Funyarinpa
Member
0451 for the hotel mission!
Haven't gotten to playing the game but that's REALLY cool.
Was that code used before System Shock?
0451 for the hotel mission!
Haven't gotten to playing the game but that's REALLY cool.
Was that code used before System Shock?
System Shock 1 was the first game to use the code.
IIRC, It was also the security code for Looking Glass offices at the time
For example, it does not address at all Ken Levine's well-documented "quirks" during the development of BioShock: Infinite which led to the spiraling of development costs.
They likely meddled with XCOM because it was terrible. I mean, it looked terrible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHGvNW4fhhI
Are those Mafia numbers right?
I've heard enough stories like this from the industry that I am no longer surprised. It's part of the reason I don't support Western 3rd-parties with my money outside of the indie space, more often than not: you can almost guarantee people got screwed over during development of each and every game.
The reward for being profitable from HQ was subsequently closing the Australian studio down in April 2015, with the official reason being: “It is no longer economical for 2K to run game development operations in Australia”. [9] You mean no longer economical to run a team of 40 developers paid significantly less than their American counterparts, who just sold 1.7 million units after an 18 month production cycle? That makes precisely zero sense, but we were told not to worry about it “because developers just don’t understand how the games business works.”
we were told not to worry about it because developers just dont understand how the games business works.
Anything about these "quirks"? Would be an interesting read.
Haven't gotten to playing the game but that's REALLY cool.
Was that code used before System Shock?
Then it deserves to end.
While games industry's management is a fucking trainwreck, you do realize that means any game you may want to play will no longer be made or your favorite developers will close down.
Are those Mafia numbers right?
That's immaterial isn't it? Somebody messed up badly in managing the game's development, budget and expectations. It lost them a ton of money any way you look at it and I would t be surprised to see the studio behind the game killed considering 2K's history.Do people really think that 2K expected Mafia 3 to be their second biggest selling game of all-time?
While games industry's management is a fucking trainwreck, you do realize that means any game you may want to play will no longer be made or your favorite developers will close down.
8 million copies @ 35 USD (taking away licensing/disc pressing and retail cut) = 280 million dollars in revenue - development and marketing. I don't recall Mafia 3 having the marketing of something crazy like GTA5 and it also doesn't look like it had that huge development budget either.. but I suppose 8 million is probably the expected number internally to get a nice fat return on investment for all the shareholders. Even if the game had a 50 million dollar marketing budget , I highly doubt it cost 230 million to make.
230 million for a western developed game implies a team of 500 + working on the game for 5 years at full staff. While having that large a team isn't unheard of these days, those teams are usually stuck with 2-3 year development cycles to keep costs from getting that obscene.
So in a nutshell, I don't think Mafia 3 needs to sell 8 million copies to become profitable. The actual number to break even is probably closer to half that. Of course that implies full priced sales too , so once you factor in discounts and a long tail of post release copies , you can probably settle on something like 5-6 million being needed within 12 months to make money overall. 8 million full priced copies would imply a pretty hefty profit.
Just for sake of reference , I recall reading back in 2013 when GTA5 launched, it needed 10 million copies to break even BUT , it had easily a 200 million dollar budget and 100 million spent on top of that for advertising. That's a game where it's understandable , Mafia 3 is like the low rent knock off , maybe not to the degree that Saints row is (every saint's row title put together probably cost half as much as GTA5, even with marketing).
The point still stands though - that what happened with irrational is just a prime example of how clueless the big wigs are within any entertainment industry. They really squandered some great talent by closing down these studios.
I can see around $70mil in labor over 3 years ($150k per dev x 150 devs). Then you throw another $5-10 mil per year on studio, equipment, upkeep, etc... Then you add marketing. Plus whatever development was done in Prague.
You are going to get over $150mil with all of that. So, now think of how much the publisher takes in, between physical and digital they may need 4-5 mil copies full priced or at least only small discount before they can start making a decent profit. For a game like Mafia 3 that's just unattainable.
Ridiculous.While games industry's management is a fucking trainwreck, you do realize that means any game you may want to play will no longer be made or your favorite developers will close down.
While games industry's management is a fucking trainwreck, you do realize that means any game you may want to play will no longer be made or your favorite developers will close down.
Nonsense. If developers would get paid more according to their working time there would probably less but better games. But many developers are willing to be treated as dumb sheeps.
8 million copies in order to break even??
Nintendo should hold a seminar for AAA developers and publishers on how to manage costs
I'm not really being serious, but the budgets for some of these games truly astound me.
8 million copies @ 35 USD (taking away licensing/disc pressing and retail cut) = 280 million dollars in revenue - development and marketing. I don't recall Mafia 3 having the marketing of something crazy like GTA5 and it also doesn't look like it had that huge development budget either.. but I suppose 8 million is probably the expected number internally to get a nice fat return on investment for all the shareholders. Even if the game had a 50 million dollar marketing budget , I highly doubt it cost 230 million to make.
230 million for a western developed game implies a team of 500 + working on the game for 5 years at full staff. While having that large a team isn't unheard of these days, those teams are usually stuck with 2-3 year development cycles to keep costs from getting that obscene.
So in a nutshell, I don't think Mafia 3 needs to sell 8 million copies to become profitable. The actual number to break even is probably closer to half that. Of course that implies full priced sales too , so once you factor in discounts and a long tail of post release copies , you can probably settle on something like 5-6 million being needed within 12 months to make money overall. 8 million full priced copies would imply a pretty hefty profit.
Just for sake of reference , I recall reading back in 2013 when GTA5 launched, it needed 10 million copies to break even BUT , it had easily a 200 million dollar budget and 100 million spent on top of that for advertising. That's a game where it's understandable , Mafia 3 is like the low rent knock off , maybe not to the degree that Saints row is (every saint's row title put together probably cost half as much as GTA5, even with marketing).
The point still stands though - that what happened with irrational is just a prime example of how clueless the big wigs are within any entertainment industry. They really squandered some great talent by closing down these studios.
Ya correct that doesn't indicate their desire at all nor was it written that way. It indicates the protracted development situation.That's immaterial isn't it? Somebody messed up badly in managing the game's development, budget and expectations. It lost them a ton of money any way you look at it and I would t be surprised to see the studio behind the game killed considering 2K's history.
Ya correct that doesn't indicate their desire at all nor was it written that way. It indicates the protracted development situation.
Discussion and observations among many ex-Irrationals indicate this is very very likely to be fake, fyi
Ya hoping for actual real data at some point as I said.
If what the article says about the Mafia 3 team being 150+ people that wouldn't really be surprising, Marin County is a super expensive place. That is just an insane number even if remotely true, how would a single player only game featuring racism do those kind of numbers.
Who asked for XCOM Declassified?
thanks but no thanks.8. All sales figures in this piece are taken from: www.********.com
It was quite obvious that XCOM Declassified was originally meant to be a reboot with the XCOM name but then 2K also had Enemy Unknown made and it turned out that game was a hit, which probably sent Declassified's studio into panic mode and seriously overcompensated in trying to make Declassified faithful to the new XCOM line. Frankly, they should've just dropped the XCOM name and stuck to the original concept once they realized it wasn't going to go over well with fans of the original series.
It was quite obvious that XCOM Declassified was originally meant to be a reboot with the XCOM name but then 2K also had Enemy Unknown made and it turned out that game was a hit, which probably sent Declassified's studio into panic mode and seriously overcompensated in trying to make Declassified faithful to the new XCOM line. Frankly, they should've just dropped the XCOM name and stuck to the original concept once they realized it wasn't going to go over well with fans of the original series.
More than 150 people worked on Mafia 3 and still couldn't include a decent campaign? Missions are repetitive as hell, and i'm actually glad that it's not doing good because it doesnt deserve to.
when was the last time 2K actually came out with a good title? (except yearly sports titles)
I don't think so. People would still want to play games, and people would still want to make them.If publishers and developers (studios like Irrational) had to pay for all of the unpaid overtime that the average project requires, it would be the end of the game industry.
So...what came first, Enemy Unknown or Declassified? In terms of 'started production first' I mean. I know Declassified was shown first and it got destroyed by fans of XCOM, and was tossed aside when Enemy Unknown was announced.
I have no idea. Regardless, 2K likely never expected how much of a success Enemy Unknown ended up being, considering XCOM was a dead franchise in a 'niche' genre. Its critical and financial success likely was a major surprise for them and the Declassified team.
So...what came first, Enemy Unknown or Declassified? In terms of 'started production first' I mean. I know Declassified was shown first and it got destroyed by fans of XCOM, and was tossed aside when Enemy Unknown was announced.
Anyone got a link to that? I thought it was Squares stupid expectations, not that they actually needed 7 million sales to break even.
For what it's worth, 2m copies sold to break even is still ridiculously high and only something a guaranteed hit can get away. A lot of AAA flops would still fail to break even with Zelda's budget.