Slashdot Mirror
Average Budget For Major, Multi-Platform Games Is $18-28 Million
An anonymous reader passes along this excerpt from Develop:
"The average development budget for a multiplatform next-gen game is $18-$28 million, according to new data. A study by entertainment analyst group M2 Research also puts development costs for single-platform projects at an average of $10 million. The figures themselves may not be too surprising, with high-profile games often breaking the $40 million barrier. Polyphony's Gran Turismo 5 budget is said to be hovering around the $60 million mark, while Modern Warfare 2's budget was said to be as high as $50 million."
I don't see why this is surprising. A game has as much visual design per frame as a Hollywood CGI movie, yet is typically much longer. Add to that the interactivity. The hours of dialogue. The playtesting.
It's surprising that games are cheaper to make than movies.
I didn't read the article, but, how can making a game multiplatform almost double the cost? I thought the art, levels, motion capturing, all the data, etc... was the most expensive. Writing the code probably also is expensive, but if you develop for multiplatform a lot of code (AI etc...) can be shared and only things like renderer and input need multiple implementations, which can't be THAT much more work??
Games keep getting more and more complicated and more expensive but no more fun. I just completed Assassin's Creed over the weekend. I found the gameplay mechanic for Theif, which preceded it by over ten years, to me much more fun.
That I usually just download the game, testplay it and dump it.
If you took at any recent AAA title game, marketing and distribution costs are huge. Apparently the marketing budget for COD:MW2 was $200 million (although that probably includes distribution costs) with development $40-50 million. According to http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2009/11/19/modern-warfare-2s-development-budget-40-50-million/
Halo 3's was $40 million+ of marketing, similar to dev cost. GTAIV would of had similar if not more, being a multi platform title. Although wiki says the development of GTAIV was estimated to cost near $100.
A friend of mine from THQ complained that De Blob sold really well, then they blew the equivalent of profits on the marketing campaign for japan, and the game flopped there.
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game
while Modern Warfare 2's budget was said to be as high as $50 million
I'm sure that there are a lot of cost-saving measures out there, such as simply porting a console version to the PC and leaving out dedicated servers.
Oh wait...
I wonder how much the US guvment funnels into this atrocity of a 'game'? I mean there's no better advertising than that which the consumer pays for.
if you develop for multiplatform a lot of code (AI etc...) can be shared and only things like renderer and input need multiple implementations, which can't be THAT much more work??
I know of no single language that compiles to every single bytecode. For example, say you want to publish a game on several platforms. One only runs ActionScript bytecode. Another only runs JVM bytecode. Another exclusively uses CLR bytecode (unless you're a large enough business to qualify for PowerPC instructions). Another uses ARM instructions. Another uses x86 instructions. So in what language should the developer write the physics and AI to target all platforms?
Sounds like more fodder for game developers and publishers to whine about lost revenues due to used game sales and piracy, as well as justifying their pricing models and DLC systems. Kind of pointless having a huge game development budget when it's the same, uninnovative, linear experience time and time again. Thankfully, the increasing success of so-called "indie" games may have them rethink their huge dev costs.
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
Did I miss the 360/Wii/PC/Linux release of Gran Turismo 5? Now that I know that it's a major multiplatform release, I'll be on the lookout for a copy to play on one of my non-PS3 systems.
Funny how not one of the big-team $20 million + games can compete when it comes to fun/playability/originality with the 2-man team's World of Goo.
The LA Times report also claims that the marketing costs of Modern Warfare 2 hit close to $200 million - a staggering figure for a video game marketing campaign.
Now choose your professions. Marketing of coding. ;)
Is that for game development only, or are we including those highly expensive spots during super bowl to show call of duty 23
I like computer games as much as the next guy, but a lot of budgets are also grossly exaggerated so that the next year you keep that same budget, as in the military, wasting money so you don't lose your budget the next year....if a new company comes out and puts out a game as good as some of these with big budgets, and obviously with 1/10 the budget being new and all, does that not mean you CAN make a game for less, but just choose not to?
10 years ago I worked on a major title for the Dreamcast, "Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future" and our budget of somewhere around 2.5M was considered excessive.
Introducing Microsoft Vacuum 1.0 The first Microsoft product that doesn't suck.
Could it be that the facts given about GT5 are an interesting associated fact, to the related information about multiplatform games.
I know your being sarcastic but the only reason I ever purchased a ps2 or ps3 was for the GT series. They will never bring that game to any other console.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
and yet Forza is now the superior series yet so many GT fans sit with their eyes closed refusing to see it.
(disclaimer: PS3 fanboy here, dislike the 360 and dislike the way Microsoft handle live, nickel and dime customers and STILL got a 360 just for Forza 3 - worth every penny)
GT is finished, they have diluted the game so much with nascar, indycar, WRC, F1, regular cars - they don't know WHAT they are doing.
The driving physics are getting worse, not better and in the most recent release (GT Academy) the FOV and camera position is simply 'wrong' - it feels like driving a shopping trolley.
I'm not even exaggerating - try it. Forza is leaps and bounds more superior as a driving game. Oh and F1/F2 and Forza 3 have ALL come out since GT actually last shipped a full game (GT4) ANNNND it's not like Turn 10 rushed them out either for goodness sakes! 18 to 24 months between each title.
ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Polyphony Digital are so arrogant they insist 'we don't need to see what the competition are doing, we're the best' (that's a partial quote)
I could go on for hours, let's just say - buy Forza 3 if you like racing, goddamn it's great.
Get GT5 too, I will be - but my expectations are rock bottom based on their attitude and demos / trials / 'prologues' of late.
... which spent that much just on strippers. But hey, it was really important to get that part right!
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
I've often wondered how large the licensing fees are. Every big-budget movie needs a big-budget game with a synchronized release date. But the game developer is taking a big risk that the movie doesn't bomb and no one will buy the game (no matter how good it is). Even if the movie is a success, the game is really part of the movie's marketing, so maybe the movie studio's licensing fees are fairly small to encourage game developers to take the risk of creating the game? Even things like automobiles in racing games involve licenses, but again the car company benefits by having it's product promoted to a generation of future drivers, so maybe the licensing fees are relatively small? Does anyone know?
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Who cares - that's their fault.
It's Apple's fault, but it's developers' problem. This is true especially as the market share of smartphones grows at the expense of dumbphones, phoneless PDAs, and dedicated gaming devices.
It worries me that Apple's policies will end up dictating how games are written
The policies of Nintendo and Sony have long dictated how games are written: if a game is to allow multiple players to use one TV-sized monitor and multiple controllers, it needs to be for one or more consoles, not the PC (EA Sports being the exception), and therefore it needs to follow all the console rules including minimum size of business. Only recently have the majority of new TVs become able to handle the EDTV and HDTV signals that PCs produce on their VGA, DVI-D, and HDMI connectors.
The fun thing to remember though is that when people discover old music, they usually discover the songs that aged well. Most of the songs back then were crap too.
At the same time, when we open the radio, we listen to the good songs once in a while AND the crap most of the time. This is where the idea that old songs were much better is so popular. This is also true for movies.
It'll be interesting to see if/when OnLive launches how this affects the gaming industry. Moving everything to a single-platform online-only producer-to-customer distribution model is definitely going to throw a wrench in the current business model. Also makes me wonder if OnLive's potential for success is part of the reason why we haven't heard any news on new console development in awhile...
Its too bad that Forza can only be experienced with the shitty MS steering wheel. I know there are some 3rd party wheels for 360 but they are stuff like MadCatz, not logitech. A shame really. Ill take GT5 and a good logitech wheel over Forza and the MS wheel anyday.
Good-bye
Think about it. 10-20 hours of gameplay content, a few square miles' worth of environmental models and effects, dozens of characters and animations, matching voiceover and audio content, and the engine, AI and gameplay code to drive it all. Add to that between 20 minutes and an hour's worth of CG movies. Now consider that we're doing this with teams 1/5th the size of what they are for 2-hour movies, at 1/8th of the budget in half the time (exceptions notwithstanding). $50M for the most expensive games doesn't sound too bad compared to $500 for the most expensive movies...
Arguing whether Forza or Gran Turismo is better is like asking whether horseshit or bullshit tastes better: sad, stupid, and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
Just get a PC and a proper driving sim, like Race '07 or Live for Speed. Then you'll see what *real* racing feels like.
No problem is insoluble in all conceivable circumstances.
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=Porsche%20911%20Turbo%20S%20wheel%20multiplatform%20better%20than%20G25&hl=en&meta=