The market's refusal to go above the $60 price tag killed games like this.
Hahahahaha! It's not the needless overspend, it's because they can't charge more!
The market's refusal to go above the $60 price tag killed games like this.
I didn't say it was cheap. I said it likely wasn't nearly as expensive as many AAA titles.
so if DS2 wasnt profitable, how was DS3 greenlit
Yeah Dead Space 2 is betterIt's not even close to Resident Evil 4.
60 U.S. dollars * 4 million =
240 million U.S. dollars
it only cost 60 mil
I don't get it .
AAA single player ladies and gentlemen.
60 U.S. dollars * 4 million =
240 million U.S. dollars
it only cost 60 mil
I don't get it .
Comparing games made in Japan to American games is going to cause a big differenceHow much does the average Nintendo game cost to make?
Rupees or Gil? And Im assuming Zelda cost the same as Star Fox Guard.
$60m to make, another $60m to market? You get...what, $45 from each copy sold? 4m copies sold...$180m? And that's pushing what they might've gotten from each copy. If they got say, $30m, well. They broke even, which means that game wasn't worth making in EA's eyes.
Yikes. Jason's right.
Rough estimate but...
4 years x 150k/year expenses per person x 100 people = $60M
EDIT: Just saw that it was 2.5 years of development, so maybe something more like...
2.5 years x 150k/year expenses per person x 160 people = $60M
...or maybe $150k/year expenses are me being conservative on dev costs. California real estate is expensive and artists/programmers have a lot of options there, so maybe salaries and overhead are more competitive and push it closer to $200k/year per person average costs.
The short answer is, $60M doesn't go very far when you're running a large operation.
I guess that depends on what the average budget is for AAA games.
Two years of hundreds of people at San Francisco Bay Area salaries and benefits plus all the outsourcing needed to support it.
Not many AAA studios left in the Bay Area these days you'll notice. Crystal Dynamics outsources half their game development to Montreal as one of the few remaining ones.
So you want a AA game instead of triple a , gotcha.Maybe publishers should start scaling back budgets. But they won't, so I don't have much sympahy for em.
so if DS2 wasnt profitable, how was DS3 greenlit
San Francisco has experienced the most real estate inflation of any metro area in the US over the last couple decades.
When they originally located there prices and salaries probably werent as bad as they have to be now. Feels like that area is eventually going to have a crash whenever the top tech firms get tired of it and pull out to Texas or somewhere else cheaper.
so if DS2 wasnt profitable, how was DS3 greenlit
$150k/year sounds insane to me. But I neither live in the Bay Area or USA.
Theres no reason why a game like Dead Space couldnt still succeed on a AA scaleSo you want a AA game instead of triple a , gotcha.
Aren't Japanese salaries significantly smaller than American salaries?I would be surprised if RE6 wasn't an $80-$100+ million game.
Dead Space 2 hit the bomba bin pretty quickly too; payed like 19 for the PC version two months after launch.
They sold little at full price. I imagine it would be peanuts; but shit, sixty million? Thats nuts.
Dead Space 2 also featured a MP mode.
Why make Dead Space 3 then?
And why limit it to Origin, preventing it from appearing on the largest PC storefront?
All this says to me is EA is terrible at making business decisions but they coast by with their annual licensed sports shit.
So you want a AA game instead of triple a , gotcha.
No idea, but I'm speaking mainly of the big boys, like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc. Games that require multiple studios, contractors, and hundreds to thousands of employees.
60 U.S. dollars * 4 million =
240 million U.S. dollars
it only cost 60 mil
I don't get it .
$150k/year sounds insane to me. But I neither live in the Bay Area or USA.
60 U.S. dollars * 4 million =
240 million U.S. dollars
it only cost 60 mil
I don't get it .
$150k/year sounds insane to me. But I neither live in the Bay Area or USA.
I think it probably says something about this line of argument that people have forgotten it, too. Who knows to what extent tacking on unwanted multiplayer inflated the budget and made the problem worse?
Yeah that's fair.
I have to imagine the money spent on each Assassin's Creed title is utterly insane given how many studios work on them.
Maybe publishers should start scaling back budgets. But they won't, so I don't have much sympahy for em.
Dead Space 2 was not a basic game in 2011It's crazy that such a basic game cost $60 million to make. Strikes me as something that would cost half that. It wasn't a very ambitious game in any aspect and the graphics weren't cutting edge for the time either.
Definitely one of the best games I played last year. Wish EA would release remasters of the first and second.Dead Space 2 is honestly up there with Resident Evil 4 as two of the greatest survival horror games - a real shame it wasn't a bigger success.
For titles with MP the campaign is usually what takes up the majority of the budget.Would be interesting to see where the budget went into Dead Space 2. Didn't it have a multiplayer mode that nobody asked or cared for? Can't imagine that being a cheap addition to the game.
What's needless about it given the scope of Dead Space 2?Hahahahaha! It's not the needless overspend, it's because they can't charge more!
Experienced game developer describes team as being "merciless" with their budget.
But sure, they probably just forgot to hit the "spend less money" button during dev...
And this is why we see like a fraction of the AAA games that we used to see released.
The market's refusal to go above the $60 price tag killed games like this.
Hope that "Your mother hates Dead Space 2" marketing campaign was worth it
It's not the studio itself. It's the advertising budget along with the location. A $60 million budget in San Francisco is $15 million elsewhere. Ridiculously expensive. EA should've moved the studio before this became an issue.
I'm pretty certain The Evil Within didn't give itself a budget of $120 million (development and marketing), and I doubt The Evil Within 2 will have either.
Not every AAA game needs to cost a combined $120 million just because EA made that so with Dead Space 2.
Theres no reason why a game like Dead Space couldnt still succeed on a AA scale
Itd be different but that doesnt mean it would be bad or worse