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Sn4ke_911 · Mar 22, 2013

http://www.destructoid.com/bioshock-infinite-among-most-expensive-games-of-all-time-249310.phtml

And people wonder why this industry is unstable

Developers, like Rockstar, have bragged in the past that games make more than films at the box office, so why not fund games like Hollywood does? 2K Games is doing just that by throwing nearly $200 million at BioShock Infinite, according to The New York Times which cited unnamed analysts. Not since Grand Theft Auto IV -- allegedly $100M and produced by 2K's owners Take-Two -- has so much money been thrown at a project

Around $100M was spent on Infinite's production and as much as another $100 will be spent on marketing. Remember when we were all gobsmacked that Gears of War cost $10 million? While game budgets have gone up, BioShock Infinite is pushing to the top of the list of most expensive productions. Shenmue ($94M in today's economy) says hi!

Destructoid recently reported that Ken Levine decided to axe the BioShock film when Universal declined its $200 million budget. I wondered where that ridiculously high number, usually reserved for major franchise sequels (Harry Potter, Transformers), came from. Well, it may have come from BioShock Infinite's budget. Hard to go back to a measly $80 mil, right guys!?

The exclusive review, generous pre-purchase offers, and massive marketing push around this game is all starting to make sense: 2K doesn't want to take any chances after investing so heavily in this risky venture. Even a 90+ Metacritic score and strong ad push may not be enough to make this bird fly. I sure hope so, as the resulting dialog among publishers may lead to less ambitious games in the future.

Update:

LiK said:
https://twitter.com/IGLevine/status/314909899295444992

grebby · Mar 22, 2013

Jesus. They're going to need to sell a lot of season passes.

frontovik · Mar 22, 2013

And developers like CD Prokekt can develop high quality games with a quarter of that budget.

JeffGrubb · Mar 22, 2013

Five years in development will do that to any triple-A game.

XANDER CAGE · Mar 22, 2013

frontovik said:
And developers like CD Prokekt can develop high quality games with a quarter of that budget.

I'm not even sure what point you're trying to make here.

Wario64 · Mar 22, 2013

They're trying to be really aggressive on the PC front at least. Pretty much everyone is giving out a free copy of XCOM and other goodies for PC preorders

GAMERG0D · Mar 22, 2013

Do they really have to spend that much on marketing?

Papercuts · Mar 22, 2013

That exclusive review is going to be very unsurprising.

Mikey Jr. · Mar 22, 2013

Well, its 100 million for marketing and I forgot this game was coming out next week.

Fezan · Mar 22, 2013

How much copies they need to sell at full price to get the budget back ?

Wii Tank · Mar 22, 2013

Personally I'm finding that these massive budget games tend to be worse than lower budget games. I'm hoping I don't feel that way about this game.

DarkoMaledictus · Mar 22, 2013

I wonder how much is real cost vs rewrites/issues... aka the Water World cost

. Sad to say that after 2 I lost all interest in this franchise. 1 was a masterpiece however!

NeoUltima · Mar 22, 2013

Fezan said:
How much copies they need to sell at full price to get the budget back ?

A near infinite number.

sorry

Derrick01 · Mar 22, 2013

XANDER CAGE said:
I'm not even sure what point you're trying to make here.

I think it was pretty obvious. Shit's just too expensive now and it's accelerating the inevitable crash. I've never seen an industry that was so suicidal before.

CambriaRising · Mar 22, 2013

Fezan said:
How much copies they need to sell at full price to get the budget back ?

1.6Mil+

UberTag · Mar 22, 2013

I think they should have picked a different release date given that level of investment. Probably May where Take-Two has flourished previously.

Usobuko · Mar 22, 2013

Box art got to expand the target audience.

Darkkn · Mar 22, 2013

Impressive how much more bang for the buck you get today for 100mil compared to Shenmue. Tools have gotten a ton better since Dreamcast days.

water1111 · Mar 22, 2013

I feel bad I'm not buying it now, I need a new PC

Fezan · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.5Mil+

they will easily sell around 3 million so its not a bad situation at all

noffles · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.5Mil+

They'll probably manage it. I'm not surprised at this at all, tbh.

Liquid_Bike · Mar 22, 2013

WOW 200 million seems insane. I'm not sure 100 million in marketing will pay off.

I wonder how much Ubi spent on AC3 that game was plastered everywhere I looked.

XANDER CAGE · Mar 22, 2013

Derrick01 said:
I think it was pretty obvious. Shit's just too expensive now and it's accelerating the inevitable crash. I've never seen an industry that was so suicidal before.

I'm not saying that's not a valid discussion to have, but considering that nobody here has played Infinite yet, it just comes across as pointless sniping. Until we see 1. how Infinite actually turns out and 2. what its returns are like, starting a budget vs. quality pissing contest is futile.

Yasae · Mar 22, 2013

What they're going to recoup is what matters. They could've spent 500M - don't care. We'll see what the profit is.

alr1ght · Mar 22, 2013

6 years salary for talented people isn't cheap.

Thraktor · Mar 22, 2013

GAMERG0D said:
Do they really have to spend that much on marketing?

Spending as much on marketing as you do on development is pretty common.

ASIS · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

wait that's it? Suddenly this structure doesn't sound so insane after all. (to select games of course, not as a model overall)

speculawyer · Mar 22, 2013

I find those numbers a bit hard to believe.

Or maybe they are true and that explains why hardly anyone can make money in this business anymore.

Kai Dracon · Mar 22, 2013

It's all a part of the plan.

DangerousDave · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

Assuming that is PC digital and outside steam, maybe (and not counting the 100$M of advertising).

But, in any other case (Steam or console) and specially if it's a physical disc, they don't get 60$ of revenue for each game.

ItWasMeantToBe19 · Mar 22, 2013

Take-Two loves spending money.

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

?

$200,000,000 of budget/$36 per unit sold of revenue=5.6 million unit break-even

I NEED SCISSORS · Mar 22, 2013

Overbloated development is what we've come to expect from Take-Two.

RPGamer92 · Mar 22, 2013

JeffGrubb said:
Five years in development will do that to any triple-A game.

I wonder how much Versus will have cost when it finally comes out.

speculawyer · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

You must be a math major.

DrSlek · Mar 22, 2013

Half the budget for the game on marketing? Man, I thought that shit about AAA marketing was just hyperbole!

Skyzard · Mar 22, 2013

Efficiency, I bet they lack it greatly. It's basically the same engine right? Why not plan the game out before you start full swing.

100 mill marketing isn't surprising, you can't let the 100 mill you spent on the game go to waste. I think they're asking too much though.

strata8 · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

It's at least 3.5 million, assuming the game is priced at $60. And that's with 100% returns which most certainly isn't the case with retail.

edit: ItWasMeantToBe's number sounds about right.

alr1ght · Mar 22, 2013

DrSlek said:
Half the budget for the game on marketing? Man, I thought that shit about AAA marketing was just hyperbole!

Throw enough money at something and people will buy it.

ASIS · Mar 22, 2013

ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Take-Two loves spending money.

?

$200,000,000 of budget/$36 per unit sold of revenue=5.6 million unit break-even

Yeah this makes much more sense.

How much did Bioshock sell?

R3TRODYCE · Mar 22, 2013

SheeeOla!

SJRB · Mar 22, 2013

Disgusting, really. 100 million on marketing is absurd.

Remachinate · Mar 22, 2013

I NEED SCISSORS said:
Overbloated development is what we've come to expect from Take-Two.

You say overbloated, I say commitment to quality.

bodyofanamerican · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

This is totally doable. Not being sarcastic.

PixyJunket · Mar 22, 2013

"AAA Games."

speculawyer · Mar 22, 2013

Fezan said:
they will easily sell around 3 million so its not a bad situation at all

noffles said:
They'll probably manage it. I'm not surprised at this at all, tbh.

ASIS said:
wait that's it? Suddenly this structure doesn't sound so insane after all. (to select games of course, not as a model overall)

Oh come on. He totally made up that number. They need to sell MUCH more than that to turn a profit. Basic math show that number doesn't make any sense.

RoboPlato · Mar 22, 2013

I expected $100 Mil, not $200. That is a good chunk of change. I think it's going to sell really well on the PC DD market, so the NPD's won't be an exact measure of success.

Zaventem · Mar 22, 2013

unnamed analysts.Ok

ItWasMeantToBe19 · Mar 22, 2013

ASIS said:
Yeah this makes much more sense.

How much did Bioshock sell?

4 million

So that budget would be really dumb and hopefully this projection is pretty far off.

kpjolee · Mar 22, 2013

Oh my...I didnt expect it would be that much.

Yasae · Mar 22, 2013

CambriaRising said:
1.6Mil+

No. That's 96 million in gross revenue. To get total expenditures back you double this number and add in what profit is made on each sale - which is definitely not $60.

Gut number? More like 5 or 6 million hard sales across all platforms just to recoup. For greedy pigs that's about 10-12 million units sold to make "good" money.

EDIT: oh look, I'm right again based on nothing more than intuition - no math involved.

EDIT 2: you make more money with DD. Their cuts are about 30-35%. So gross profit there is about $39-42 per "unit " (more accurately: per sale). I'm trying to think of the other costs involved but nothing comes to mind. Feel free to chime in folks.

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