Bungie COO: Destiny doesn't cost $500 million to develop

Bungie's COO Pete Parsons just clarified that the game's development cost was not anything close to $500 million. With the $500M number, people are speaking a lot more to the long-term investment that Bungie will be making in the future, according to Parsons.

[Golden_Mud]

The only thing to say about this is LOOOOL

[mikeslemonade]

Graphics aren't good enough to be a 500 mil game. That's why Crytek is going bankrupt, and those final fantasy games with CG in them required over 500 employees to make those games.

[OrangePowerz]

Not sure what you try to say really.

Graphics are not what costs a lot. Building a large game and universe is what costs a lot. Marketing costs a lot and so do servers.

Crytek is going bankrupt because they spent a lot of money buying or opening studios with nothing to show for. Their engine doesn't sell well and for the ladt few years they released Crysis 2 and 3 and the very long in development Ryse. Wwarface is a big flop and that's all the games they have.

500 people is nothing compared to the amount of people working on a single AC game. 500 is pretty standard by todays standard for a game.

[Shadonic]

crytek going bankrupt cause there games are just eye candy and not that fun.

[ShinMaster]

It didn't look like a $500 million game.

We kind of already suspected this was long term investment for the franchise.

[Future_2015]

I dont even understand who came up with 500 million for a start

[MightyNoX]

It's like spread out over their 10 year plan. They've already stated they have a expansion-->sequel--> expansion already in motion.

[Darkstares]

4 games and 4 expansions over a 10 year term.

[guitarded77]

The internet.

[fenome]

The Bungie-Activision contract calls for 4 games, 4 expansions, and sperate DLCs. It says it right on the bottom of the first page:

http://documents.latimes.co...

Here's a link where Joystiq breaks it down:

http://www.joystiq.com/2013...

[xilx]

I think there's some statement somewhere that Activision is investing 500 mil into Destiny, and people somehow got the idea that that was the budget for one game, when it was meant as for Destiny as a franchise, including marketing etc. I mean, really, it would take well over 10 million copies sold to break even if for one game (they don't get the full $60 per copy sold if someone thinks the math is wrong at a glance), nobody's that stupid when coming up with a budget for a new IP.

[Jughead3416]

The budget isn't for just 1 game. It's for the whole 10 year project. Also, budgets doesn't equal money spent. The budget is just an amount they can't exceed.

[fenome]

Forgot to drop a link on the $500 mill budget, and that's the question you asked. lol

Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO) said they were making a $500 million bet on Destiny:

http://www.vg247.com/2014/0...

It's also worth noting that Kotick is one of the highest paid CEOs in the US. He makes $2.1 million a year, and got a $7.85 million bonus last year. If Activision can afford upwards of $10 million to ONE employee in ONE year, they can afford to spend big on games too.

http://www.gamespot.com/art...

[3-4-5]

$500 Million is for the franchise.

Basically the $500 Million is for AT LEAST 2 games but most likely a Trilogy.

They are just investing in it up front instead of guessing IF there will be more games, WE KNOW there will be more destiny.

In fact I'd be willing to be that they Peter Jackson'd this Game and they are actually partly working on Destiny 2 at the same time.

This helps keep the length of time in between releases shorter.

^ Just my theory.

[Sevir]

Anyone with sense knew that the $500m investment was not for one game but for the span of 10 years to build the fledgling IP of Destiny. So however many Destiny Games and expansions that gets developed with Bungies 10 year Partnership with Activision sums up the $500m figure, along with the Partnership with Sony and marketing. Hell, no one game gets that kind of budget.

I think Destiny's budget is somewhere close to $70 million, with the Sony Partnership, Mobile App, Marketing Distribution and the launch of the game on 4 platforms simultaneously.

[medman]

My only problem when I heard the 500 million dollar figure was trying to figure out how hard they were going to hit us with microtransactions for this game and it's inevitable sequels....Bungie still hasn't said as far as I know. That is my one concern going forward.

[Thatguy-310]

I remember them saying that 500 million was going to be for the long term not the very first installment. Destiny will be the next big franchise so expect a lot more installments

[XiSasukeUchiha]

I one to say https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[ape007]

please stop this trend, "bigger is better" this will lessen the creativity of developers

[JakemanPS31994]

if more money makes you less creative then there is something else wrong with you and you probably shouldn't be in creative thinking business such as this :/

[Summons75]

I believe he's talking about media and gamers having the mindset that if it isn't huge then it isn't good. If that's true then I have to agree but if it's like what you said then I agree with you.

[porkChop]

More money means you can take less risks. Less risks very often means less innovation and creativity.

[OrangePowerz]

@pork

At the same time you could argue that less money means a company doesn't have that much money to spend and a lot more to loose if a game doesn't do well. Resulting in more by the numbers games from said company. If you don't have much money and your existence relies on the game being successful you are also inclined to take less risk and actually even more so.

There is no universal rule of, if you spend X amount of money this and that will happen to creativity compare to when you spend Y amount of money. There are many situations where you can take less risks no matter how much money you have. Final Fantasy came to be because Squaresoft was close to broke and not far away from closing. The series become a huge success (last gen games not included) and saved them. On the other hand of the spectrum you had the first Modern Warfare game. Was a huge success as well, but not born put of desperation with limited funds but instead by throwing as much money at it as was needed. Both great games and got made under different circumstances, it's not that white and black as you think it is.

[OrangePowerz]

The amount of money doesn't influence the creativity and if you have more money you can do more. I love indie games and AAA games and each have theirbpros and cons. What you see with a lot of indie games is that while they are great they don't necessarily offer the most content or variety because they are limited by money.

[MysticStrummer]

We knew this already. Only the internet drama queens keep saying otherwise.

[Summons75]

That's obvious. half of that will be for marketing, a quarter will be for this game and a quarter will be to keep updates and future content rolling. Whoever thinks 500 mill is only for the core game is a moron and apparently doesn't realize marketing isn't free and maintaining servers is very important, especially since it's a free mmo when you do play online.

[turdburgler1080]

What if this game ends up failing hard? It probably won't but what if?

[USA007]

It won't fail, there's already to much praise for it

[MasterCornholio]

Plus its Bungie the fathers of Halo.

Why would it fail?

[mcarsehat]

There are too many people who would force themselves to like it for it to fail. I'd say the chance of it failing would be 0% but if it were to fail, it would have a slew of so called "Gamers" endlessly taunting it until it becomes uncool to taunt it.

[Spotie]

What?

[RioKing]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-K...

[mcarsehat]

What about adding advertising costs on top of the development budget?

[DLConspiracy]

That will take up the majority of the cost no doubt.

[ginsunuva]

Especially when you copy-paste all your assets from Halo.

[Debaitable]

It's for the long term holy crap. It doesn't take a rocket science to figure it out. They've stated it a few times themselves. I swear these journalist are going out the way to get clicks. I'm starting to avoid these sites with clickbait made up controversy articles.

[sungin]

so they lie hmmmm,like i said the graphic had no complex elements,no physics, because console hardware cant do that son.

[air1]

Someone really though they spent half a billion on the game!?

[OC_MurphysLaw]

$500 million long haul... 10 yr plan that's 50 million a year spread out which doesn't sound crazy at all.

[BattleTorn]

Well, provided the franchise is still popular in 10years, I think far more than 50million will be needed in the final years. (provided increasing popularity)

but, regardless - GTA V was what $280~ million?

The first Destiny release won't come near that, if i'm correct.

[cfc83]

First game sets up the full cycle of the franchise. Its already doing big pre order numbers.

[rambi80]

I always though it was an overstated figure, but i never underestimate the insanity of the entertainment business.

[sadfeet]

And it shows.

[BattleTorn]

That the game is big budget? or is no where near $500mil?

[sadfeet]

Never mind.

[CawMasterX]

Hope the investment pays off. That's a lot money.

[sovkhan]

Only fools or morons come to believe that the game costs that much loooooooooooooo

It's for a decade plan as mentionned by the many who understood it right ;)