330°

Major Publishers Report AAA Games Can Cost Over a Billion to Make

A report released alongside the CMA's decision to block the Microsoft Activision Blizzard acquisition reveals the demanding costs behind modern AAA game development, which can surpass $1 billion per game.

isarai399d ago

Correction, marketing can cost over a billion. I get that AAA development is very expensive but the narrative they push is BS and only used to try to justify their greed like microtransactions and shipping unfinished games. The VAST majority of the budget is used in marketing, it's not even comparable. They act as if tool sets haven't advanced in 20yrs to make things far more accessible and streamlined. And I bet they are inflating that number with things like the cost of R&D who's production covers all games coming out of the studio.

frostypants398d ago (Edited 398d ago )

Exactly. The actual programmers and artists sure as hell aren't getting that much. Too much is spent on marketing to push otherwise mediocre games. Maybe actually DO spend that money on development and see what happens...maybe they won't need to spend so much effort on convincing the public to swallow a turd.

wiz7191398d ago

The average gamer developer can make between $64K all the up to $127k , the depends on a few factors though .. then AAA studios have thousands of employees , seems like a lot of money to me. Then that’s yearly , games these days takes a few years to complete.

https://www.zippia.com/game...

Let’s do that math at the minimal level .. let’s say all developers are making the minimal $64K times that by 1,000 then times that by 2 (for 2 years) that’s $128M on developers salaries alone on a small scale. The $1B wouldn’t seem to far fetched.

isarai398d ago

@wiz

All employees are not all active during development. You don't need prop modelers and texture artists when you're just prototyping, you don't need writers when you polishing, etc etc. At certain stages, certain departments are rarely needed so they work on other projects in the mean time

Strange99398d ago

Ever seen the credits on a triple A game? Even if they got paid minimum wage, 10 of those 1000 people would cost (10x $30k = 300k). Add in people making 6 figures and a few making millions and… yea, even without marketing your in the half billion territory.

wiz7191398d ago

@Isarai even if their not working on one particular project and the team is split working on two different they still have to get paid regardless ..

sinspirit398d ago

@above

Not true at all.

Most AAA games don't even break 100 million in dev costs. The biggest AAA games might reach 150 million. Most AAA games still go closer towards the 80 million numbers.

.. and the major factor is full time employee costs per project. *Certain* games might have like 1,000 devs credited but only a few hundred were employed year round for a couple years. Most were only contracted work for a few weeks time and probably while working on multiple developer projects depending on the kind of job. You also don't need to compare the mega AAA studios to make a point. AAA has a start and it's not in the hundreds of millions, let alone a billion or higher. Insane marketing tactics is always what ends up making AAA game costs seem insane. And, certain game companies known for bad studio management and money wasting have openly advertised how exlensive their games are to make when they heavily spent more than the game dev costs on marketing alone when the game itself was not so good.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 398d ago
neutralgamer1992398d ago (Edited 398d ago )

Agreed 75-100 million for the actual development and whatever else they spend on marketing. Publishers tend to combine both costs into one

GTA5 cost R* total of $250 million for developing and marketing at the time(I am sure they have spent more on marketing since then launching the game for newer consoles and GTA Online)

Sequels are cheaper to make especially yearly releases. COD use to hire celebrities to advertise so I am sure that was costing them

XiNatsuDragnel399d ago

Billion in marketing not in actual creation. Because if we had the latter omfg the quantity and care these will have would be amazing.

Geoff900398d ago

If you had the latter, it'd make no difference to quality, the cost of something doesn't mean it's going to be better.

Currently, the main reason games are costing more in the first place is they are trying to release games within 2-3 years, the teams are much bigger to fulfil that quota.

Outside_ofthe_Box399d ago

I have a wonderful idea. Let's give away first party games that cost a billion each to make, all away for a low monthly fee upon release!

esherwood398d ago

If it makes sense to them I’m good with it

IamTylerDurden1399d ago (Edited 399d ago )

What single game reached a bil in pure development? Even MMOs i find hard to believe. Ludicrous. Like these Destiny/Halo half a bil myths and that's HALF.

If ANY game actually hit even half a bil then they messed up. Unless it's laying a huge long term infrastructure and developing tech.

senorfartcushion398d ago

Destiny’s development was $500 million for ten years worth of games including dlc.

They’re just lying,

Now the issue here is that the mainstream games media sites are going to report this as fact and the conversation will be viewed this way only for the next decade, or at least until another company says it’s $2 billion or $3 billion.

If games cost that much to make then the execs behind the games wouldn’t be having such hefty paydays.

Crows90398d ago

And the media wants to push the narrative that $70 games make sense.

senorfartcushion398d ago

True.

Games have increased in price multiple times over the last few years but the argument was that they were and leading this argument were magazine sites and influencers who all… get their games for free.

Hofstaderman398d ago

I think we need to scale back. I get it that the industry has grown to be bigger than movies but if it’s not reigned in it will collapse in on itself. Back when gaming was more niche and when we had simpler architecture consoles developers were free to experiment and we got such a wide variety of highly rated games some of which even hold up today . Development time was quicker, gameplay was there and costs even for that period was bearable. And no please don’t say that this is the current Indie market, the big companies were pushing out belters in the 90s and early 2000s. Truly the golden age. These days because development is so bloated and expensive games have to sell tens of millions to break even and everybody is expecting cutting edge graphics driving development costs up. The model is unsustainable and something has to give. Perhaps Moores Law of diminishing returns may act as a buffer.

Einhander1971398d ago

Totally agree!! The way things are going the industry could crash. Some are just to stupid to see it.

Show all comments (55)
130°

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Combat Director Wants Final Part To Offer Players "Even More Freedom"

The Final Fantasy VII Rebirth combat director has expressed that he wants the final part in the trilogy to offer players "even more freedom".

Read Full Story >>
twistedvoxel.com
gold_drake14h ago

i wonder if where gonna be able to jump

-Foxtrot8h ago

I love the game so far but please don’t make the final part a mini game fest

Everytime I get to a new part in Rebirth it’s “mini game time”

Inverno2h ago

Hope ya don't mind me asking since it seems like you've played it, did it feel like a decent step up from the last game or was it more like the best from the last but more polished?

CS72h ago

It makes Remake feel like a demo.

9.5/10 imo. And I think the “mini games” did a great job of adding variety to the gameplay. Purely optional as well.

-Foxtrot1h ago

Here's my thoughts

I think it's a big step up from the first instalment, I'm enjoying it way more.

I thought keeping it just in Midgar was silly, it felt dragged out and it didn't have much variation in terms of the scenery.

However with Rebirth, as soon as you get out of Kalm you have a big world to explore and it's great to just wander round and explore.

Now that I'm half way in though, despite still liking what I'm playing, the gameplay loop is now starting to slow down on me. I've got to a new region and I'm like "Yaaay...need to go and find those towers again, oh look another special beast marker, is that a bird I see in the distance? Better follow it to another Mako Crystal"

It's like....you know how Peter Jackson was only supposed to have two Hobbit films then Warner Bros wanted a third film so he stretched the second film out as much as he could so he could keep stuff for the third film making a trilogy? Yeah it feels like that, so these mini games are a part of that overall gameplay loop to keep us going and stretch the game out overall so they have something for the third and final game.

I personally think you could have had the first instalment get you out of Midgar and through to Grasslands / Junon and the second game finishes things off.

Becuzisaid2h ago(Edited 2h ago)

I had a weird cycle of love/hate for all the mini games as I played through. At first I really hated the seeming need to check all these boxes while exploring the grasslands. I didn't enjoy the Gilgamesh quest initially, and thought Queen's blood was fine but didn't want to commit to it. The side quests didn't really grab me either.

Then for some reason everything in Junon region changed my mind and I did pretty much everything. I liked most of the side quests, I actually liked playing fort condor (didn't care for it in the intergrade dlc). And my interest for completing these quests stayed pretty much through to Cosmo Canyon.

Then they added that horrible Lifestream memory/battle mini game and I started getting so burnt out of it all. I just wanted to do the story. I didn't do any side quests in neibleheim and beyond except for the summon. I abandoned Gilgamesh.

So what I'm saying is I would like the third part to go back to the focused progression from remake. Keep the mini games to the gold saucer. Start the game snowboarding if you want, but from there keep the story rolling.

-Foxtrot1h ago

That's funny you say that because I did everything in the Grasslands but once in Junon I started to slow down a little until Corel where by the end I was burnt out. I'm still currently going but I'm just doing what I can while things keep getting thrown at me.

I would have preferred half of these mini game side fillers / collectibles for some really beefy side quests that really adds onto the world of FFVII.

Inverno25m ago

Sounds like they hadn't really figured out what they wanted to do with Remake and this one is more of what they thought of doing which is probably why they're dragging it out to make a trilogy. Disappointed to hear it has towers cause man do i hate towers lol. It's been a while since I've played the first and it'll be a while longer to play the sequel, but it sounds like I'll enjoy it. 7 really impressed me especially after being disappointed with 15, felt like Square finally realized that FF was THEIR big franchise again.

MetroidFREAK211h ago

As long as it comes out on PS5 to have the entire series on one platform, do whatever you want

franwex47m ago

The combat is my favorite thing about Rebirth. Would be really cool if they can improve it even more.

Knightofelemia12m ago

I hope after FF7 Square will either give a new FF game the remake treatment. Or give some of their older titles a remake treatment like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, even Xenogears.

170°

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's Scope Was Impacted by Xbox Series S Limitations

Wccf tech writes: "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2's scope was impacted by the Xbox Series S hardware limitations, as developers could only make a game that was 25% bigger than its predecessor."

Read Full Story >>
wccftech.com
-Foxtrot8h ago

This is the issue with things like this

Xbox Series X is apparently to MS the worlds most powerful console

However the Series S is obviously a limitation because it’s underpowered and developers have to go for parity.

So what’s the point of the world’s most powerful console if you are holding third party developers back? They aren’t going to push themselves if they have to think about the weakest console.

The issue wouldn’t be as bad if it was just Xbox but you are also affecting the PS version aswell

I think developers need to start just taking advantage of a console and if one of them can’t do X Y and Z then f*** them…why should the others suffer. What’s MS going to do? The bigger the franchise the least chance MS are going to tell them to f*** off. Baulders Gate 3 seemed to have stood their ground and suddenly their “strict” parity rule didn’t really matter. We suddenly got super optimisation efforts for the Series S that got things sorted.

anast4h ago

I agree, and the sad part is use normal folk saw it the second they announced their plans.

Abear2146m ago(Edited 44m ago)

Agree 100% this is why I didn’t want the M$ Monopoly, now PS5 version will be held back too.

If PS5 Pro comes out and Series S is still a thing it’ll be interesting what differences and what devs choose to do. Really hoping Rockstar pushes the PS5 pro with GTA6 and we get the best version possible.

LucasRuinedChildhood9h ago

More info from the author of the article, I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/ki...

Quote:
"1) I was told this info from the producer of the game Martin Klíma.
2) He specifically said the game will have only one mode.
3) And this mode is 4K 30 on PS5/XSX and 1440p 30 on XSS.
4) He said that the game is already running north of the 30 FPS cap so the performance should be stable on launch, much better than KCD1.
5) The limitation was XSS because of the 10GB memory. He said that's why they wanted to make the game 25% larger.
6) Speculation on my part: the output resolution is probably upscaled and the reason why there won't be a 60 FPS mode is because it'll most likely be very CPU heavy, like Dragon's Dogma 2 for example."

Doesn't seem like they're adding a 40fps mode on PS5/Series X for launch even if they can handle it.

Sgt_Slaughter4h ago

I'd much rather have 1440p/60fps or even 45fps. Having just one, even with the Series S in mind, is disappointing.

franwex3h ago(Edited 3h ago)

Remember when xbots were adamant that the series s won’t hold back the gen?

Microsoft just needs to let go of the mandatory parity. Who cares if your grandma doesn’t understand that a game cannot be played on the S. It’s not like it she can buy you a physical game for it anyway. Before buying the game put up a notice that it only works on series X. If you’re buying for a friend-allow for a refund.

Bam. Everyone is happy. Most series s owners are for casuals that want Game Pass anyway and most likely don’t purchase most games.

If the developers want it to run on S, let them figure it out.

Jin_Sakai3h ago

“During the event, the Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 producer also revealed that on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, the game will run at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second“

Another “creative decision” right? 🤦‍♂️

IHateNate2h ago

Amateur hour. Very incapable developer.

Outside_ofthe_Box2h ago(Edited 2h ago)

Since you're not an amateur and clearly know more than them, can you over there and help get the game running on the S without having to sacrifice their true vision. Us gamers would really appreciate you using your wisdom for good 🙏

IHateNate2h ago

Thousands of games run just fine on S.

But Kingdom Come is the game that can’t. Must be one hell of a game!

franwex40m ago(Edited 39m ago)

Thousands of games run on PS4 and on Switch. If developers want them to run on those systems. Fine. Those two platforms still get new games. Sony isn’t making studios also make a ps4 pro version, or Nintendo a wiiu version. Microsoft technically is.

Show all comments (13)
100°

Celebrate the Diablo Anniversary with March of the Goblins

Come celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Diablo IV and the 2-year anniversary of Diablo Immortal! There are heaps of rewards to mark these celebrations with a bounty of devilish goods across both games.

Read Full Story >>
terminalgamer.com
anast10h ago

This game is about to get buried by Path 2.

LordoftheCritics8h ago

Still no global chat or group finder.

The emptiest MP game ever made.

OtterX8h ago

1 more month then I can celebrate 1 year since i stopped playing and uninstalled the game.

Walalon7h ago

We are on the same team brother!

Rynxie4h ago

I uninstalled d4 after they kept screwing over the sorc build and I beat the game. I also uninstalled immortal after reading the end. I actually went back to d2r here and there.