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How To Make More Cash From One Game Than 10 James Bond Films (bloomberg.com)
"Red Dead Redemption 2" broke records in its first three days on sale, pulling in more than $725 million in worldwide retail sales and achieving the biggest opening weekend in the history of entertainment, developer Rockstar Games announced. Here's a story from Bloomberg Businessweek that goes behind the scenes: In a compensation deal unique to the video-gaming industry, Sam and Dan Houser, the brothers responsible for Grand Theft Auto, will get the bulk of an expected $538 million in royalties Take-Two Interactive Software will pay to all employees for this year, according to an analyst. That's thanks in large part to their latest title, Red Dead Redemption II, due Friday. The British-born brothers and a few key insiders share half the profits of Rockstar Games, the Take-Two subsidiary that makes both titles, according to a lawsuit filed by a former employee. Last year, Take-Two distributed $383 million in what it called internal royalties. More than 2,000 Rockstar employees receive bonuses, a company spokesman said. Take-Two said its compensation programs allow employees to join in the success of software they help develop. The company declined to say how much of it went to the Housers. Gerrick Johnson of BMO Capital Markets estimated the brothers received the bulk.
"As long as Grand Theft Auto is chugging along, no one seems to care," Johnson said. The Housers' haul shows just how far video games have come since the days of Pong and Space Invaders. The industry is expected to bring in $138 billion this year, according to market researcher Newzoo. Red Dead II will sell at least 15 million copies by the end of the year, analysts said, at a retail price starting at $60 for the base package.
"As long as Grand Theft Auto is chugging along, no one seems to care," Johnson said. The Housers' haul shows just how far video games have come since the days of Pong and Space Invaders. The industry is expected to bring in $138 billion this year, according to market researcher Newzoo. Red Dead II will sell at least 15 million copies by the end of the year, analysts said, at a retail price starting at $60 for the base package.
Once in a while, game developers put together a "perfect storm". In this case, from the demos I saw, you've got a title that ticks a whole lot of boxes for people. First off, you're going with the Country Western theme; a genre that's stood the test of time, yet is underserved in the world of video games. (And look how often a game in this genre was little more than a fixed shooting gallery type offering, vs. an open world you could explore.)
Second, the graphics for this one looked excellent. Again, I think we've all seen our share of games that do a good job imagining space travel with various types of craft, or auto racing games. But there's something that still gets people's attention when you do a good job simulating animals like horses, running around the open land. (The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, did a pretty respectable job of this and I'm convinced it's one of things that made people "ooh" and "ah" over the title, propelling sales.)
It has pedigree too, coming from Rockstar Games. They've done so much with the GTA franchise over the years that you feel like you won't be let down by such things as poor quality acting/dialog, or a lack of interesting things to see and do in the virtual world they created for you.
As I've gotten older, I've gotten really selective about which games I'll buy or spend any time playing. I only have so much free time to waste on computer games, for starters. But I've also just gotten jaded, as a gamer from back in the 1980's through the present. So many games come out and just remind me of something else I played before, so I take a pass on them. I'd have to say this is one I'd put on my short list to consider buying, along with Fallout 76.
How much they would have made if they didn't leave us PC users out in the cold.
725 million, split among 2000 employees, assuming the game took 4 years to make, is only 90k per employee. This barely covers salaries.