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How much did Activision spend on Destiny? Resources aplenty inside!

Jackbooted said:
This post hits on a very interesting point, Bungie is spacing the DLC out at several months a piece. The data-mined content is nowhere near enough to bridge the gap in-between releases. We saw how fast the content in the release game was devoured, does anyone think the expansions are going to last anywhere near as long?
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The dlc will be gobbled up by players in a few days of release. Destiny dlc is what? 3 story, 2 strikes and a raid? Is this even enough content for a £20 dlc?
 
devilsadvocat said:
No one cares about the story, the people playing the game now at 3 hour game sessions per play is just doing strikes / crucible / public events and raids

It doesn't matter if that doesn't interest some of you because it interests 3 million people a day

People will play that raid everyday on 3 different characters, the hunger to keep playing is real, stop looking at it strictly as 'story'
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I wasn't even talking about the (non-existent) story. Do you think people are going to accept grinding 1 raid for 3 months? We shall see come December when VoG will have been the only end-game content.
 
Kadin said:
Has there been any mention to date as to how many units of the game, across all platforms, has sold so far?
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Straight units? No. Activision sent out a press release that they sold-through about $325 million of the $500 million initial shipment after 5 days, so now if we're talking about how much the game will make in the short term it's about if/when they can finish selling out that initial shipment and get a second shipment into stores (which I'm sure they'd love to get done before the holiday season).
 
So, Activision the publisher and financier spent 500mil

Bungie the studio, spent their budget, probably somewhere north of a 100mil

Was this not obvious at first glance?
 
hodayathink said:
Straight units? No. Activision sent out a press release that they sold-through about $325 million of the $500 million initial shipment after 5 days, so now if we're talking about how much the game will make in the short term it's about if/when they can finish selling out that initial shipment and get a second shipment into stores (which I'm sure they'd love to get done before the holiday season).
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Its going to spread since the gameplay is so good. Id be shocked if they aremt into the 600 mill sold territory by the xmas.
 
If they spent $500,000,000, and made $325,000,000 in the first week as several places reported...that number only dropped (quickly) from there. Games like this don't have the evergreen legs of Nintendo titlesMaster Chief, and the mixed word of mouth surely isn't going to help it.
 
Freeman said:
Nuts, maybe they secretly develop enough DLC to last a decade.
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I doubt that. That reddit leak about them essentially changing pace and dumbing down/gutting half the game before release is looking more and more likely. If true they're now re-purposing what they can for the "dlc" expansions in dec/feb(?). It seems they are far behind their schedule. I'm curious where that leaves the suppose comet expansion or indeed any new/improved meaningful content. If the expansions are really just 2-5 story missions, a few pvp maps/strikes and a raid(ie more of the same content) I don't forsee much interest. Of course waiting till december is going to kill the non-addicted part of the playerbase anyway.
 
when they say 500 and refer to future investments, i find it bizarre because that content has not yet been developed, if looking at the 10 year project they propose.

it says a lot more towards the marketing than anything else.
 
Man, first few days I was so disappointed in this game. Horrible story, incredibly repetitive mission design, etc etc etc usual criticism.

But my friends started playing and dragged me back in, and now I'm positively hooked. And of course the gunplay is so Bungie fantastic that that helps. I can't judge Destiny how I would a regular campaign fps, its strengths are elsewhere.

I feel like it takes too long to grind for shit though. For real. Vanguard Lvl 3 is a pain. And Vanguard marks too. Just doing the same shit over and over and over. I don't even have a proem with the content, just that progress after 20 is slow in terms of racking up new stuff. Least for me anyway.
 
kswiston said:
I still find $500M hard to believe. That's more than the biggest Hollywood blockbusters, marketing included.
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Movie studios are more than willing to write blank checks for what they believe to be a Golden Goose

And as is obvious, a huge amount of the 500mil is investing in the infrastructure. This was a ground zero project designed to generate billions.
 
Madness said:
You have to remember they've been working on it for for almost 4.5/5 years, plus they switched development from xbox 360 as lead platform, to PS4 lead platform. Add in salaries for hundreds of employees etc.

I'm sure people like Peter Dinklage and Paul McCartney didn't come cheap. A lot of the budget is probably marketing too.
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when and how did this happen? Or why rather lol


The more important point is how it is spent and we don't know that and probably won't
 
I saw the President of Activision Publishing confirm the $500 million on Spike TV segment interviewed by Geoff Keighly? He said it's not just development, but an all-in number (marketing etc.)

So the $500 million number is real.
 
nynt9 said:
That doesn't mean the game isn't a disappointment. Something can be disappointing and still be enjoyable despite the fact that it is nowhere near the level of greatness it could have been at.
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Call it what you want. I call it fun and im glad it came out. It could have been better so could have any game. Ive yet to play the perfect game and saying its a dissappointment over and over in various threads doesnt get me excited.

gdt said:
Man, first few days I was so disappointed in this game. Horrible story, incredibly repetitive mission design, etc etc etc usual criticism.

But my friends started playing and dragged me back in, and now I'm positively hooked. And of course the gunplay is so Bungie fantastic that that helps. I can't judge Destiny how I would a regular campaign fps, its strengths are elsewhere.

I feel like it takes too long to grind for shit though. For real. Vanguard Lvl 3 is a pain. And Vanguard marks too. Just doing the same shit over and over and over. I don't even have a proem with the content, just that progress after 20 is slow in terms of racking up new stuff. Least for me anyway.
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Do your bounties, dailies, weeklies and a public event and you will be there quick.
 
Stealth50 said:
People keep calling Destiny and Watch Dogs failures because their first entries were mediocre, when they in fact were spectacularly successful in creating franchise recognition. The first Assassin's Creed and the first Call of Duties were merely the stepping-stones for the franchises future successes and the same will most likely be true for both Watch Dogs and Destiny.

In the end those 500m were money well spent regardless of the quality of the game itself.
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Pretty much this. Despite feelings on quality the game created massive awareness and sold a bucket load. I have a feeling we will see an AC1 to AC2 type jump between Destiny and Destiny 2.
 
A disappointment critically, but nonetheless the game's been a huge financial success for Activision. It made $325m in the first 5 days. Who knows how much it's made by now, and that's before all the DLC / Expansion come out over the next 6 months.
 
gdt said:
Man, first few days I was so disappointed in this game. Horrible story, incredibly repetitive mission design, etc etc etc usual criticism.

But my friends started playing and dragged me back in, and now I'm positively hooked. And of course the gunplay is so Bungie fantastic that that helps. I can't judge Destiny how I would a regular campaign fps, its strengths are elsewhere.

I feel like it takes too long to grind for shit though. For real. Vanguard Lvl 3 is a pain. And Vanguard marks too. Just doing the same shit over and over and over. I don't even have a proem with the content, just that progress after 20 is slow in terms of racking up new stuff. Least for me anyway.
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You're hooked until you get unhooked when you see all the grinding ahead again.
 
I'd be curious to see how they spent it...

It's, what, almost twice the 2nd biggest game (GTA V).

(Interesting trivia: FF7 is still 5th biggest and that was a 1997 budget... only games even in the top 30 biggest budgets that are older than 2007 are FF7, Shenmue, and WoW.)
 
I dunno how reliable this is but a general counsel from a big publisher (not Activision) told my class that it cost $250 million. He called it the "word on the street" so I dunno how sure he is.
 
On e of the best games I played in my life.

Money well used.

PS. I don't believe in Destiny 2 a new game but Destiny like a game for the generation with constants updates like 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, etc... it is a 10 years game like others MMO.
 
Its hard not to think about how insane that is. 500 million dollars for a first person shooter wouldn't be bonkers if it was some sort of open world/space shooter where you literally fly planet to planet, with fully modeled cities and wildlife on each planet.

That sorta budget only makes sense depending on the game's scale.
 
This has to be the greatest mismanagement of funding I've heard of for a game studio. R* has probably more manpower and time to make this game yet it all tallies up to around $200 million - not even half of Destiny's budget. So why aren't we seeing this kind of production value in the game?

And from Bungie of all developers...
 
James Sawyer Ford said:
$500 million well spent. One of the best games I've played in years and going by the size of the OT, many folks are having a ton of fun just like me. I know my friends are.

Glad it sold extremely well, too.
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Maybe not $500 well spent but I do agree with the rest. Great game.
 
I can't make any math that comes up with that number including dev cost, marketing cost, distribution cost, etc etc etc.

That number has to be a multiple game kind of deal and we just don't have the details.
 
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