legacyzero
Banned
Wow at This is Vegas. Hard to believe they didnt just throw something out to try and recoop some of that.
First post wins. I was asking the same thing.
Star Citizen is close to being one of the most expensive games to develop.
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Massive marketing campaign.
Some games have their marketing cost included (which is not part of development) and some don't? Either have them all include or exclude marketing.
Fox Mulder
Member
The title is click bait, as it's really nowhere near being the most expensive game according to the list.
it's easy to inflate the number when you have 50 million dollar marketing campaigns.
it's easy to inflate the number when you have 50 million dollar marketing campaigns.
That doesn't make sense. They wont be fine if it bombs.
ThePoopDeck
Neo Member
lol
do you really think that destiny is going to bomb? with all the marketing push that activision will give it, and critics are already liking the game.
AuthenticM
Member
How in Holy Hell did a 1997 PSone game that used extensive pre-rendered backgrounds manage to cost so much ?
oh god this is painful to watch. Must have felt like eternity on that stage.
Hip Hop
Member
It's one of the greatest online shooters of all time imo. I think the price fits it well. The marketing dollars spent might have been huge.
With costs that high, its very possible. Its not a game that the average joe understands as easily as CoD or GTA either.
Eh, they had some serious problems with the build at the presentation. They were manually copying files around the game folders right before starting the demo. It worked a lot better on the PAX floor the next day.
http://youtu.be/VE3WxpO4jW0
Skip to 23 minutes to see the new stuff.
While I doubt they'll be able to pull off everything they've discussed in previews, I fully expect them to have a good space sim with a budget comparable to a modern Wing Commander which is far more than I ever expected to see after so many years of 0 space sims.
kutthoat5150
Member
If it was EA publishing this than this is probably how the game would be released, thankfully they don't have any publisher or investors to please telling them to get the game out to meet some critical sales deadline. That presentation was hard to watch but what worked looked amazing and I'm positive Chris wouldn't release anything to the public that was shit on launch. (excluding the hangar module)
They actually had investors as a backup option to bring the final funding to over $20 million. Chris talked about this in couple of his post/letters but can't find any now.
But here's an interview: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/200998/chris_roberts_on_star_citizen_.php?print=1
Triggerhappytel
Member
Having anything from 100-200 people working on a game for 3+ years is not cheap. Factor in software licensing, testers, new hardware, actors, mocap studio hire, and so on, I can see budgets spiralling out of control.
Bearing in mind this is Tomb Raider 2012, not the original release.
The Silver
Member
Final Fantasy 7 is really ridiculous when you remember that was during the PS1 days.
TaroYamada
Member
The Warhammer MMO THQ was working on isn't on there, Rubin said THQ blew somewhere in the neighborhood of 100mln and there was little to show for it.
eyeball_kid
Member
Ah, thanks. So then only one released game in the top 10 on that list has had lasting cultural impact. Not that cultural impact is what any of those companies are spending money for, but in terms of creating a brand or doing something that lasts the test of time or seeps into the general culture, the money on these titles seems geared towards short-term, per-project profit. I chalk that up to the quarterly pressure from these publicly-traded corporations, in contrast with the old days of Brian Fargo @ Interplay who would regularly take risks on innovative titles.
Some Nobody
Junior Member
Yeah, I think people misunderstand how crowdfunding works. The game cuts out the middle man of investors. The only thing they have to do is get whatever deals they offered to Kickstarter members out. Anything they sell after that is gravy.
And, to be honest, they probably aren't going to do much past that anyway. They've made a big show of not letting consoles hold them back and doing the most they can with PC tech, so I'm thinking it'll take a monster machine to play the game. That's a ceiling that will be REALLY hard to get over. Most of the people interested have probably already invested.
The Wing Commander games were similar in that they targeted higher end gaming PCs. Didn't stop them from making a lot of money. There's a reason WC4 had a budget of ~$10M in 1996 when most games were produced for a fraction of that.
LurkerPrime
Member
Potential consumers can't buy what they don't know about.
I look forward to the future where everything is an ad... Imagine a world where you'll watch television (which has a scrollbar on the top, bottom, and sides, AdSensing products you're interested in) as well as product placement in the shows, which will further acclimitize you to certain brands, all with classic commercial blocks that still play in the standard way. Then imagine you'll take a break from TV and look out the window, where a mobile AdBlimp( pending) will be shoutcasting local events that could be attended, and your eyes will then wander over to the down town area, where all corporate and public buildings will have ads all over the sides, Bladerunner style. Then imagine you see a neighbour walk by, sporting a McDonald's Adcut (a hip haircut featuring a shaved McDonald's M in the back, as well as the company mascot). Imagine your animatronic dog broadcasting its hourly, sponsored message; coincidentally at the same time as your company watch and GCD (global communication device). Then see yourself waking up from your virtual reality trip and returning to the real world; it looks pretty much the same, minus income and happiness you enjoyed during the (rather expensive) VRT. What a future!
We'll almost have a working holodeck by then, that's what I'm really looking forward to.
Here's a quote from a review that game a 9.5/10
I'm guessing it mostly went into marketing and moneyhatting.
MattPeters
Member
I would love to see what Blizzard has made with World of Warcraft over the years. Millions of monthly subs, account services, multiple expansion packs.
Solid Samus
Banned
Jesus tapdancing fuck.
I mean for its time and considering its framerate, I can concede that it was at the very least a solid enough looking game. But this shit.
dragonbane
Member
Probably the same or slightly higher as well. Overall it was definitely more expensive than Heavy Rain, but not by that much.
Antilurker77
Member
That's only for Vanillia. IIRC each expansion is around 50 million a pop.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
7 Disney Infinity - 100,000,000
whhahhaahhahahahaah no just no hbwhahahahah that fucking imposssible that DI(1) cost so much no way.
There are no license cost its made by Disney internal.
whhahhaahhahahahaah no just no hbwhahahahah that fucking imposssible that DI(1) cost so much no way.
There are no license cost its made by Disney internal.
There are licensing costs... but there really aren't.
It's an accounting trick for tax write-off purposes.
Unknown Soldier
Member
The $145 million number for FFVII seems like total BS, FFX only cost like $40 million.
I heavily suspect that's just pre-release development costs, not including marketing, servers, customer service, and post-launch support.
(Still, it's a ridicolous ROI)
That whole list - and the quote that Star Citizen will be one of the most expensive games ever - are pretty misleading.
For starters, that list wildly mixes total budgets including marketing (as with MW2), and development budgets that leave out the marketing cost- that already makes it impossible to properly rank these games.
I also think that a lot of these are just rumors or estimates, with few developers ever putting a proper price tag on the games. And if they do, they often do not disclose if that includes marketing or not either.
With regards to Star Citizen: Leaving aside the fact that $ 43M is still far away from the price tag of some games on that list, we also have to remember that this list is far away from being complete. For example, there were 4 more Call of Duty games released since MW, and it would stand to reason that they were not significantly cheaper than MW2 including their marketing
So yeah, it makes for good conversations, but without developers revealing the actual cost of every game, these ranked lists should be taken with a hue pinch of salt.
For starters, that list wildly mixes total budgets including marketing (as with MW2), and development budgets that leave out the marketing cost- that already makes it impossible to properly rank these games.
I also think that a lot of these are just rumors or estimates, with few developers ever putting a proper price tag on the games. And if they do, they often do not disclose if that includes marketing or not either.
With regards to Star Citizen: Leaving aside the fact that $ 43M is still far away from the price tag of some games on that list, we also have to remember that this list is far away from being complete. For example, there were 4 more Call of Duty games released since MW, and it would stand to reason that they were not significantly cheaper than MW2 including their marketing
So yeah, it makes for good conversations, but without developers revealing the actual cost of every game, these ranked lists should be taken with a hue pinch of salt.
SlipperySlope
Banned
I call shenanigans!
Wikipedia clearly states:
Estimated Development Costs: 45M
Estimated Marketing Costs: 100M
I guess Sony footed a big part of the marketing cost, since they needed to push the PS1.
Sources quoted on the VII marketing costs:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-vii-hits-tv/1100-2466616/
Clearly states that it is Sony's marketing budget for the PS1, not FFVII's. {I've actually gone ahead and purged it from the wikipedia article, and there should be grounds for purging the whole marketing estimation}
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-02-final-fantasy-7-retrospective
Smells of a circle-link.
All in all, i call bullshit.
e: Meh, this was supposed to be an edit to the previous post. Can't merge at this point.
Black Mantis
Member
Yeah, I was glad it got cancelled, as I take the Haloverse seriously. If they ever try another attempt, it should be done by 343, or at least under their direct supervision, which the cancelled game wasn't.
As for SC, I reckon they'll claw back those costs easily if the game nails it. Looks fucking awesome.
The computer they had the proper build on broke down before the presentation, so they had to use a older build on while trying as fast as possible to send the new one over the internet. They didn't have the time though so they showed the old one instead.
Besides, this is a hell of a lot more in working order than most games at this stage. Its why most developers don't show anything this early, because people have no clue what it takes. The price of transparency in development.
People should watch this instead for a better view of it.
Well, they are gonna have cut scenes for their Squadron 42 campaign, they even got a mo-cap studio set up and are about to start casting. Though I think they will skip on most of the celebrity actors to save on 99% of their budget.
Some Nobody
Junior Member
I don't...how....dude. You're joking, right? The % of gamers who look around for new games all the time is low as fuck. Without advertising they'd save a ton of money, but then lose that and more when no one bought their game. Essentially, any time you see a game outside of coverage on a news site, that's advertising. Not just commercials. When Sony shows "new games" on PSN. Posters/trailers at GameStop. When websites do that stupid thing where the background of their page is a link to something else.
What you want is more effective advertising, where they don't spend exactly the budget of the video game itself and double the cost.
The internet has convinced everyone everything can be "free" or "low cost", but that's a lie. Everything costs money, and everything has to be paid for. So as long as we live in the internet era, advertisers will gain more and more power because they're paying for so much shit.
That whole list - and the quote that Star Citizen will be one of the most expensive games ever - are pretty misleading.
For starters, that list wildly mixes total budgets including marketing (as with MW2), and development budgets that leave out the marketing cost- that already makes it impossible to properly rank these games.
I also think that a lot of these are just rumors or estimates, with few developers ever putting a proper price tag on the games. And if they do, they often do not disclose if that includes marketing or not either.
With regards to Star Citizen: Leaving aside the fact that $ 43M is still far away from the price tag of some games on that list, we also have to remember that this list is far away from being complete. For example, there were 4 more Call of Duty games released since MW, and it would stand to reason that they were not significantly cheaper than MW2 including their marketing
So yeah, it makes for good conversations, but without developers revealing the actual cost of every game, these ranked lists should be taken with a hue pinch of salt.
I think a far better argument would be that Star Citizen is the most expensive independently funded game ever. Which I do believe is correct.
Yeah, but how many of those games had fans paying for it before they even came out. Plus it's a different era now. More products to buy. And Steam's got everyone convinced that if they wait long enough they can get the same game for 1/3rd it's original cost.
I'm not saying SC won't still sell though. Prolly get at least another million people.
Still the figure must be bollocks.
According to this list, every single FF game after cost less than a third of FF7's budget.
Especially considering that FF8 and 9 are very comparable in their structure and technology to FF7, but with even more assets, and marketing that (at the time, no numbers here) felt very similar in scope, these figures are highly unconvincing.
EDIT: So 1UP says it was 45 Mio $ at the time.
Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
I think it is important to have numbers with and without marketing costs included or have the base figure and the marketing costs separate. It is peculiar if you were to find a game whose marketing budget is 3x its development costs.
darth_infamous
Member
It made $139 mil last year.
l Zealot l
Member
I knew about the Halo MMO that got cancelled, but wow I didn't know that much money had already been used on it.
Messofanego
Banned
This video is pretty good if you haven't seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE3WxpO4jW0#t=24m42s
Including marketing budget on a lost like this is weird, and makes any real comparison impossible. Especially considering that marketing costs aren't necessarily a one time investment at launch but some games are continuously marketed for years afterwards. In that case Candy Crush should probably be somewhere at the top of the list.
TheSpaceBetween
Member
Why isn't Bioshock Infinite on that list? Wasn't it in excess of 200 mil?