sabre2922
12-21-2006, 08:59 PM
http://www.gametab.com/news/771546/
Forbes is running a neat little feature right now called "Why Gears of War Costs $60". It's a reasonable enough question, really -- and there's pie charts! What more could you want from the Internet?
Getting the straight dope on game development costs is, of course, difficult. Gamers know that prices have gone up about 20% for games coming out on next-gen hardware, but the companies aren't exactly forthcoming with specific reasons on how, or why.
Here's the skinny, as far as Forbes' article breaks it down:
ON A $60 GAME OF GEARS:
* 25% (aka $15) goes to pay the art and design guys.
* 20% ($12) goes to pay the programmers and the engineers.
* 20% (also $12) goes to your friendly neighborhood retailer. EB / GameStop, whoever.
* 11.5% ($7) goes to a "Console Owner Fee" - ie. whichever one of the Big Boys made your hardware (Sony, MS, Nintendo.)
* 7% ($4) goes to marketing, and puts Mad World and Marcus Fenix on MTV.
* 5% ($3) goes to "market development" -- paying for cardboard Standees of the Gears Crew and elbowing other games out of the way for shelf space at your local retailer.
* 5% ($3) goes to actually manufacturing and packaging the disc.
* 5% ($3) is spent paying the Man for IP licenses or maybe hiring some big name voice actors. If your game isn't an original IP, here's where you get dinged by Marvel, Disney, or Ray Liotta's agent.
* 1.5% (just $1) goes into the publisher's pocket.
* 1.5% (also $1) goes into the distributor's pocket.
* 0.3% (about 20 cents) goes into corporate costs. Management, overhead, lawyers, etc.
* 0.05% (less than 3 cents) go into the cost of paying for the Developer's Hardware. Who knew an SDKs can cost tens of thousands of dollars?
And there you go. $60 of Gears, a la carte.
OK given, the thread I posted of the Wii dissection and cost was lacking I thought this little article was umm more interesting to say the least.
Forbes is running a neat little feature right now called "Why Gears of War Costs $60". It's a reasonable enough question, really -- and there's pie charts! What more could you want from the Internet?
Getting the straight dope on game development costs is, of course, difficult. Gamers know that prices have gone up about 20% for games coming out on next-gen hardware, but the companies aren't exactly forthcoming with specific reasons on how, or why.
Here's the skinny, as far as Forbes' article breaks it down:
ON A $60 GAME OF GEARS:
* 25% (aka $15) goes to pay the art and design guys.
* 20% ($12) goes to pay the programmers and the engineers.
* 20% (also $12) goes to your friendly neighborhood retailer. EB / GameStop, whoever.
* 11.5% ($7) goes to a "Console Owner Fee" - ie. whichever one of the Big Boys made your hardware (Sony, MS, Nintendo.)
* 7% ($4) goes to marketing, and puts Mad World and Marcus Fenix on MTV.
* 5% ($3) goes to "market development" -- paying for cardboard Standees of the Gears Crew and elbowing other games out of the way for shelf space at your local retailer.
* 5% ($3) goes to actually manufacturing and packaging the disc.
* 5% ($3) is spent paying the Man for IP licenses or maybe hiring some big name voice actors. If your game isn't an original IP, here's where you get dinged by Marvel, Disney, or Ray Liotta's agent.
* 1.5% (just $1) goes into the publisher's pocket.
* 1.5% (also $1) goes into the distributor's pocket.
* 0.3% (about 20 cents) goes into corporate costs. Management, overhead, lawyers, etc.
* 0.05% (less than 3 cents) go into the cost of paying for the Developer's Hardware. Who knew an SDKs can cost tens of thousands of dollars?
And there you go. $60 of Gears, a la carte.
OK given, the thread I posted of the Wii dissection and cost was lacking I thought this little article was umm more interesting to say the least.