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Kotaku: "Destiny Review Scores May Cost Bungie $2.5 Million"

Hip Hop

Hip Hop

Member
"Let's take a trip back to 2012, when Activision was embroiled in a nasty legal battle with Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West. As part of that court case, Activision had to share details of its original contract with Bungie for Destiny, which was then scheduled for release in 2013. Buried in the public documents is this little nugget:"
Activision shall pay to Licensor a quality bonus (the "Quality Bonus") in the amount of Two Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars ($2,500,000) should Destiny Game #1 achieve a rating of at least 90 as determined by gamerankings.com (or equivalent reputable services if gamerankings.com is no longer in sen/ice) as of thirty (30) days following the commercial release of Destiny Game #1 on Xbox 360.
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full article via Kotaku:
http://kotaku.com/destiny-review-sc...m_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow

It should be noted that the contract is from 2010, so it could have changed.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
I would say Bungie's arrogance cost Bungie $2.5 million dollars.

90% overall score is a really tough mark to aim for, as evidenced by the reviews Destiny is receiving.
 
S

stryke

Member
Lol, I brought this up in the review thread (although I incorrectly only looked for metacritic and didn't think there was a clause until someone else pointed it out).
 
K

Krakn3Dfx

Member
If Activision can find a way to keep from paying Bungie 2.5M, they will find a way to keep from paying Bungie $2.5M.

We are talking about Activision here.

Haloid1177 said:
From the looks of it though it won't reach 90 so...
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Maybe Polygon will revise their score now that raids....nope, still not enough.
 
E

Effect

Member
PhatSaqs said:
That's .5% of 500 million aka chump couch seat change.
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Isn't that largely Activision just making back its investment and possibly just the marketing. That has to happen first before we get into profit.

Edit: Weren't Obsidian Entertainment held to the 90 score as well for Fallout New Vegas?
 
L

Lunar15

Member
Tying bonuses and other monetary rewards to metacritic/gamerankings scores is so absolutely weird to me. I get the idea behind it, and I understand that those two things have a direct impact on scores, but it's just so incredibly subjective.

It's one of those weird situations where I'm kinda disgusted, but I don't have any solutions either.
 
J

jim2point0

Banned
I'm sure they'll get over the loss of a dime by swimming in their room full of gold.

Ok. Clearly exaggerated. But this game sold a metric fuck ton

Actually, I wonder how this compares to their cut from this game's profits. The game is selling a ton but how much of that goes to the dev?
 
M

Morts

Member
Didn't this game sell around $500 million in the first 24 hours or something like that? It's successful despite reception, so ideally I'd like to see Bungie get rewarded. Unfortunate contract.
 
F

flkraven

Member
JetBlackPanda said:
Bungie owns the IP outright. I am sure they are getting a decent cut.
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I remember reading that the publisher gets like 60% of the profits, and 500 million is not profit. Can't remember the devs cut. It's definitely more than 2.5 million, but 2.5 is not trivial by any stretch of the imagination.
 
S

SovanJedi

provides useful feedback
Well it's not as bad as that Fallout: New Vegas bonus payout where Obsidian missed the target score aggregate by a single percent and lost the bonus because of it.

EDIT: Arses, beaten.
 
Hip Hop

Hip Hop

Member
Give War A Chance said:
I think the craziest part of this whole except is that they actually refer to it as "Destiny Game #1."
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Well, there are two more Destiny games coming up. I guess those have a different contract?

That $500 million pays for all of those games, not just the first one.

EDIT: or three more games, as pointed out above my comment.
 
E

Euron

Member
It's amazing how many changes this game has gone through. The original document said it would be a timed Xbox One/360 exclusive in 2013.
 
A

antitrop

Member
Morts said:
Didn't this game sell around $500 million in the first 24 hours or something like that? It's successful despite reception, so ideally I'd like to see Bungie get rewarded. Unfortunate contract.
Click to expand...

To retail stores. That $500 million number includes copies of Destiny that are sitting on the shelf at your local Wal-Mart right now as I type.
 
K

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
After playing the game, I don't believe Bungie deserves a bonus for the quality of the title either.
 
R

RK128

Member
Well, the game failed to live up to its maximum potential, so the game not getting amazing reviews is quite realistic :l. Also, this is also fully on them and Activision; if they sent out review copies early, then the review scores would have looked much, much different then now (hype mixed with review rush = reviewers skimming over flaws of the game).

Either way, they own the IP and the game sold a ton already, so they should be okay :).
 
C

Coxy

Member
reviews might maybe change day 1 revenue by 0.5% and lifetime by even less than that?

If we ever needed solid proof reviews dont matter
 
F

flkraven

Member
Morts said:
Didn't this game sell around $500 million in the first 24 hours or something like that? It's successful despite reception, so ideally I'd like to see Bungie get rewarded. Unfortunate contract.
Click to expand...

It sold 500 million before anyone even really knew what the full game was. With zero review scores. I'd say it is more a product of the marketing (which is the publisher's doing) more than anything else.
 
M

monome

Member
I don't think much people at Bungie were holding up to that money when the game went gold.

it's a good game. ambitious. but if the consensus towards the poor social aspects of the game and the lack of story beats wasn't evident at Bungie prior to release, then...they need a shake-up.

Activision spending money on marketing rather than on a good partnership with MS/Sony to make the game more social is the price of dealing with Kotick.

Activision did what they had to do and will probably recoup all their money on 1 game...whereas Bungie now has to work twice as hard because they have to build content/sequels on still shaky foundations.
 
M

Morts

Member
antitrop said:
To retail stores. That $500 million number includes copies of Destiny that are sitting on the shelf at your local Wal-Mart right now as I type.
Click to expand...

Sure, but Activision still sold them. Or do they have to buy them back if they sit at Wal-Mart too long?
 
Q

QaaQer

Member
Morts said:
Didn't this game sell around $500 million in the first 24 hours or something like that? It's successful despite reception, so ideally I'd like to see Bungie get rewarded. Unfortunate contract.
Click to expand...

sell-in not sell-through.

When I flipped through the contract, the big bonuses happen when activision grosses 500 million and then 1 billion, 25 million are the bonuses iirc.
 
H

HariKari

Member
Morts said:
Sure, but Activision still sold them. Or do they have to buy them back if they sit at Wal-Mart too long?
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That's usually negotiated beforehand. I doubt retailers will be returning stock.

ZeroMaverick said:
So they could have, theoretically, intentionally made the game mediocre to avoid the $2.5 million dollar fee?
Click to expand...

We're talking about the company that organized an entire team to dig up dirt on the Call of Duty guys to avoid paying them bonuses.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Effect said:
Isn't that largely Activision just making back its investment and possibly just the marketing. That has to happen first before we get into profit.

Edit: Weren't Obsidian Entertainment held to the 90 score as well for Fallout New Vegas?
Click to expand...

Obsidian's game Fallout: New Vegas had a monetary bonus from the publisher for hitting an 85% or higher ranking on Metacritic. (or was it Gamerankings? Whatever.) In the end, FONV hit 84%.
 
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