Since Horizon hasn't even sold the gangbusters 4 million copies (and it is gangbusters) does that mean Horizon likely wasn't profitable?
Anyhow, not being profitable at 4 million is fucking ludicrous.
But Horizon sold 3.4 million copies in its first couple of months at full price, or close enough to it (accounting for retailer special offers and suchlike). If we assume Sony is getting $35 per copy sold, that's $120 million which is probably close to covering their total investment. Plus they'll see a boost in hardware sales by hundreds of thousands of units and they'll get 100% of the money from any sales made on PSN. So if they sold for example 80% physical, 20% digital, that's $96 million from retail sales and $41 million from digital sales.
3) Ninja Theory is based in the UK, which has a significantly lower standard of living than San Francisco
Uh, you sure about that? I know San Fran is a major city so rental fees and the like would be sky high there, but I don't expect general living costs are much different in the UK compared to the US.
If you look at
this, assuming it is correct, groceries are much cheaper here in the UK but many other living costs like clothing, childcare, public transport and utilities are significantly more expensive.
60 million??? that's high for a movie, let alone a video game.
It's not high for a blockbuster movie, and similarly EA were trying to make a blockbuster video game.
The Witcher 3 cost $30m?
If true... how?
I'd read that TW3 was 60-something million euros, which by today's rate is around $70 million USD. I'll have to try to find a source.
- Never mind, it looks like that was the total budget including marketing. Seems like a tiny marketing budget considering the game was everywhere when it launched!
We really need a thread for all the different dev costs vs ROI for games. I would sub for sure. This stuff is just fascinating.
I find it interesting too, but it's a shame publishers guard this information so closely.
Wow, the difference from country to country is absurd then because that game is like the first thing I think when high budget comes to mind. I mean, 4 years of development, huge open world, a lot of dialogue and performance capture, huge amount of quality assets, etc etc.
Fucking crazy.
Cost of living for games development outside of USA, Canada, UK, France, Sweden and Germany is probably a lot lower. No doubt a couple of other countries I have forgotten too. But anyway, when you start getting to Eastern Europe the costs are much lower.
