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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.
That's nothing, Star Citizen made about 200 million so far without releasing an actual game, beat that Rockstar!
I will agree with you the moment you step off my lawn.
go play Witcher 3, and see if you still have that opinion.
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.
Than 10 video games. Pick 10 video games that made less than your movie to compare to.
No they were not. Typical American bullshit history revisionism. Grand Theft Auto was conceived by Mike Dailly and the team at DMA Design, it had nothing to do with Rockstar Games back then, and just because they _currently_ own the franchise and the last inception of it, it does not mean two money-counters are "responsible" for it.
If you think about how long you could be playing this, you'd also get more pure hours of entertainment out of this game (and lots of other large scale games) than two James Bond films.
I didn't play the first Red Dead and probably will not play this one but it looks like they did a pretty impressive job. I wonder if they did riding as well as Horizon Zero Dawn did... I do like from videos I saw how you can fall off the horse.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
How much they would have made if they didn't leave us PC users out in the cold.
World of Warcraft had soul. The soul of anyone who tried playing it.
Video game makers need to unionize.
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Real games stopped being made long ago. Games that had soul.
Like Interstate 76? Or do you mean something else by "soul?"
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Okay, be honest. How many people read those names as Sam and Dean?
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
No. We just don't like seeing everyone bend to the agenda of the loudest squeaky wheels. Want to be a snowflake? Be one. Be the best one you can be. But stop demanding everyone else think and act like you.
How To Make More Cash From One Game Than 10 James Bond Films
Back your claim up with numbers, adjusted for inflation. Note that the source is Bloomberg, who recently released the Chinese motherboard chip hack article.
The top 10 James Bond films, adjusted, got about 3.6 billion domestically combined. While the big boy Skyfall brought in $1.1 billion worldwide, it cost $200 million to make, at LEAST $200 million to advertise, and the studio gets only a small fraction of the ticket sales. Remember, it's not (1100 - 200 - 200) * percentage, it's 1100 * percentage - 200 - 200.
While the percentage take on ticket sales is larger in the foreign box office, that's changing. And the foreign box office is only really relevant for the newer films - the ones with the massive production budgets and marketing spends.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/...
Meanwhile, Pokemon GO has pulled in over $2 billion, almost all of it profit. Take away the 30% Google/Apple tax and you're still at $1.4 billion. Development and running costs are another 2 significant figures away.
Movies always run negative so they don't have to pay actors royalties.
725 million, split among 2000 employees, assuming the game took 4 years to make, is only 90k per employee. This barely covers salaries.
... make everybody happy *and* obscene amounts of cash on top of that.
Gee Wizz, who would've thunk that?
Extra bonus karma points for Rockstar execs who kick some EA officials in the balls at the next E3.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
The top 10 James Bond films, adjusted, got about 3.6 billion domestically combined.
The comparison is on opening weekend. How much did they take on their opening weekends combined?
Someone's forgotten just how swiftly Rockstar crumbled in the wake of the Hot Coffee mod "controversy".
That wasn't an sjw thing that was an american sensibilities thing. Violence, swearing, racism is fine but a sex is a big no no. If it was and sjw thing they would've jacked the whole dating thing, or added a bunch of same sex or 52 different gender options or something.
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Real games stopped being made long ago. Games that had soul.
There are still good games getting made but they are mostly lost in the noise these days.
Wanna buy a shirt?
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I don't know, click the link and then click into each title and look it up.
My point is the AC's complaint is moot. Even if you take the TOP 10 James Bond films (by gross ticket sales), adjust for inflation, and add them up, we can easily demonstrate that a single video game can generate more profit.
I don't see why anyone would limit the idea to opening weekends, especially since video games are extremely front loaded and movies have a longer and bigger tail, especially if the foreign release comes after the domestic release.
My point is the AC's complaint is moot.
Agreed.
I don't see why anyone would limit the idea to opening weekends, especially since video games are extremely front loaded and movies have a longer and bigger tail, especially if the foreign release comes after the domestic release.
Evidence? Because I would expect video games to make more money than movies over time with DLC add-ons, and many PC players wait for Steam sales. Then again, developer profits from console game sales probably are more front-loaded and then shifts to used game resellers, so maybe the movie theater/home video/streaming cycle is longer and more profitable. But you can't do add-on DLC for movies though... A hit video game becomes a platform that can be expanded with DLC for more revenue, even if the original game was purchased used. A hit movie is released and then it's back to drawing board to try to make another hit movie.