[Vire]

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/25/sp...xpensive-game/

Halo 4 is the most expensive game Microsoft has ever made, Microsoft Studios head Phil Spencer tells Polygon. It is "absolutely" the most money Microsoft has ever spent developing a game, he says. "Nothing's even close." Estimates for development costs of Halo 3 average out at $60 million, and that was including a massive marketing budget of about $30 million. Halo 3: ODST ended up bringing in more than $170 million in its first 24 hours on the market. Overall, Halo is a $3 billion franchise, Spencer says.

Hopefully the game's quality matches its cost.

[CambriaRising]

They must have put all that money into a cloud computing infrastructure because holy hell, how does the game look like it does on a 360?

[Tashi]

I would say that's money well invested.

[nhlducks35]

It certainly shows.

[Nirolak]

I predicted about $100 million after watching the multiplayer vidoc and looking at the team size * years in development.

I'm feeling pretty good about that estimate.

It certainly shows.

I definitely agree with this.

[CountAntonius]

Really curious how this will do against bops 2 on 360 specifically.

[Yasae]

Hopefully the game's quality matches its cost.

Nope, but its cost will certainly match its sales projections.

[earvcunanan]

Pretty sure it'll more than double that amount in return.

[Raitosaito]

Game development costing as much as blockbuster films.

Really curious how this will do against bops 2 on 360 specifically.

Nielsen has it tracking ahead of COD, so on the 360 halo 4 might do better.

[Buckethead]

I saw a commercial for it today (not the Fincher/etc. one) and it looks great.

Hopefully the multi maps are good.

[Nirolak]

Pretty sure it'll more than double that amount in return.

I'd be pretty shocked if they weren't aiming for at least $500 million in revenue.

[I NEED SCISSORS]

It certainly shows.

Visually at least. Now i'd like to see gameplay that actually justifies that cost.

[kittens]

Marketing budget was wasted, honestly. They could've given me the game early and I would've told GAF how awesome it is. Word of mouth. That's how it works these days. #halo4iscoolyoushouldbuyit

[Lingitiz]

As if there was any doubt. The amount of talent (200+) and the pedigree some of them have doesn't come cheap.

[OldJadedGamer]

Outside of ODST, it will be the first main Halo game I don't buy.

[Yasae]

Visually at least. Now i'd like to see gameplay that actually justifies that cost.

60 million dollar gameplay, hmm...

[Vire]

Outside of ODST, it will be the first main Halo game I don't buy.

Care to elaborate why?

[Tomat]

Is Halo 4 even doing anything different than previous Halo games, or is it just another Halo with prettier graphics?

[~Kinggi~]

Eh, im not expecting anything great. I mean people have beaten the leak already in 5 hours and i havent heard the internet buzzing about how brilliant it is...

Im expecting solid 8's and decent sales. Im unsure whether the sales will match prior halo games.

[kittens]

Care to elaborate why?

old, jaded, etc.

Is Halo 4 even doing anything different than previous Halo games, or is it just another Halo with prettier graphics?

There's a lot that's different. Have you popped into any Halo 4 threads before?

[OldJadedGamer]

Care to elaborate why?

No Bungie. I'll rent it and play it in time but not in a rush. Will be closely eyeballing review scores. My friends and I have co-op'ed all previous Halos on Legendary but none of my friends seem to care about this one.

[Saint Gregory]

Welp this will somehow be my first Halo (I did buy 1-3 but never got around to playing them) so I'm pretty excited that so much in resources have been poured into it.

[Jake Tower]

I hope all that money was spent on the retail product. That is, none has been been spent on producing "DLC."

[Deadbeat]

Is Halo 4 even doing anything different than previous Halo games, or is it just another Halo with prettier graphics?

I heard it has cod perks now or something. Hopefully someone can clarify this.

[Pachinko]

It's had what a 3 year development time with a staff of at least 200 ? well, that's gotta be close to 50 or 60 million just based on $90,000 a year salaries. Then consider the promotional materials cost and yeah, 100 million doesn't seem far fetched at all. Activision must spend 100-150 million annually on call of duty these days so it's not an unheard of budget , especially when call of duty sells north of 8 million copies at full price. Not a huge return on investment but a safe one- 300 million in revenue on a single game within 3 months.


I'm going to go ahead and guess microsoft is anticipating sales of 10 million by the end of 2013 , coupled with DLC sales as well as people buying new 360's. It's worth more to the xbox brand then simply being a new halo game.

[I NEED SCISSORS]

60 million dollar gameplay, hmm...

You could probably do an open-world, mega ambitious Halo reboot for that if you budgeted conservatively and didn't put the inflated budget into graphics and advertising.

It'll be an awesome game but this news makes me feel disappointed.

[TacticalFox88]

Half of it was spent on Forward Unto Dawn. :P

[earvcunanan]

Is Halo 4 even doing anything different than previous Halo games, or is it just another Halo with prettier graphics?

It's Halo and you shoot things as Master Chief. The masses will buy.

[udivision]

What are those figures in Dorito's/Moutain Dew so the layman can comprehend them?

[Felix Lighter]

I really hope it turns out well. I'm really surprised to see the visuals they were able to produce on the 360. Hopefully the sandbox combat is still enjoyable. That's the real reason I come to these games.

[Man]

Remember everyone laughing when Bungie said Halo 3 production costs where $30 million.
Halo 3 is amazing for many reasons which includes technical feats (it's replay theater, forge, online connectivity is still largely unmatched outside of the franchise) but it wasn't the good looking game one would expect from the recent hardware jump.

Anyways, cost of other games out there:
Gran Turismo 5 - $60 million
God of War 3 - $40 million
Uncharted 2 - $30 million (I believe UC3 was $40m).

[Yanksfan]

For the money, you would think that there would be more advertising for it. I forgot it was even coming out until I saw this thread.

[henhowc]

I heard it has cod perks now or something. Hopefully someone can clarify this.

It has kill streaks.

"A new twist on the traditional Slayer experience that now allows Spartans to earn points during the course of a match which can eventually be leveraged to call in ordnance from overhead. Ordnance drops within Infinity Slayer consist of three selectable but randomly generated weapons or power-ups, the latter which can alter the Spartans speed, shielding, or ability to issue damage."

[Rickenslacker]

I heard it has cod perks now or something. Hopefully someone can clarify this.

No that's pretty much it. You got your points popping up at you, experience to grind, loadouts to customize, perks, kill cams, streak rewards, all that fishy goodness.

[Vire]

Remember everyone laughing when Bungie said Halo 3 production costs where $30 million. Halo 3 is amazing for many reasons which includes technical feats (it's replay theater, forge, online connectivity is still largely unmatched outside of the franchise) but it wasn't the good looking game one would expect from the recent hardware jump. Anyways, cost of other games out there: Gran Turismo 5 - $60 million God of War 3 - $40 million Uncharted 2 - $30 million (I believe UC3 was $40m).

Pretty incredible that Uncharted 2 was built with that relatively small budget.

[chandoog]

Remember everyone laughing when Bungie said Halo 3 production costs where $30 million. Halo 3 is amazing for many reasons which includes technical feats (it's replay theater, forge, online connectivity is still largely unmatched outside of the franchise) but it wasn't the good looking game one would expect from the recent hardware jump. Anyways, cost of other games out there: Gran Turismo 5 - $60 million God of War 3 - $40 million Uncharted 2 - $30 million (I believe UC3 was $40m).

Gears of War 2 - $12 million only
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/27008924

Max Payne 3 - $105 million
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...mates-analyst/

[Wuthering_Heights]

Doesn't look too bad, though Halo has never been that impressive, graphically

Sony needs to send some guys to study the Forza folk for a while.

Yeah... no.

[~Kinggi~]

Pretty incredible that Uncharted 2 was built with that relatively small budget.

And pretty incredible they wasted 60 mil on GT 5 lol. Sony needs to send some guys to study the Forza folk for a while.

[DonMigs85]

Halo 3 looks so primitive compared to this.
If they can extract this level of graphics out of a 7-year old GPU with 8 ROPs and 48 shader units, just think what they can achieve next gen.

[Vire]

And pretty incredible they wasted 60 mil on GT 5 lol. Sony needs to send some guys to study the Forza folk for a while.

:lol

I think that was mostly due to mismanagement. The game was in development for far too long. With every month passing, that's probably millions of dollars.

[LiquidMetal14]

How much does that translate into Mountain Dew's and Cool Ranch Dorritos™?

[LQX]

I just hope MS allows that amazing team they put together to make more than just fucking Halo. I love Halo but I would love to see what else that team could do. Why would they stifle such potential creativity that could spurn new and amazing franchises besides Halo for them? Time will tell.

[KillerTravis]

By everything I've seen of this game thus far I believe the claim.

[Jake Tower]

How much does that translate into Mountain Dew's and Cool Ranch Dorritos™?

This doesn't come cheap:

[Man]

And pretty incredible they wasted 60 mil on GT 5 lol. Sony needs to send some guys to study the Forza folk for a while.

Well, 'wasted'. GT5 has done Halo level number of sales and it's an impressive game.

[chandoog]

How much does that translate into Mountain Dew's and Cool Ranch Dorritos™?

117 keighlo-tons.

[TimeEffect]

Wow, Halo is a $3B Franchise, that's crazy.

Curious, did GT5 make profit off of the $60M budget? Anyone know how much?

[I NEED SCISSORS]

:lol I think that was mostly due to mismanagement. The game was in development for far too long. With every month passing, that's probably millions of dollars.

PD need to man up and just outsource their car modelling like Turn 10 - if not for cost, but to get the game out in under 5 years. At worst, they can just take the outsourced models and tweak them to their "perfectionist" heart's content.

[friskykillface]

I think blops 2 will come out on top but its nice to see a halo vs blops match :D


but i kinda wish it came out in september like the other halos, had nothing to play that month except borderlands.


game looks good though, hyped B^)

[Felix Lighter]

Doesn't look too bad, though Halo has never been that impressive, graphically.

The original Halo was quite impressive in it's time. A standout title for years but all sequels since the original have had too many graphical compromises to be considered graphically impressive. They had impressive aspects but the overall look suffered for one reason or another.