Trickster
Member
People can buy both?
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Activision spending $500 million on developing and marketing Destiny
- Thread starter ComputerMKII
- Start date
People can buy both?
Indeed.
I am pretty sure the E3 demo last year was single player, transitioning to a public event. The moon and the recent Devil's Lair footage were strike missions.
It is an FPS, but it's a sci-fi FPS, unlike Call of D...ohhhhh.
AnthonypUK
Member
Yeah it has to be over the life,
I think the Bungie Destiny contract details some of the amounts, I think off the top of my head development cost above $140million costs some penalties to Bungies royalties.
so you can guess Dev wouldnt risk going there, so say $100-120m dev costs, sling in $80-100m of marketing, i think Destiny one + DLC will be around $200m, which sounds in the ball park. then you have $300m for the other 3 games, at $100m a pop because of lower dev costs.
the only way they would spend $500m on the first game is if they're literally insane, and i can't think they are, evil, customer sucking leeches, sure, but i dont think even activision would throw that much at the first game of a new IP.
The contract also has clauses for low sales(if i remember, its been a while since i read it), so you figure a big portion of that $500m will be nullified if the first one underperforms.
I think the Bungie Destiny contract details some of the amounts, I think off the top of my head development cost above $140million costs some penalties to Bungies royalties.
so you can guess Dev wouldnt risk going there, so say $100-120m dev costs, sling in $80-100m of marketing, i think Destiny one + DLC will be around $200m, which sounds in the ball park. then you have $300m for the other 3 games, at $100m a pop because of lower dev costs.
the only way they would spend $500m on the first game is if they're literally insane, and i can't think they are, evil, customer sucking leeches, sure, but i dont think even activision would throw that much at the first game of a new IP.
The contract also has clauses for low sales(if i remember, its been a while since i read it), so you figure a big portion of that $500m will be nullified if the first one underperforms.
Majukun
Member
people buy COD to play online all year long..if some other game takes that role,what has COD left?a 5 h cinematic story?
I think they have quite a large advantage by going in for launch at the start of September. There isn't a lot of big games on any of the consoles between Watch Dogs and and then. There are releases here and there, but nothing huge.
There is still lots I want to play in that period, but for some, it could be seen as a drought.
You obviously have large 360 and PS3 user bases. Their purchasing is slowing down, but they are still a huge user base. They will be waiting for the new 'Game Season' to start.
Then you have the user base of PS4 and Xbone creeping up and a few more sales will be made off the back of e3 in anticipation. You will have people waiting for game X to release this Fall / Winter and they are holding off going next gen until that launches, but any game that looks half decent could encourage them to jump in early.
I am not saying this guarantees the figures they have mentioned, but it could see them off to a very good start.
There is still lots I want to play in that period, but for some, it could be seen as a drought.
You obviously have large 360 and PS3 user bases. Their purchasing is slowing down, but they are still a huge user base. They will be waiting for the new 'Game Season' to start.
Then you have the user base of PS4 and Xbone creeping up and a few more sales will be made off the back of e3 in anticipation. You will have people waiting for game X to release this Fall / Winter and they are holding off going next gen until that launches, but any game that looks half decent could encourage them to jump in early.
I am not saying this guarantees the figures they have mentioned, but it could see them off to a very good start.
Trickster
Member
I honestly think it's a fairly small percentage of the people that buy CoD, that play it exclusively for the entire year, each year. And even then, yes, people play the 5 hour campaigns. There even was a topic here on gaf some time ago where I learned that apparently, a lot of people buy CoD and Battlefield because they like the campaigns, and don't even play the multiplayer. Blew my mind.
Are you sure? I didn't think you'd be able to encounter public events and such during campaign missions. Then again, Deej did say that the demo was made specifically for E3.
There seems to be the indication in the article that the $500 million figure is indeed just talking about the first game. Now they're setting up the framework for the future games to be cheaper but yea all signs point to this being around the first one. This is fucking batshit insane.
adverts incoming then?
I expect Destiny to sell A LOT.
Everyone of my friends I speak to simply cannot wait to see it, play it, live it.
I will be double dipping so I can play with both sets of friends.
I cannot contain even after the lukewarm trailer how excited I am for this game.
Mainly because Bungie are great at what they do, and I want to be in that world day 1.
I expect Destiny to sell A LOT.
Everyone of my friends I speak to simply cannot wait to see it, play it, live it.
I will be double dipping so I can play with both sets of friends.
I cannot contain even after the lukewarm trailer how excited I am for this game.
Mainly because Bungie are great at what they do, and I want to be in that world day 1.
CoD is an established franchise. People know what they're getting.
Destiny is a...looty exploreyFPS type thing. Totally different.
Yeah. I'm at work so I cant go hunting now but im 99% sure that was campaign. I wouldn't be surprised if what we see in retail release differs from what was shown but yeah.
You totally can!
Essentially all outdoor areas are public spaces, while the interiors remain private.
Guardians you meet in public spaces can be going about anything; campaign, raids/strikes or just free-roaming.
I admit that so far Bungie hasn't done a great job communicating the game. I think that's partially because it's not easily pigeon-holed, but they definately could be showing more to get the message across.
Let's face it, if gaf don't even get it, average-joe has no chance.
Trickster
Member
I honestly don't see how anyone could think it's anything else. The 500 million figure doesn't make any sense if you stop and think about it. GTA5 was half of that, and had a dev time that was just as long as Destiny's, however they had twice the amount of people working on it.
biggersmaller
Banned
Interesting list. Considering even the most legendary FPS don't appear shows how fucked Destiny is. This is Tomb Raider's "4 million copies in first month is a failure" syndrome all over again.
All that money and yet the game looks like Halo with very light sprinklings of Borderlands thrown in. Neither the world, loot nor skill systems seem to be anywhere near as expansive as those found in the Borderland games. The one thing Destiny will have over BL is that it'll actually be fun to shoot things.
It depends. MP3 cost $100 million to get out the door and that was a linear POS. SWTOR cost over $200 million and that doesn't look to be as 'intricate'(or expensive) as Destiny, not to mention inflation. I could easily see them burning up most of this number.
I'm also not sure whether that GTA V number of 265 million included GTA Online which Rockstar considered it's own separate thing. If GTA Online was separate then yea...
Also you really have to wonder how awful it was for Bungie working with MS if they left because MS were too controlling, and have now signed a 10 year deal with Activision that gives Activision "significant control" over the franchise.
Or is this a case where the only thing we learn from history is that nobody ever learns from history?
Or is this a case where the only thing we learn from history is that nobody ever learns from history?
Trickster
Member
How many people worked on MP3 and SWTOR, and for how long? Because that's what it comes down to.
Backfoggen
Banned
RIP Activision.
iNvid02
Member
yeah but destiny will probably sell more than all of those combined
It's also who worked on what. SWTOR didn't have Paul McCartney working on the OST or Peter Dinklage, hot off of GoT, coming in for VA work.
More or less. They are investing in the future of the franchise, there will still be production costs further down the line but to reduce them as much as they can now Activision is laying some foundations.
I can see Activision handling Destiny as one would do a company. I which case you budget your expenses for a loss in the first three years before it turns into a profit. Furthermore looking at the bigger picture Activision is investing in almost all their current IP's with CoD going on a three year cycle and F2P in China. And looking at the trends you can bet that EA is going to show a "shared world shooter"/"persistant online shooter" or whatever buzzword the marketing department is going to cook up at this years E3. Ubisoft already has the Division so it makes sense for Activision to go big with Destiny or to put it in the words of Jeremy Irons character in Margin Call; "there are three ways to make a living in this business be first be smarter or cheat".
In this case Activision wants to let the general public think they are the first, and that costs money.
I don't know if it was a campaign mission or not but there were definitely two people playing together before the public event happened.
I seriously doubt this is for 10 years guys.That wouldn't be nearly enough. From the old documents we know the production budget alone for Destiny was at one point 140 million dollars. They might have even exceeded that at this point. Doubling that amount for marketing is also not unrealistic when you compare it to big movies. They apparently also have guys working on daily content once the game is out so this figure does not seem so out there. They really want this to succeed.
It all doesn't seem that insane to me if it's over the course of even just 2-3 years, putting it as ~$165 million a year. Granted that still is a fair amount of money, but as probably in the ballpark of advertising budgets of other AAA FPS. If that amount is over 10 years then it's nothing.
And who knows, we've never seen how successful a new IP can be with a 500 million adver budget ... maybe 400 million is the threshold to sell 50 million copies (this idea I'm a bit less convinced of..)
And who knows, we've never seen how successful a new IP can be with a 500 million adver budget ... maybe 400 million is the threshold to sell 50 million copies (this idea I'm a bit less convinced of..)
blackdevil
Member
? that makes no sense AT ALL.... you think sony PAYED Activision to spend 500 Million on Destiny? what are you talking about XD.
jesus...but the last sentence tells me what you were trying here...
better luck next time.maabus1999
Member
No, that would be ridiculously cheap when you include everything they mentioned. and makes less sense then $500 million on the first title. Plus the analysts response of selling 16 million copies basically confirms they are talking about the first installment only.
In truth, this is a $500 million dollar title. And is a huge risk.
-$500m for 10 years is too low...
-A large studio consisting of a lot of senior staff with high salaries over like what 5-6 years now working on this game. Who knows how much outsourcing they had to do too.
-Brand new engine for 4 platforms, probably had to do a lot of R&D there with new platforms
-They want to sell 10-15m or something, better have the infrastructure to host this always online game, if nobody can play it at launch it's dead...
-Paul McCartney isn't cheap
-We had cliffyb hearing last year, some new IP needs to sell 10m to break even...
it's easy to arrive at that conclusion, the "experts" in the article are thinking it means the same too fwiw, it adds up with marketing and everything else included. The game as they claim is huge in size and it's a whole new thing to make.
No doubt Activision is placing bets on the clout the Bungie name brings to the table. I just don't see the franchise exploding out of the gate based off of what they've shown. Game looks fun but not necessarily "ground-breaking" and without the pull of the "next Halo". Dangerous gamble IMO.
Diprosalic
Banned
cannibalise yourself man.
Looking at some articles, it was supposedly $140 million before the release of the beta. Now that the game has been delayed for pretty much over half a year, I can see that being closer or over $200 million easily. Then the usual 2x for marketing and you're already at $400 million.
It just looks so damn boring and lifeless. It is vaguely reminiscent of Halo meets Borderlands, except nothing is happening.
I don't doubt that sheer marketing dollars will move copies, but I just can't get myself worked up enough to preorder this game.
The other side of the coin, of course, is that Bungie's last two games (ODST and Reach) simply were not that great. So, I'm pessimistic, but hopeful that they simply haven't shown the meat of the game yet.
Better that than EA.
Exactly. Add to that the infrastructure they probably had to build as well and this number does not seem unrealistic at all.
This probably is where AAA gaming is going. Huge games with services attached to them to keep you around for along time. That's why we will get less of these and more smaller titles.
Trickster
Member
And just think of all the money rockstar had to spend on music licenses for GTA.
Look. There's a reason why GTA5 is the most expensive game ever. And I sure don't think the bulk of the budget went to song licensing. They had a lot of people working on the game, people who earn good salaries.
So again. Looking at this logically. It just doesn't make sense that Destiny 1 alone costs twice that of GTA5. GTA5 had two times as many people working on it. So either Bungie pays their employee an absolutely obscene amount of money compared to other developers. Or, and more likely, Destiny 1 doesn't have a budget of 500 million. But 500 million will be invested into the Destiny franchise as a whole, as part of the 10 year plan that activision and bungie have agreed and signed a contract on.
Bungie probably does pay obscene amounts for their higher tier staff. I mean O'Donnell was almost certainly expensive as fuck before he left. As for the studio size stuff, a lot of this stuff does fluctuate depending on where they are in production. Not all of Rocksteady had been working on one title for the gap between GTA IV and V. I remember Ubisoft has insane amounts of staff working on their titles. Bungie has done nothing but work on Destiny since ODST. We know that the development and early marketing (which there hasn't been much) has already gone through $140 million, it's not a stretch that after the delay they've hit close to $200 million since they're in full production mode now.
500 million is way too low for 10 years. COD probably has gone through that in 5.
Ray Wonder
Founder of the Wounded Tagless Children
I'm probably going to be seeing Destiny on every channel, every 5 minutes with that much money behind it.
Bungie? No. It will hurt activision though.
Activision is betting too much on Bungie's name alone.
The game does look good. But 15 million to reach even good? On a new IP? No.
