I make games for a living and can answer your questions.
Q
Anonymous asked:
Hello. I have a question regarding the "maths" of AAA game budgets. You've offered very interesting insight from the "other side" of the DLC/Microtransactions debate in the past. However, consider this simple example : $60m cost to make a AAA game. $60 per copy. That comes to 1m copies to break even. 2m copies for 100% return. Given that AAA games sell around 5m copies, are the likes of Jim Sterling, Angry Joe to TotalBiscuit really in the wrong for railing against "AAA greed"?
So… for a moment, let’s put aside the fact that the purpose of a publicly traded company like most AAA game publishers (Nintendo, Ubisoft, Take Two, EA, Activision, Sony, Microsoft, etc.) is to earn money for its shareholders. Let’s also ignore that nobody can ever really agree as to the exact amount of money that crosses from “not greedy” to “greedy” actually is. Putting all that aside for a moment, let’s break down just how many sales it takes for the publisher to break even. In your “simple example”, we spent $60 million on development. At $60 per game, that’s just 1 million units that need to be sold, right? What else is there?
gumbo677 said:
I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less. Executives should stop creeping their gameβs scope to justify consumer unfriendly practices.
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kirkwallsquad reblogged this from felassan gumbo677 said: I want shorter games with worse graphics made by people who are paid more to work less. Executives should stop creeping their gameβs scope to justify consumer unfriendly practices.
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