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

point x on 22 August 2009
JEDE3 said:
the ignorance...

your resignation ..



 

 

''Halo reach''.. sell 7.m first week ,Believe¡¡¡¡¡¡

 

 

 

 

 

 



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JEDE3 on 22 August 2009
Garnett said:

@Munkeh 

 

They still developed the CGI movie,Story for it,weapons,characters that is dev time.

 

 


script was probablly already drafted with KZ and KZ3 is probablly also written.

Aion on 22 August 2009

Haha and the game sold over 5 million. Epic and Microsoft much of made a huge profit.



 

   PROUD MEMBER OF THE PLAYSTATION 3 : RPG FAN CLUB

 

tyig on 22 August 2009

And it doesn't even count the DLC's



But war... war never changes

JEDE3 on 22 August 2009

I don't know why people bring up the 5 million figure up... they would have made huge profit if it were a 50million budget.



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Slimebeast 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?


150k because the gross salary to each guy is 70-80k

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23264

But then you have to add pension, health insurance and other costs that the employer pays in addition to the 70-80k that goes directly into the employees pocket - so add another 20-30K = 100k

The rest 50 K is other costs for a software house and game development that you average out on each employee man year - rent, facilities, administration, technology, hardware, sound engineering equipment, research costs, plastic tools and models, photography, print&paper, office upkeep and furniture, materials, travels, lawyers, registration, outsourcing - easily 50k per employee on average.

Sum: $ 150k

You are right about the full 60 guys necessarily don't working full 2 years though.



Slimebeast on 22 August 2009
Larad 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.

Devs are paid 50 grand on average not 150.


In Ukraine maybe, but not for Western games.

Salary to each guy is 70-80k :

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23264

But in effect you can double that number because lots of other costs are associated with every employee other than the direct salary.

See my post above to JEDE.



JaggedSac on 22 August 2009

It is abundantly clear though, Gears 2 was massively profitable. MS and EPIC will work something out for more deliveries such as this one.



Munkeh111 on 22 August 2009
Garnett said:

@Munkeh 

 

They still developed the CGI movie,Story for it,weapons,characters that is dev time.

 

 

Not much, and not much money, and I don't think all the dev team was working on KZ Liberation, which also received plenty of post release support



Slimebeast on 22 August 2009
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)