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[Anth0ny]

That is fucking crazy.

WAY too much for a new IP. Not even GTA V was that high.

 

[PachinkoChampBruh]

damn rick

 

[Filaipus]

Well, they just turned Destiny into a "if it sells less than 15 million copies, it didn't profit."
If it didn't profit, its hard to have a sequel.

I don't like this move.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Most expensive video game ever?

Are we not talking about like 15 million to break even here?

Christ, I knew their expectations were high but god damn if Destiny doesn't hit right out of the gate Activision is gonna lop some heads; and it's not a great sign from the reaction that last video released got.

Edit: yep, 15-16m then.

You know what this means right? All the Destiny sequelw will be like CoD and change practically nothing.

 

[Red The Hunter]

"Spending $500 million on developing and marketing"
I know Bungie is a well known and respected developer within the gaming industry, but $500 Million, that's insane, and this is a unproven IP as well so this will either be a great success for Activision or will be a gigantic bomb depending on how it pans out. I know Activison has a good amount of money in the bank but still. This is just a pretty big pill to swallow, though I"m more worried about when we gonna reach a $1 Billion dollar budgets, there just has to be glass ceiling to game budgets, because they can't go very much higher before we see another Video Game Crash again.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

"To break even, Activision would have to sell about 15 million to 16 million units of a $60 game, analysts said."

I don't think Activision understands how this works. For those kinds of sales numbers, a game almost always has to an iteration of a much larger franchise that has already been extremely successful.

They're nuts for that.

 

[riotous]

Sure it is. Its an MMOFPS.

I really think it's missing the first "M" in MMO to really qualify.

If we aren't on the same server with a lot of other random people we can run into, to me it's not an MMO. That sort of bastardizes the term too much for it to make sense to me.

 

[myharlequin]

If they want to sell more, maybe they need promote the xbox version a little more

 

[DieH@rd]

I don't think Activision understands how this works. For those kinds of sales numbers, a game almost always has to an iteration of a much larger franchise that has already been extremely successful.

They're nuts for that.

I think they are willing to oversaturate TV/internet/realworld with ads, no matter how game sells. Their intention was to promote new IP in spectacular way, which will help them to make much more successful sequels.

Still, 500M is insanely high.

 

[Aquamarine]

Imagine the writeoff if this thing fails...oh god that would be painful to watch.

 

[ShamePain]

Man, it's gonna bomb so hard, looks like a cheap(but actually very expensive) Borderlands knockoff.

 

[Chuck]

So this is for the one game coming this year, right? It's not Activision trying to inflate a number to get articles like this when in reality they plan to spend 500 million dollars over the next ten years on multiple titles?

 

[riotous]

I don't think Activision understands how this works. For those kinds of sales numbers, a game almost always has to an iteration of a much larger franchise that has already been extremely successful.

They're nuts for that.

They aren't investing for one game. It's the analyst who doesn't really "know how this works."

And as it's been discussed, Activisions words + logic suggest the $500 million isn't their up-front cost for Destiny 1.0. And every piece of content for Destiny in the next 10 years will be developed on the engine/infrastructure they laid out for the first game.. so they expect their future costs to be much lower.. while expecting future sales to continue to be higher and higher, along with post-sale revenue.

They probably have a dollar number well above the revenue from a single retail sale targeted for each Destiny player with DLC and other ways to spend your money. I'm sure they are eyeing toys and other aspects as well. I was just in a toy aisle of a Walmart like store and Bungie's Halo IP has a surprising amount of wares there. Official Lego merchandise, action figures, etc.,etc.

 

[Flipyap]

What, seriously? This is an 8 player MMO?

Sure, why not? Star Trek Online is a 5 player MMO most of the time.

 

[AusRoachman]

Should have stuck with ms bungie, this is pretty much a continuation of your halo work anyway.Activision have already shown they will chew you up and spit you out at a moments notice.

Then destiny 2 will probably be handled by beenox or something.

 

[Casimir]

Sure, why not? Star Trek Online is a 5 player MMO most of the time.

Star Trek Online had to switch to F2P to boost player count.

 

[mugwhump]

God Kotick I hate you so much, I just know he's gonna do his best to run this into the ground aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASDFASFD

 

[FairFight]

Hope they're ready for a disappointment. I'll buy the first one to check it out because I'm a sucker. The rest of the world will not be so kind.

 

[zhorkat]

I would need some data to back off such a theory.

Well, when GTA V launched, the PS3 broke the Xbox 360's 32 month long streak as the best-selling home console in the U.S. (Source). I think that the PS3 bundle and the GTA V ads that only mentioned PS3 had something to do with that.

I think a lot of it was just Sony AND Activision making it clear to people not to make the assumption that Destiny will favor the Xbox platform technically and support wise.

And of course some early pre-release marketing for the PS4.

I would be surprised if in the long run the partnership is really all that meaningful as far as support for PS4 vs. Xbox One goes.

Didn't Bungie have to come out and reaffirm that they weren't favoring the Playstation versions of the game over the Xbox versions? I feel like once you reach that point it's gone beyond just assuring people that the Playstation version won't be neglected. I do share your view that it wouldn't be surprising if in the long run this partnership doesn't really go anywhere, though.

 

[JordanN]

Imagine Crash Bandicoot with that budget.

 

[legend166]

Why? Unlike alot of other devs, Bungie seems to know how to craft a decent sp campaign and enemy encouters that play out differently each time. Id want them to keep making titles going forward, no matter how much Activision wants to spend.

It's nothing against Bungie, it's just that the idea of spending $500 million on a video game makes me completely depressed.

 

[NoPiece]

My issue with this is that we are comparing apples to oranges.

It makes more sense to compare only digital distributions rather than digital vs physical.

I think it is a worthwhile comparison because the standard method of distribution for PC is digital, and the standard method of distribution on console is still physical. It is just the reality of the situation.

 

[-MD-]

I really think it's missing the first "M" in MMO to really qualify.

If we aren't on the same server with a lot of other random people we can run into, to me it's not an MMO. That sort of bastardizes the term too much for it to make sense to me.

The people calling this an MMO are the same folks that call Dark Souls an MMO.

 

[Mr. F]

Too big to fail™

 

[Cyborg]

Activision would have to sell about 15 million to 16 million units of a $60

Microtransactions incoming! No way they will sell 15-16 mil

 

[Gintoki313]

15-16mil copies need to be sold. I rarely see even big title's sell 10mil. Put me on the "there is no way it's going to sell that much" bandwagon.

 

[Mortemis]

Microtransactions incoming! No way they will sell 15-16 mil

15-16 million plus dlc throughout 10 years? More than possible.

Nothing from the actual interview says anything about just the first game costing $500 million.

 

[Dryk]

Activision trying to buy success with all its might

 

[riotous]

Didn't Bungie have to come out and reaffirm that they weren't favoring the Playstation versions of the game over the Xbox versions? I feel like once you reach that point it's gone beyond just assuring people that the Playstation version won't be neglected. I do share your view that it wouldn't be surprising if in the long run this partnership doesn't really go anywhere, though.

Well I said a lot of it not all of it

I'm just saying I wouldn't expect it to continue with such a Sony focus. I think that was done early on and purposefully to distance themselves from being an MS only developer. And it was done when the game was years out.. they know the audience that pays attention years ahead of time, and it isn't the general consumer.

Unless Sony shelled out SERIOUS cash there's not much reason for Activsion to have made that decision to partner with them.

And now that Sony is so dominant a partnership isn't even really needed unless they really are just trying to stick it to MS.

 

[xBuTcHeRx]

Man Activision is really betting huge on BUNGIE, too bad the new COD is a few months apart from release.

 

[FantasticMrFoxdie]

Wow.

How much does that even compare to CoD's develop+marketing cost?!

 

[Cyborg]

15-16 million plus dlc throughout 10 years? More than possible.

Nothing from the actual interview says anything about just the first game costing $500 million.

In 10 years and DLC? Didnt notice that, I assumed it was only for Destiny (1)

 

[Joe T.]

Why is it so many here think that $500M figure is solely for the first game in the series? That would indeed be insane, but as Duckroll already pointed out, that's likely not the case. This is a 10 year investment for Activision and as much as people like to hate them, I think all their success with World of Warcraft and Call of Duty has proved they know how to make a little money. Add Bungie to the equation and I can safely say they've earned the benefit of the doubt. I'm not quite sold on Destiny yet - I was hoping for a more traditional MMO, open world environment - but like a lot of people I'm intrigued and looking forward to what they'll show at E3 next month.

 

[gundamkyoukai]

500 million don't seem that much over 10 years when all said and done .
With DLC and sequels they should make money by game 2 .

 

[legend166]

I don't think the way the article is worded is very helpful. It's pretty clear Kotick isn't saying that they will have spent 500 million by the time Destiny ships. In fact, that seems practically impossible even factoring in insane marketing. They'll probably have spent 100-150 million by launch, but he is expressing an intent to spend up to 500 million to build the franchise.

That's a lot of money if you look at it as a single number, but over 10 years that's like 50 million a year. Still expensive, but pretty consistent with AAA development and marketing. The difference of course is that usually there isn't as much confidence in a new IP to commit that much long term funding from the start.

It'll be interesting to see if Activision is still as eager and committed to spending as much money a couple of years down the road, when they have already invested 250 million or more into Destiny as a franchise. I suspect they do have contingency plans to scale back if it is not as successful as they would like.

They spent $250 million on Modern Warfare 2. That was five years ago.

$500 million over 10 years and 4-5 titles makes less sense than $500 million for one title, knowing how Activision works.

 

[DR3AM]

And we basically still don't know anything about the game.

 

[GameAddict411]

Betting that much on a single game seems like such a bad idea, regardless of how good the game is.

this^^^ ubisoft is also betting on watch_dogs, they need to understand that these are new ips with no brand recognition. they won't do as good as COD or AC or any other big franchise.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Good thing they dug up all those Atari E.T. carts - because they are going to need the landfill space for the spare Destiny copies. This game is going to be the biggest flop in gaming history.

 

[Raide]

This ain't some 4 team indie developer we are talking about. Bungie have a long history of making great games. Giving them a shot at a brand new IP full to the gills of awesome, expected to keep expanding over the next few years, with planned things to do and content every day, no wonder Acti will throw some crazy cash at it.

I think the game will be selling 10+ million units, especially since its spread across multiple systems. 15 millions is doable but I am expecting more like 8-10.

And we basically still don't know anything about the game.

Embargo has lifted. There is plenty of information out there if you look.

 

[zhorkat]

And now that Sony is so dominant a partnership isn't even really needed unless they really are just trying to stick it to MS.

Well, you never know. It would be funny if Sony did the same thing Microsoft did with Call of Duty and make a deal with Activision so that Destiny DLC comes out on Playstation platforms first.

 

[zhao3gold]

I think part of the money will come from Sony because their co-marketing partnership.

 

[Mortemis]

In 10 years and DLC? Didnt notice that, I assumed it was only for Destiny (1)

It's cool, the actual writer paints it that way to get the dramatic effect like someone else says.

It could be just for one game, but when you actually think about it where would all that money go for just one game. GTA V had tons of devs working on it and tons of advertising and according to the article it cost half of that, so I have no idea where all that money would go. It's just too crazy, and it makes sense if its for the franchise.

 

[cuyahoga]

Expecting 10M+ unit sales seems to be the new normal for next-gen.

 

[Mr. F]

And we basically still don't know anything about the game.

You can shoot stuff in groups of 3 in small enclosed spaces.

This game has the same problem as watch_dogs where all their media keeps showing the same stuff over and over (in watch_dogs' case it's claiming there are hundreds of ways to hack things but rather than showing any they stick to the same three).

 

[REMEMBER CITADEL]

Best of luck to Bungie. I mean, they're one of the few companies in this business that could pull it off, but my god...

 

[John Harker]

Something feels off about that, I can't imagine that's one game development and launch budget.

 

[RedAssedApe]

well they do have the cod profits to fund this but damn...if its not a hit

 

[Donos]

So, i didn't read the whole thread but this is meant for the whole franchise i presume? (building assets they can use for Part 2 etc.)

Btw. what happened to the leaked Destiny Roadmap 1-2 years ago? Was anything from that legit?

Not really suprised at they always stated how Destininy is supposed to be their biggest franchise with a huge universe. If they are succesful, we maybe will get good spin off games in other genres (i bet they already got ideas for a MOBA).

 

[bodyboarder]

And yet I haven't watched one video of it.

 

[Bsigg12]

This is kinda nuts. I if the marketing deal with Sony will affect the overall sales positively or negatively.