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

daiyumn on 22 August 2009
JEDE3 said:
Slimebeast said:
I refuse to believe Gears 2 only cost $12 million.

I estimate $150,000 x 60 people x 2 years = $18 million minimum, which doesn't include engine licensing(since it's in-house) or marketing. A $18 million budget should roughly cover other small middle-ware licenses and China outsourcing though.


no where in the overview does it say 60 people were working on the game for 2 years... also... 150k? why?


yea cuz if that is true i would be working for games right now



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dolemit3 on 22 August 2009
mrstickball said:

@Slimebeast:

Their $12 million statement is well within the limits they defined:

15 programmers

45 artists

= $12m.

At $100,000 salary/yr, that would cover the development part of the budget. I would assume, though, this doesn't cover all the other associated costs like marketing, and other costs.

Still, it's wild to think that the entire Gears of War trilogy's development cost will be well under the development budget of top-tier PS3 titles like Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. Talk about a huge profit margin.

As I've always said, it's data like this that solidifies the need for hardware manufacturers to subsidize development engines like UE3 for their partners to use, for free. This would drastically reduce development costs for developers, since studios that are paying so much for their games are doing it due to using one-off solutions and/or starting from scratch.

Marketing is not the same as development and is not included in the original budget, at least not under the same development expense.



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mrstickball on 22 August 2009

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.



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Munkeh111 on 22 August 2009

It's in google, but it is just speculation



mrstickball on 22 August 2009
dolemit3 said:
mrstickball said:

@Slimebeast:

Their $12 million statement is well within the limits they defined:

15 programmers

45 artists

= $12m.

At $100,000 salary/yr, that would cover the development part of the budget. I would assume, though, this doesn't cover all the other associated costs like marketing, and other costs.

Still, it's wild to think that the entire Gears of War trilogy's development cost will be well under the development budget of top-tier PS3 titles like Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. Talk about a huge profit margin.

As I've always said, it's data like this that solidifies the need for hardware manufacturers to subsidize development engines like UE3 for their partners to use, for free. This would drastically reduce development costs for developers, since studios that are paying so much for their games are doing it due to using one-off solutions and/or starting from scratch.

Marketing is not the same as development and is not included in the original budget, at least not under the same development expense.

Correct. But no one has ever really added marketing costs into the budget for any game I've ever seen - Gears, Killzone, or MGS.  Most games have a $10~$20 million marketing budget for AAA titles. So I am unsure what your trying to get at.



Back from the dead, I'm afraid.

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perpride on 22 August 2009

Pure profit that is amazing.



Loud_Hot_White_Box on 22 August 2009
Squilliam said:
Wow, interestingly that would put the Gears 1 + 2 budget squarely under the lowest possible cost for Killzone 2!


They don't count the engine development under their budget....Guerilla would have to, as they developed their engine from the ground up, but now have it to use in the future and apparently are sharing parts of it with other studios!  You neglect so much. 



mrstickball on 22 August 2009

Munkeh -

What is not speculation is the number of devs on the project. We know for certain, as per most articles, that Killzone 2 had ~120 developers on the project. Although it's certain that many were not employed over the course of the entire project, it does tell you that the game had considerable man-hours in it.

So I fail to see why stating $40 million USD is so far-fetched. It lines up with any news we've ever seen. If you'd like to refute that, go ahead.



Back from the dead, I'm afraid.

JEDE3 on 22 August 2009

"but Surfer Girl says "

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Xoj on 22 August 2009
mrstickball said:
Munkeh -

What is not speculation is the number of devs on the project. We know for certain, as per most articles, that Killzone 2 had ~120 developers on the project. Although it's certain that many were not employed over the course of the entire project, it does tell you that the game had considerable man-hours in it.

So I fail to see why stating $40 million USD is so far-fetched. It lines up with any news we've ever seen. If you'd like to refute that, go ahead.

it was a very small team, then it grow to over 120.

this is in kz2 developer walkthrough.

and they also built the engine for scratch.