HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
Insane numbers
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Stephen Totilo - 2020's Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War cost $700 million to develop across its "lifecycle" (+ marketing)
- Thread starter HeisenbergFX4
- Start date
LectureMaster
Has Man Musk
No wonder they feel like one battle pass is not enough. I don't know how this can be sustainable as now games are on Game Pass
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LectureMaster
Has Man Musk
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//DEVIL//
Member
This must be a joke right?
Call of Duty is 10x bigger games than both these games combined.
The same goes for Fortnight. do not compare a mere single-player game to something as big as Call of Duty.
James Sawyer Ford
Banned
Yet concord allegedly cost $400 M
Magic Carpet
Gold Member
Bedazzeling guns costs money.
LectureMaster
Has Man Musk
Wukong is not a good example. Gaming development costs are significantly lower in China.
For a programming position at Game Science, the annual salary is like $40k equivalent, it's not even competent compared to other IT companies in China.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Big difference is COD games cost a lot to make but sell tons of copies + mtx on top of it. Big sales and big profits. GTA6 will be even bigger sales, profits and costs. But its all worth it.Yet concord allegedly cost $400 M
Concord sold 0 copies. And studio is dead.
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James Sawyer Ford
Banned
Not arguing that.
No way did concord cost $400M with very little marketing spend, no single player campaign with massive production values
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yet concord allegedly cost $400 M
And lost $399 million.
Thick Thighs Save Lives
NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire
I can't even imagine BO6 dev budget considering it had an even longer dev cycle than those COD titles mentioned in the OP.
Reizo Ryuu
Member
I mean, that number seems not that bad?
Even though one studio is the "main" studio for every entry, basically every activision studio gets roped in for development, and then there's all the outsourcing and contracters; I believe it's 5000+ people for black ops cold war, so that's probably 3-400 million alone on staff. It sells tons of copies every year and everyone seems to spend on in-game purchases as well, so that's multiple billion in revenue every year.
Even though one studio is the "main" studio for every entry, basically every activision studio gets roped in for development, and then there's all the outsourcing and contracters; I believe it's 5000+ people for black ops cold war, so that's probably 3-400 million alone on staff. It sells tons of copies every year and everyone seems to spend on in-game purchases as well, so that's multiple billion in revenue every year.
James Sawyer Ford
Banned
Sure if you're delusional and think concord cost almost as much as some cod games including marketing
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Cods come out annually and still reportedly cost that much for it's entire lifecycle, which is a few years let's say, if you factor in 8 years of Concords staff salaries, it should be reaching that figure pretty easily.
It just didn't get a chance (or install base) to recoup that money.
diffusionx
Gold Member
And yet y'all think Concord's numbers floating around are ludicrously low.
James Sawyer Ford
Banned
James Sawyer Ford
Banned
They are out annually because multiple studios are making them
CoD's headcount each year is orders of magnitude larger than Concord's peak at 170
diffusionx
Gold Member
The central idea to the Conccord budget was that Sony spent major money in terms of consultants and contractors to get the game ready to ship. You can believe it or not but that's the story.
The point is that games are coming out with these sorts of budgets.
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nial
Member
There was not a Firewalk Games 8-9 years ago. Never understood that part in particular.
TintoConCasera
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Dude's still at it with Concord lol.
And yeah those budgets are crazy. Does COD really need all that marketing? Seems to me like the game could almost sold itself, kinda like the fifas and the maddens.
And yeah those budgets are crazy. Does COD really need all that marketing? Seems to me like the game could almost sold itself, kinda like the fifas and the maddens.
James Sawyer Ford
Banned
Concord isn't anywhere near CoD's headcount or marketing
diffusionx
Gold Member
Concord also cost a lot less than the games we are talking about here. Black Ops 3 came out in 2015 FFS. Costs have gone up a lot since.
I bet BO6 was $900M, maybe even $1B.
tkscz
Member
Considering celebrity endorsements, ads on every channel, celebrity voice talent, paying youtubers to play. All that alone can cost $400M.
And that would be $740M PLUS 30% of the gross going to stores both physical and digital.
That said, the game grossed $2.1B at the very least purely on game sells, so not including things like DLC, battle passes and micro-transactions.
30% of $2.1B is $630M. Still leaving $1.47B. Taking away the $740M from that leaves (without counting tax) a profit of ~$730M.
Even with all that money made, I can't see this being a sustainable model to be the norm. Outliers like CoD can continue to do this but it shouldn't be a band wagon to hop on. That's incredibly risky and a bigger chance of failure than success.
And that would be $740M PLUS 30% of the gross going to stores both physical and digital.
That said, the game grossed $2.1B at the very least purely on game sells, so not including things like DLC, battle passes and micro-transactions.
30% of $2.1B is $630M. Still leaving $1.47B. Taking away the $740M from that leaves (without counting tax) a profit of ~$730M.
Even with all that money made, I can't see this being a sustainable model to be the norm. Outliers like CoD can continue to do this but it shouldn't be a band wagon to hop on. That's incredibly risky and a bigger chance of failure than success.
diffusionx
Gold Member
if games like Madden are anything to go by, they make more on the DLC stuff than they do on the actual gaems themselves.
Which is probabl;y why MS ultimately green lighted putting the game on GP. They're both huge revenue streams though.
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clarky
Gold Member
Which COD exactly are you talking about?3 hour campaign, 8 multiplayer maps. $700M makes sense.
M.W.
Member
Cold War. I know it had limited maps at launch and the SP was short.
clarky
Gold Member
The budget is for the entire game not the launch product.
Edit: it also launched with more content than what you said, a lot more:
Not saying the budget isnt completely insane btw, but still.
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Buggy Loop
Member
And we're back to denial
monkey-man game is SP, once it's done it's done unless you like it so much to keep playing, I'm not COD fanboy but can't deny they keep expanding the game and they know how to sustain a userbarse of millions of online players adding whatever popular thing is hot atm, which must not be cheap at all
There's a certain amount of silliness involved in comparing single player games to a live service game with Campaign + Multiplayer and tons of post launch support.
Bumblebeetuna
Member
Lost guy is still playing goalie for Concord 
James Sawyer Ford
Banned
And we're back to denial
Denial is thinking concord's budget brushes elbows with the most expensive title on the market with the largest marketing spend in the industry
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
Xbox/MS really bit off more than they could chew. I don't think Xbox can take a completely hands-off approach and expect CoD to chug along willy-nilly.
If I were an executive at MS, I would be completely appalled by the budget and the sheer number of people required to keep the CoD factory running strong (especially in the context of Xbox weak ass position/numbers)
If I were an executive at MS, I would be completely appalled by the budget and the sheer number of people required to keep the CoD factory running strong (especially in the context of Xbox weak ass position/numbers)
Unknown?
Member
They have to spend that though because Activision is dead if just one of them flops. They put all their eggs in that basket and have no other franchises with large pull due to milking them all to death.
StreetsofBeige
Member
Giving indeed.Concord, the game that just keeps on giving.
Pouring one out for that Robot with pronouns.
Studio got canned early October. It's now 3 months later and I bet some of those Firewalk employees are on unemployment insurance by now. A gift from taxpayers.
diffusionx
Gold Member
Nobody thinks that, because Concord's $400M budget for a 2024 game doesn't come close to a $700M one released in 2020.
If anything these numbers make Concord's look more plausible.
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