Now think about the fact that Kojima poached a lot of his old team at Konami including the minds behind the Fox Engine and is co-developing the Decima engine with Guerrilla Games. Imagine what Horizon 2 is going to look like with the improvements and advancements made alongside Kojima and his team while working on Death Stranding.
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Horizon ZD Production cost at least 45 / ~$47 mil, peak team 250 people + 100 china
- Thread starter The Dutch Slayer
- Start date
Now think about the fact that Kojima poached a lot of his old team at Konami including the minds behind the Fox Engine and is co-developing the Decima engine with Guerrilla Games. Imagine what Horizon 2 is going to look like with the improvements and advancements made alongside Kojima and his team while working on Death Stranding.
Reallink
Member
Very doubtful they pulled that number out of thin air. Most likely a wink wink, nudge nudge to the journo.
LightOfTruth
Member
Surprisingly on the low end for a game with such production values.
Crossing Eden
Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
That's a seriously good use of budget. Really surprised it ended up that low.
blastprocessor
The Amiga Brotherhood
6 years?
Can you imagine how long it will take PS5 titles?
10 years incoming.
I'll be a pensioner by the time games come out on PS5..
Can you imagine how long it will take PS5 titles?
10 years incoming.
I'll be a pensioner by the time games come out on PS5..
They are running a good operation over there if they can make a great 30 hour game in three years and some change (from last release, not the full dev cycle), for less than $50M USD. Although I am guessing they have access to millions upon millions of dollars in resources for free being a first party studio who is either 1A or 1B in the technical department (other being Naughty Dog or SSM).
Alex_Mexico
Member
This is a Sony owned studio working on a PS4 exclusive game. The extra money and time needed to invest when making a game multiplatform is nothing to scoff at.
Some Nobody
Junior Member
3 years pre-production though. I think they're underselling how much work was put in getting this thing properly off the ground.
Five years is much more realistic for most games like this.
ShemhazaiX
Member
GTA is made in Scotland, dude.
Makes me hopeful and excited AF tbh. Engine tech progress due to this sexy collaboration is going to lead to amazing results.
Iastfan112
Neo Member
Witcher 3 number includes marketing though so its nowhere near a fair comparison. Also that murky "at least" qualifier.
John Wick
Member
The game wasn't in full production for 6 years. It only started full production after KZ Shadowfall released. Before that it was roughly 20 people.
singhjeet29
Member
Excluding marketing this game is already profitable. Including marketing this game is still probably profitable.
SolidSnakex
Member
It should be a safe bet. It's got everything working in its favor. Great reviews, strong word of mouth and very aggressive marketing. This should be one of those games where Sony will announce its sales relatively soon because they're high enough to brag about.
Obliterator
Member
That is extremely cheap for a AAA open world game. Great job controlling the budget and bodes very well for the games profitability
+ a few more in Brazil:
http://www.kokkuhub.com/home/horizon-zero-dawn/
Actually, they've done quite a large contribution to the game.
http://www.kokkuhub.com/home/horizon-zero-dawn/
Actually, they've done quite a large contribution to the game.
PuppetMaster
Member
This. That is a suprisingly efficient dev cycle.
ScaryShark
Banned
Not surprising. Feels like a AAAA game.
John Harker
Definitely doesn't make things up as he goes along.
Very low but they save a ton not having crazy network and service costs, which may also help how they accrue costs upfront since they won't need a huge team on it post launch.
and overall outsourcing helps keep budget in check due to sales ceiling of being only on 1 platform. They don't get the easy ROI for cheap port investment.
gundamkyoukai
Member
EDIT Wrong HZD thread lol.
OnionPowder
Member
Yeah forgot about that. Headquarters in NY but main GTA studio is in Scotland.
Either way they had 1000 developers across all of their studios working on it.
This.
Callibretto
Member
assuming this game have total budget of $100 million for development and marketing. how many copies they need to sell just to break even?
miller.skippins
Banned
OT..but i just started playing last night and goddamn....is that an army of ants building their nest with leaves bits on the trees?
The detail is crazy!!! This is an open world!! WOW! @_@
The detail is crazy!!! This is an open world!! WOW! @_@
potatohead
Member
Yep it is. Makes it all the more impressive.
And it's not like they are in an inexpensive country either.
Yep.
GG has always had this eye for details.
Sword Of Doom
Member
Considering how much hype around the system the game has generated it probably made back the cost before the game was even available for purchase. It's a system seller.
gow3isben
Member
20 million for Uncharted 2? My God.
Yeah, that is insane too. When UC2 launched back in 2009 it was like the most expensive looking game ever.
It is even more impressive when you compare it to Tomb Raider 2013, a game in the same vein that cost $100 million.
Probably helps to pay your staff for 40 hours and then make them work 80.
ChronotriggerJM
Member
Guerilla seems like a studio that can work to meet budgets.
breakfuss
Member
That's what I got from this as well. I doubt this game only cost 45 lol.
Not sure if serious, but if u are going to accuse the dev of doing it, at least back it up with evidences. It's not funny.
I don't have numbers but crunch culture in ND is well known.
Of course other developers do it too but ND seems to take pride in it. During Uc4 crunch I recall several employees tweeting about it. There's also a blog by their Ai programmer Max Dyckhoff who talks about it as well.