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[Psychological Intellect]

Nothing will top $80,000,000 for Darksiders 2.

is this real?

 

[FyreWulff]

Speaking of engine licensing, CE3 doesn't appear to be catching on at all. I imagine Unreal will dominate next-gen once again.

Unreal 4 licensing isn't all that hot either.

A lot of companies used the long gen to get their internal engines up to speed. No need to license external when you own your entire stack.

 

[JaseC]

is this real?

To be pedantic (TDM would be proud! ) the actual figure is $78m and is mentioned in THQ's bankruptcy filing (also stated is that, at the time, the game was still ~half-a-million short of breaking even), however the figure presumably includes every dollar spent in relation to the game's development and release (production, marketing, post-release support, and so forth), rather than just a particular subset.

 

[RaijinFY]

dat budget... must include marketing costs right?

 

[Flunkie]

I just can't fathom what all this money goes towards. Salary? Advertising not included. Just seems crazy to me.

 

[El_Chino]

To be pedantic (TDM would be proud! ) the actual figure is $78m and is mentioned in THQ's bankruptcy filing (also stated is that, at the time, the game was still ~half-a-million short of breaking even), however the figure presumably includes every dollar spent in relation to the game's development and release (production, marketing, post-release support, and so forth), rather than just a particular subset.

Why the hell did it cost so much to make that game?!

 

[scitek]

66M? Why not just make a Crysis 2 Expansion pack for a fraction of the price? Jesus, wtf crytek. project management in gaming is an absolute embarrassment.

You know, I like Crysis 3 a good bit, but I'd honestly have preferred it if they'd released Crysis 2: Warhead, and spent another couple of years making a full-blown next-gen sequel.

 

[Quasar]

I am kind of wondering why its triple the cost of the original Crysis.

Are the assets that much more expensive on 3 versus 1? is it that much bigger? Did cross platform bloat the costs?

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Crysis 3 costing $66m seems unsustainable for gaming on the whole. A nice looking sub 10 hour (sub 6 hour?) mostly generic shooter with a basic multiplayer offerings shouldn't cost that much.

Or maybe it should cost that much and this industry is just doomed. Cause there's no way there won't be even more closures in the coming generation at this rate. When I think $60-$100m games, I think massive projects that are either open world, extremely ambitious, and/or very voice actor + motion capture heavy (hundreds of hours of studio time). Does Crysis 3 fit any of these? Is it purely the graphical side of the game costing that much?

 

[nephilimdj]

I tried to find BF3 to compare but couldnt, only this

The impending Battlefield 3 vs. Call of Duty marketing battle will cost the games' respective publishers around $200 million, EA boss John Riccitiello has claimed.

I assume BF3 cost atleast 100million in total (even with 2 year dev cycle + extended 1.5 year DLC).
1 million sold on origin/PC most likely helped to get that back due to high margins.

 

[szaromir]

You know, I like Crysis 3 a good bit, but I'd honestly have preferred it if they'd released Crysis 2: Warhead, and spent another couple of years making a full-blown next-gen sequel.

At this point they should stop trying Crysis happen and move on to a new IP. I think most people see Crysis as deprived of personality.

 

[Rated-Rsuperstar]

Amazon's already selling crysis 3 for 40 bucks. I highly doubt crytek is going to make their budget back.

 

[10k]

How much of that budget went towards gameplay? Was there any money left after graphics?

Kidding

 

[scitek]

Amazon's already selling crysis 3 for 40 bucks. I highly doubt crytek is going to make their budget back.

If the game manages to convince any developers that CryEngine is what they want to use for their next game, it will make its money back. It's not just about sales with Crytek.

 

[Lime]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but apparently Crysis 3 sold 260k in February's NPD charts. Looks like Cervat Yerli will have to pocket out for all the hookers and blow himself.

 

[Yasae]

Sorry for bumping this thread, but apparently Crysis 3 sold 260k in February's NPD charts. Looks like Cervat Yerli will have to pocket out for all the hookers and blow himself.

I fished around for numbers too. Half a million worldwide, tops.

I thought Crytek would've at least done the smart thing and subsidize their development with engine licenses (see: Epic, though their development costs are reasonable regardless), but that doesn't seem to be happening much at all. You can't throw that much money around without some crazy bonkers returns.

I'd love to see reputable sources on Tera and The Old Republic budgets. They're extremely dubious considering WoW only cost around $63M - even with the additional assets, are you really looking at a 4-6x increase in funding? Who would even approve that kind of cash outlay?

We could assume all these insane numbers are true, which most of them are... This gen should be about efficiency, then.

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

What do the hardware manufacturers offer publishers to release at launch? I cant imagine any company releasing an exclusively next gen game at launch turning a profit if this development trend continues.

Royalty charge is less? No cost for certification? Marketing money?

 

[ymmv]

I fished around for numbers too. Half a million worldwide, tops.

I thought Crytek would've at least done the smart thing and subsidize their development with engine licenses (see: Epic, though their development costs are reasonable regardless), but that doesn't seem to be happening much at all. You can't throw that much money around without some crazy bonkers returns.

NPD only registers sales of console games in retail shops. I suspect the worldwide online sales for the PC version have been quite good. Nevertheless, the development costs are too high to be sustainable. One major flop and Crytek is gone.

 

[Dictator93]

NPD only registers sales of console games in retail shops. I suspect the worldwide online sales for the PC version have been quite good.

aka. How I bought it and most PC gamers buy their games these days

 

[grendelrt]

NPD only registers sales of console games in retail shops. I suspect the worldwide online sales for the PC version have been quite good. Nevertheless, the development costs are too high to be sustainable. One major flop and Crytek is gone.

I am hoping so, I know everybody loves hating on Crysis, especially 3, but I am really enjoying it myself personally. Crytek makes money in other areas, I dont think crysis flopping would kill them. They have govt contracts, engine licensing, and Warface right now as alternate income.

Edit: They also just snagged Homefront on the super cheap, that could be a big winner for them if it sells well since they were developing the game for THQ and turned around and got it for like 500K.

 

[synce]

These budgets are really getting out of hand. I'll take a fun, ugly-looking game over a mediocre, realistic-looking game any day of the week.

 

[jmls1121]

Crysis 3 costing $66m seems unsustainable for gaming on the whole. A nice looking sub 10 hour (sub 6 hour?) mostly generic shooter with a basic multiplayer offerings shouldn't cost that much.

Or maybe it should cost that much and this industry is just doomed. Cause there's no way there won't be even more closures in the coming generation at this rate. When I think $60-$100m games, I think massive projects that are either open world, extremely ambitious, and/or very voice actor + motion capture heavy (hundreds of hours of studio time). Does Crysis 3 fit any of these? Is it purely the graphical side of the game costing that much?

A decision is going to have to be made pretty soon by publishers for games outside of the tentpole high sellers (COD, Battlefield, Madden).

Either stop making these games at all, or try to sell games that DON'T have cutting edge graphics but do have new and interesting gameplay ideas.

I think EA is taking the former route, cutting their annual output to just 15 titles. An uncertain time in gaming awaits us, GAF.

 

[grendelrt]

A decision is going to have to be made pretty soon by publishers for games outside of the tentpole high sellers (COD, Battlefield, Madden).

Either stop making these games at all, or try to sell games that DON'T have cutting edge graphics but do have new and interesting gameplay ideas.

I think EA is taking the former route, cutting their annual output to just 15 titles. An uncertain time in gaming awaits us, GAF.

It just seems that dev costs at major studios are always inflated to hell. You look at games like Witcher 2 putting out insane graphics and not spending nearly what big studios do. Even Crysis 1 was only 22million and was the largest graphical leap on PC in years.

 

[jmls1121]

It just seems that dev costs at major studios are always inflated to hell. You look at games like Witcher 2 putting out insane graphics and not spending nearly what big studios do. Even Crysis 1 was only 22million and was the largest graphical leap on PC in years.

2 Things to Note:

1. The Witcher games are made by developers in Eastern Europe working for a small percentage of the salary of other western developers

2. Crysis 3 might not look like a massive leap over Cyrsis 1, but there is a lot more going on. Its just the diminishing returns we are seeing in graphics across the board.

 

[grendelrt]

2 Things to Note:

1. The Witcher games are made by developers in Eastern Europe working for a small percentage of the salary of other western developers

2. Crysis 3 might not look like a massive leap over Cyrsis 1, but there is a lot more going on. Its just the diminishing returns we are seeing in graphics across the board.

Crytek is European as well, but even with deminishing returns, same studio, 3x dev costs for same product (high end fps). Oh and I think Crysis 3 is amazing, its the first game I have seen in years that made me say wow this is next gen here (graphics wise). I am playing SLI 670s and it is pushing them, which I love.

 

[Lime]

Crytek is European as well,

There's a huge difference between German wages and Polish wages.

 

[VARIA]

The rising costs of game development is what scares me about next generation.

The only companies that will be able to make great looking games for the PS4 & 720 will be the one's with multimillion dollar budgets and even those companies will be conservative with their gaming concepts to make sure they appeal/sell to a mainstream audience and at least break even.

 

[SaggyMonkey]

The trend will be making more evergreen titles that are reviewer-proof and "launch week" proof. Games like Offensive Combat.

 

[SkyMasterson]

Halo 4 : 60m
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/10/25/spencer-halo-4-is-microsofts-most-expensive-game/

Gears 2 : 10m

God of War 3 : 44m

Holy shit! Epic made a killing on that game.

If Halo 4 only cost 60 mil, then that's a hell of a deal for MS. Obviously they probably spent double that or more on marketing.

No way Crysis 3 makes its money back. Dead Space 3 took top spot last month with what 600k sold across all platforms?

I'm curious as to what the budgets for the Dead Space games were. I'd imagine significantly less.

 

[tbhysgb]

Can't wait for this unsustainable industry to correct. It's bloating up like the healthcare industry at this rate. Gotta love that American capitalism baby!!!