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[Denton]

It seems lot of people bought the Gold edition, so the million copies sold in 23 hours was enough to cover the game's 40 million USD budget, according to Dan Vávra.

Information from a czech interview with seznam zprávy:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II na sebe vydělalo hned první den, říká Vávra - Seznam Zprávy

Vyšla nejočekávanější česká hra roku 2025 Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Jedna z největších událostí na tuzemském herním trhu stála zhruba miliardu korun a vydělala na sebe hned první den po vydání.

www.seznamzpravy.cz

 

[Saber]

Good lord, thats awesome. Thats some nice work for them, theres some mainstream games that could barelly do that.

 

[samoilaaa]

they achieved alot with only 40 million , mocap , voice acting , travels for terrain scanning etc.

 

[SimTourist]

 

[Kurotri]

 

[Roman Empire]

Wait, the budget was only 40 million? Wow, triple-A gaming truly has been money laundring, huh?

 

[Gonzito]

Good, we need more games like this one. Keep them coming

 

[SimTourist]

Wait, the budget was only 40 million? Wow, triple-A gaming truly has been money laundring, huh?

Czech wages are much lower than USA or Japan

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Wait, the budget was only 40 million? Wow, triple-A gaming truly has been money laundring, huh?

Tbh, there's a big difference between Central European salaries and US West Coast salaries.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Probably the best RPG this year "only" cost 40M, proving (again) that you don't need to waste +100M to make great games, as the media and CEOs love to parrot.

 

[MMaRsu]

Nice, Zanger Bob!

 

[Outlier]

Congrats, to them! May more success wash over them.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

It seems lot of people bought the Gold edition, so the million copies sold in 23 hours was enough to cover the game's 40 million USD budget, according to Dan Vávra.

Information from a czech interview with seznam zprávy:

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II na sebe vydělalo hned první den, říká Vávra - Seznam Zprávy

Vyšla nejočekávanější česká hra roku 2025 Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. Jedna z největších událostí na tuzemském herním trhu stála zhruba miliardu korun a vydělala na sebe hned první den po vydání.

www.seznamzpravy.cz

Now, just imagine how much more they could have made if it was a live service game!

 

[StereoVsn]

I caved and got Gold edition myself from CDKeys. It was only like $12 more so what the hell, might as well support the dev.

Edit: And I did enjoy most of DLCs from KCD1.

 

[coachmcguirk91]

Lol, I wouldn't be surprised if the marketing cost more than the budget of the game. Even so, it is remarkable a 100+ hour RPG, that looks this good, cost under 100 mil

 

[JimmyRustler]

Games should always be budgeted to break even with 1-2 million copies sold. If it needs more, don't make it. Except it's CoD or something where you know loads of people will buy it anyway.

 

[lh032]

Tbh, there's a big difference between Central European salaries and US West Coast salaries.

yea, and then there are a group of devs taking up a huge chunk operating cost eg high wages and they come out with games like concord. its really sad tbh.

 

[CompleteGlobalSaturation]

Not my type of game but goes to show what happens when a developer creates a game based on their own vision instead of filling checkboxes like most modern day slop.

 

[PeteBull]

Wait, the budget was only 40 million? Wow, triple-A gaming truly has been money laundring, huh?

Warhouse Is in eastern europe, means salaries are roughly 4-5x lower, and ofc they didnt spend budget on sweet baby/other dei consultants, it makes tremendous difference vs western dev studios with tons of high paid dei hires on top of DEI implementation consultants, all living lavish lifestyles in western world.

 

[SlimySnake]

Tbh, there's a big difference between Central European salaries and US West Coast salaries.

Let’s say its double. That means a game made by 250 devs for 6 years can be made for $80 million in The u.s.

But no, gow cost $200 million and took just 4 years.

Spider-Man cost $300 million and took 2.5 years.

There is some serious Money laundering or Hollywood accounting going on here. Dont believe anything that comes out of corporate America. Treat them all like Phil Spencer.

 

[Roman Empire]

Warhouse Is in eastern europe, means salaries are roughly 4-5x lower, and ofc they didnt spend budget on sweet baby/other dei consultants, it makes tremendous difference vs western dev studios with tons of high paid dei hires on top of DEI implementation consultants, all living lavish lifestyles in western world.

Czech wages are much lower than USA or Japan

Tbh, there's a big difference between Central European salaries and US West Coast salaries.

Yeah, it went through my head after commenting. But still, $40 million is a lower number than expected considering the scope of the project and its quality. The studio deserves to be praised for their awesome work.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

Thats pretty impressive.

Was expecting $100 million even with lower wages.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Jesus. AA games must cost pennies over there.

 

[Denton]

Lol, I wouldn't be surprised if the marketing cost more than the budget of the game. Even so, it is remarkable a 100+ hour RPG, that looks this good, cost under 100 mil

That is definitely not the case here. Warhorse did most of the marketing inhouse and the 40 million budget includes that. Most expensive piece of marketing was probably the 30 second CGI trailer (but it was still kept to just 30 seconds to keep the cost down).

For reference, KCD1 cost around 18 million USD, also including marketing.

 

[thatJohann]

I wish they had a demo or a PS Premium trial cause I wanna check out this game but odds are I’ll hate it so I won’t be buying it blindly.

 

[Banjo64]

That’s a healthy way to develop a game.

 

[Emedan]

That's great to hear, and really shows how fucking bloated other studios budgets are.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

Amazing news to hear.

It's a game I really want to try but I really don't think I will like the actual gameplay unfortunately. I don't mind some Euro jank, and one of my favorite series of all time is pure unadulterated Slav jank but something about it just tells me I'll hate playing it.

Probably the best RPG this year "only" cost 40M, proving (again) that you don't need to waste +100M to make great games, as the media and CEOs love to parrot.

I imagine that game dev is much cheaper in the Czech Republic is much cheaper then in the West, but the point still stands and the industry is definitely bloated.

 

[Schmendrick]

Nice to hear some good news from the gaming industry once in a while.

 

[FeralEcho]

Bu...but...what about the 100 dollar game prices the media said were necessary for the industry to rebound?! Poor little industry...

Congratz to the dev though,they deserve all the success!

 

[Lokaum D+]

40mi.... 90%of studios cant do 10% of what they did with 10x the budget

 

[Physiocrat]

DeepSeek AI FWIW reckons the game would have cost between $80m and $120m if produced in the USA

 

[PeteBull]

Jesus. AA games must cost pennies over there.

They are relatively cheap, polish game from not long ago AA Robocop Rouge City was made in 3 years only and on a very tight budget, and got profitable very fast too even tho it didnt sell crazy amount of copies

Rogue City exceeded Nacon's expectations and was the publisher's biggest launch, with the game reaching 435,000 players in its first two weeks since release.

The successful release of Robocop: Rogue City allowed the gaming division of Nacon to increase quarterly revenue to €59 million

French publisher Nacon is pleased with the results of the third financial quarter. During this period, his gaming sales amounted to €59 million. This is 43% more than in the same period a year earlier.

app2top.com

 

[Buhaj]

Warhouse Is in eastern europe, means salaries are roughly 4-5x lower, and ofc they didnt spend budget on sweet baby/other dei consultants, it makes tremendous difference vs western dev studios with tons of high paid dei hires on top of DEI implementation consultants, all living lavish lifestyles in western world.

Czechia is in Central, not Eastern Europe.

 

[64gigabyteram]

well, time for insomniac to move their hq to poland

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Jesus. AA games must cost pennies over there.

Isn't this an AA title?

 

[Emedan]

Isn't this an AA title?

Does it look like one?

 

[Trilobit]

Is it true that you can romance a 15-year old boy in this game? Sounds very sketchy if true.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Does it look like one?

Yes? Why else do you think I thought it was an AA title?

That isn't even intended as an insult or whatever you think my comment was.

 

[geary]

Is it true that you can romance a 15-year old boy in this game? Sounds very sketchy if true.

Bruh, where did you hear that? Stop listening to every clickbait article / video on the internet.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Yes? Why else do you think I thought it was an AA title?

That isn't even intended as an insult or whatever you think my comment was.

Damn. Actual AA games must look like turds to you

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Damn. Actual AA games must look like turds to you

Or maybe I'm just less impressed with this game?

 

[Emedan]

Yes? Why else do you think I thought it was an AA title?

That isn't even intended as an insult or whatever you think my comment was.

In what universe would KCD2 be classed as a AA game? Cause of the money spent? The size of the studio? What are your criteria for it?

 

[adamsapple]

Damn. Actual AA games must look like turds to you

I dunno, a $40 million budget leans more towards AAA to me, not AA. Right?

Control was made on a $35m budget and that's pretty much an AAA game.

 

[Xtib81]

I dunno, a $40 million budget leans more towards AAA to me, not AA. Right?

Control was made on a $35m budget and that's pretty much an AAA game.

Nah, that's definitely AA territory especially today.

 

[Denton]

Czechia is in Central, not Eastern Europe.

Hahah. I remember when I used to be anal about this too. But looking at the clownworld happening west of us, I mellowed and now prefer to be considered part of Eastern Europe.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

In what universe would KCD2 be classed as a AA game? Cause of the money spent? The size of the studio? What are your criteria for it?

My criteria is whatever they show me. It just doesn't look AAA to me, but if people say it is, that's fine.

I was just surprised this is considered AAA.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Or maybe I'm just less impressed with this game?

It doesn't matter what impresses you or not. AA developers aren't reaching this scale.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Czech wages are much lower than USA or Japan

Japan wages are actually very low

 

[Emedan]

Nah, that's definitely AA territory especially today.

But it's the scope and result of the product that decides not the money spent no?

My criteria is whatever they show me. It just doesn't look AAA to me, but if people say it is, that's fine.

I was just surprised this is considered AAA.

Yeah what is then? What are your criteria? This game is more impressive than most of the shite that has been released by AAA studios lately.