a profit.

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Riachu on 23 August 2009
Slimebeast said:
Munkeh111 said:
That looks nicer, though is there no other game that you could pick that actually has a box art? (KUF II)


There ain't that many games (and I really want to show a beautiful KUF II screen). I was thinking Rage, since it's one of the best looking upcoming games, but I don't like the look of it's boxart that's submitted here on VGC database. I hope it's not an official one. Do you think it is?

That box is fake because it says M rated when id intend to make RAGE T rated.



 

http://www.youtube.com/user/InvaderZimGuy1?feature=mhum

Slimebeast on 23 August 2009
Munkeh111 said:
I hope that is not official, it makes me want to vomit! Are you really not getting Modern Warfare 2?


lol yes it's that ugly.

Modern Warfare 2, doubt it strongly. Linear, triggers, scripted, endless spawns... typically those are gameplay characteristics that make me vomit.



sguy78 on 23 August 2009

That just seems really low.



Munkeh111 on 23 August 2009
Slimebeast said:
Munkeh111 said:
I hope that is not official, it makes me want to vomit! Are you really not getting Modern Warfare 2?

lol yes it's that ugly.

Modern Warfare 2, doubt it strongly. Linear, triggers, scripted, endless spawns... typically those are gameplay characteristics that make me vomit.

No more endless spawns or triggers. Highly linear games often tell great stories, as the original did and the MP is awesome



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Slimebeast on 23 August 2009
Munkeh111 said:
Slimebeast said:
Munkeh111 said:
I hope that is not official, it makes me want to vomit! Are you really not getting Modern Warfare 2?

lol yes it's that ugly.

Modern Warfare 2, doubt it strongly. Linear, triggers, scripted, endless spawns... typically those are gameplay characteristics that make me vomit.

No more endless spawns or triggers. Highly linear games often tell great stories, as the original did and the MP is awesome


Last time there was a demo. I guess I'll let the demo decide again.



JEDE3 on 23 August 2009
stika said:
Slimebeast said:
Munkeh111 said:
mrstickball said:
Munkeh - Every number I've seen for KZ2 has put it at, or above $40 million USD.

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/2503.html
http://www.digitalbattle.com/2006/11/28/killzone-ps3-info/

Essentially, KZ2 had, for some time, 120+ developers on the project. Also, the development time was considerably higher. Given the factors (time + developers), the minimum budget had to of been near the rumors of $40 million, if not more.

I'm not saying it is not far fetched, I just want sources. GG have 140 people, and it was 2 1/2 years between Killzone Liberation and KZ 2, and they would have had devs working on it before then, but this is just speculation. And may I point out that this GeoW 2 cost does not include the engine work that was done seperately, so if you add the 2 GeoWs together, they would probably come to KZ 2. Then again, so would the 2 Uncharteds. The fact is, GG are an inexperienced studio that created loads of new tech for this game, so they will definitely be able to develop games cheaper in the future.


140 people x 2 = 280 man years (extended over 3 years of development, 3 times 90 guys on average if you like)

Each man years costs $150,000.

Total dev cost KZ2: 280 x $150k= $42 million. That's a minimum/conservative estimation in my opinion. And marketing costs excluded of course.

Including marketing, total game creation costs: ~$60 million, so KZ2 will need to sell roughly $60 million/$30 = 2 million copies to break even.
(excluding bundled copies since they don't contribute even one dime in revenue, although bundles help selll consoles and other games of course)

don't forget, the game's publicity for europe alone was 5 million.... sony really spent a lot on this one


Please don't get traped!



Riachu on 23 August 2009
Munkeh111 said:
Slimebeast said:
Munkeh111 said:
I hope that is not official, it makes me want to vomit! Are you really not getting Modern Warfare 2?

lol yes it's that ugly.

Modern Warfare 2, doubt it strongly. Linear, triggers, scripted, endless spawns... typically those are gameplay characteristics that make me vomit.

No more endless spawns or triggers. Highly linear games often tell great stories, as the original did and the MP is awesome

That's is true for genres that aren't shooters or RTSs.  That doesn't mean less linear games can't tell great stories though.



 

http://www.youtube.com/user/InvaderZimGuy1?feature=mhum

Lostplanet22 on 23 August 2009
JaggedSac said:

So the profit margin on this is insane.

$12 million budget.

5.11 million sales.

Lets say an average of $40 per sale. This would be minus the retailer profit.

$204,400,000 in sales.

Minus MS's publishing percentage EPIC definitely made a very nice profit on this game. Probably enough to allow MS to purchase the exclusive rights to the next one.

 

I am just taking a stab at these numbers.  Anyone know the actual percentages and sold to retail costs?


I wanted to say it is probably less cause a lot of those sales came when it was cheaper (in some Eu countries).  But then they made more than 40$ with the games sold in Europe.



 

WereKitten on 23 August 2009
Slimebeast said:


140 people x 2 = 280 man years (extended over 3 years of development, 3 times 90 guys on average if you like)

Each man years costs $150,000.

Total dev cost KZ2: 280 x $150k= $42 million. That's a minimum/conservative estimation in my opinion. And marketing costs excluded of course.

Including marketing, total game creation costs: ~$60 million, so KZ2 will need to sell roughly $60 million/$30 = 2 million copies to break even.
(excluding bundled copies since they don't contribute even one dime in revenue, although bundles help selll consoles and other games of course)

You're also forgetting the DLC packs. Between the three of them it's probably been at least 1M downloads. That's at least $6M revenue minus the cost of creation of those 6 maps. That would put KZ2 right about the break even point right now, though we don't really know the actual numbers.

Back to OT: it shows the convenience of using middleware, even though it means not pushing the hardware as much. That's probably going to count more and more as the software tools for this generation mature.



"All you need in life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure." - Mark Twain

"..." - Gordon Freeman