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Average Budget For Major, Multi-Platform Games Is $18-28 Million

Posted by Soulskill on from the large-potatoes dept.

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."

29 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. Shouldn't be surprising by slim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by Pinky's+Brain · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wouldn't be surprised if half the budget on MW2 was marketing, if not more.

    2. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by slim · · Score: 3, Informative

      New companies make smaller games. Bear in mind these figures are for "major" games.

      World of Goo was made by two self-employed men in under a year.

    3. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by Pojut · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Half of why movies are so expensive is actors and scriptwriters unions and the hollywood monopoly

      Feh. Seriously? Was that necessary to bring in to this conversation? You REALLY think unions are the reason why actors get paid so much?

      By the way, there are a TON of movies made on a shoestring budget that rival anything out of Hollywood. I Like Killing Flies is a move that is a perfect example of that. Directed, Produced, Edited, AND Filmed all by one guy.

      District 9 is another great example, although on a much larger scale. Do you know how much District 9's budget was? Go ahead, take a guess. $30 Million. Compare the visuals to that of any big-budget CGI laden film.

      'm old enough to rembember when one teenager could write a game on his home computer with a budget of zero

      Check out Kongregate, Newgrounds, etc. There are also a TON of games on XBLA/PSN, as well as very popular games made by folks using the XNA (I Made a Game with Zombies in it) and pretty much no cash.

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    4. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      ...many film schools have SAG Student Film Agreements with the Guild to allow SAG actors to work in their projects. SAGIndie was formed in 1997 to promote independent filmmaking using SAG actors; SAG also has Low Budget Contracts that are meant to encourage the use of SAG members on films produced outside of the major studios and to prevent film productions from leaving the country

      Stop quote mining.

    5. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by slim · · Score: 4, Insightful

      World of Goo is a great game, but I don't think it follows that the money spent on big budget games is wasted.

      To make the comparison with movies: lots of people like the low budget Clerks. But millions more like the expensive Lord of the Rings. Part of what they like is all that expensive looking grandeur. You couldn't make Lord of the Rings on Clerks' budget.

      You couldn't make GTA IV on World of Goo's budget. I think there's room in this world for both games.

    6. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by slim · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It turns out that many movies are actually cheaper than these big games.

      http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/allbudgets.php

      $20M was the budget for Into The Wild - no blowing up tanks there, but lots of location shooting.

      28 Days Later: $15M
      Bubba Ho-Tep: $1M
      El Mariachi: $7000

    7. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm just suprised you'd need to pay for acting talent when all you want is voice- I'd have thought you could get voice actors cheaper than you could get physical and voice actors. Similarly, although I agree you wouldn't want to just use any old joe for it, I'd have thought there are plenty of low end voice actors that are perfectly good enough for a game well below hollywood rates.

      But all you want isn't just a voice, what you want is someone who can take someone else's movements and do a voice so well that even without a human body, you can still pick up on things like, emotions, fears, desires, interest, etc. A good voice actor is what takes your character beyond: "Wow, that villian sounds like a villain" and brings you to "I really despise that villain".

        And to put the proper emotion into a character's dialog, you have to understand how that character behaves and acts. Thus selecting a standard actor isn't such a bad idea given how much they do know about the total package of human behavior.

      The voice actor is the bridge over the uncanny valley.

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
    8. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by slim · · Score: 2, Informative

      But all you want isn't just a voice, what you want is someone who can take someone else's movements and do a voice so well that even without a human body, you can still pick up on things like, emotions, fears, desires, interest, etc.

      Just a nitpick: typically the voices are recorded first, and the animator matches the actions to the voice.

      In movies, they're increasingly doing mo-cap and voice recording at the same time (e.g. Andy Serkis acting Gollum or Kong). Game cut scenes would be improved by using decent actors and adopting this technique.

    9. Re:Shouldn't be surprising by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Graphics...

      1 the products of the graphic arts, esp. commercial design or illustration.
      2 the use of diagrams in calculation and design.
      3 (also computer graphics) [treated as pl. ] visual images produced by computer processing.

      Visuals...
      a picture, piece of film, or display used to illustrate or accompany something.

      They are produced by computer processing, so I stick by my word.

  2. Half the cost for another platform? by Lord+Lode · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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??

    1. Re:Half the cost for another platform? by unts · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Two words: Bug testing

    2. Re:Half the cost for another platform? by laird · · Score: 5, Informative

      Exactly. Getting something to run on an Xbox 360, a PS3 and a Wii is very hard because they are very different platforms. So while there are frameworks and tools that help get the code running on all platforms, so the differences between the hardware is less of a hassle than it used to be, it's a lot of work making the game run *well* on all platforms. For example, you can't use the same 3d models or textures on a Wii and a PS3 or Xbox 360, so you need to redo them (unless you want the PS3 and Xbox 360 to look like a Wii). And, of course, each company has its own approval process, with its own UI standards, etc., as well as unique hardware to be taken into account (e.g. Wiimote). What this means is that while you can reuse the core logic, level design, etc., there's still tons of work to do for each additional platform.

      --
      Enable 3D printed prosthetics!
    3. Re:Half the cost for another platform? by Lord+Lode · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ok, I get it now, I guess with multiplatform games I was thinking too much about games for Windows, Mac and Linux. But of course I had forgotten that PC gaming is dead and games refers to consoles today.

    4. Re:Half the cost for another platform? by slim · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Getting something to run on an Xbox 360, a PS3 and a Wii is very hard because they are very different platforms. So while there are frameworks and tools that help get the code running on all platforms, so the differences between the hardware is less of a hassle than it used to be, it's a lot of work making the game run *well* on all platforms.

      However, the engine is a small fraction of the cost of a game, especially when an existing cross-platform engine is used (although even these often get tweaked).

      Model design, level design, scripting, voice acting, motion capture; all these are very significant costs, and are portable. Level scripting is usually done in a higher level language than C, and is portable across platforms.

      And, of course, each company has its own approval process, with its own UI standards, etc., as well as unique hardware to be taken into account (e.g. Wiimote). What this means is that while you can reuse the core logic, level design, etc., there's still tons of work to do for each additional platform.

      True enough. Xbox Achievements and so forth.

      I'd still argue, though, that the reason cross-platform games tend to correlate with expensive-to-make games, is that having spend megabucks on designing a game, publishers want as many potential buyers as possible.

      (The key exceptions, of course, being Sony or MS exclusives, which those companies use to increase the prestige of their platforms)

    5. Re:Half the cost for another platform? by floatednerd · · Score: 2, Funny

      You mean bug testing still happens?

    6. Re:Half the cost for another platform? by delinear · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Of course it does, only now it's done by end users and we pay for the privilege :)

  3. More complicated and less fun by diskofish · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:More complicated and less fun by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You are also 10 years older.

      It is very much like the idea that modern music sucks (the best music is always the stuff that played when we were in college), or the quote about sci-fi:

      The golden age of science fiction is twelve.

    2. Re:More complicated and less fun by mcvos · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Modern game development focuses more on expensive, movie-like graphics than on clever, original, innovative gameplay. In fact, with budgets like this, innovation is dangerous. Better stick to what's been proven to sell. Just like in Hollywood. Innovation usually starts small, and the bigger the business becomes, the smaller innovation has to start.

    3. Re:More complicated and less fun by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That fact makes me increasingly interested in just treating the history of games as something to mine for stuff to play. I used to have basically a 1- or 2-year game horizon: what I'm going to play this weekend was determined by choosing from the list of recent games. But now I have more like a 20-year horizon; I might play a recent game this weekend, or I might play a classic game I've heard a lot about that I haven't gotten around to experiencing myself, yet. It seems that as games get taken more seriously as a medium, instead of just throw-away entertainment, it ought to move in that direction. I mean, it's not like avid readers read only new-release best-sellers. Sometimes you do, but sometimes you read Victor Hugo or Isaac Asimov.

      Even for new games, there are fortunately still a lot of less-expensive games that come out that can be innovative, and some even manage to get some decent press; World of Goo and Braid are two of the more prominent recent success stories. This year's Indie Game Festival has a lot of interesting stuff, too. Indie games might be even more vibrant than indie film is, these days.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    4. Re:More complicated and less fun by Kjella · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Welcome to getting older. I can't believe how easy I was to entertain when I was a teen, plus then I didn't really know the meaning of "work". It was all either fun or learning, even the grinding was just a little interlude. And every generation talks about something, like how say vinyl had more soul than CDs, or the people in costumes had more soul than CGI, and how real world makebelieve had more soul than virtual makebelieve and so on.

      Each one of these megagames probably used far more skill and time on a professional writer than the computer geek who part-time doubled as gfx artist, sfx artist, composer and sometimes writer on your garage setup obscure game. I can at least say that with most old games I can have kind memories but if I start playing then many of them I get fed up because it's so simple and boring to a mind that's had another ten years of experience at figuring stuff out.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  4. Marketing Budgets can dwarf Dev Costs by Zeussy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
    1. Re:Marketing Budgets can dwarf Dev Costs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      "GTAIV would of had similar if not more, being a multi platform title."

      God dammit! It's "would HAVE had"!

  5. Flash+Java+Xbox 360+iPhone+PC? by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?

  6. no.. 200 million for marketing mw2. by leuk_he · · Score: 4, Informative

    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. ;)

  7. Re:Do large budgets lead to boring games? by flickwipe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    objection! opinion

  8. Minority of the market by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  9. Modern music DOES suck by Bragador · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.