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D&D Gets A New Division At Hasbro
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 8210835" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>That's not quite right I'm afraid - you're including marketing budgets in those figures.</p><p></p><p>GTAV's dev cost was estimated at $137m - dev+marketing was $260m. RDR2 was $80-100m dev.</p><p></p><p>Destiny was somewhere north of $140m, that's probably the most anyone has ever spent on an actual game. Budget including marketing has been claimed to be north of $500m though that may be inflated (still, it is one of the people in management who claimed it). It was pretty content-light at launch for the insane amount they spent on it.</p><p></p><p>The only games with reliably-reported development budgets above Destiny are Star Citizen ($300m+ and they still don't actually have a playable game), and SWTOR ($200m but it probably includes marketing).</p><p></p><p>No-one has any costings on AC:Valhalla yet, but AC:Odyssey was likely $50-80m based on what reliable publications can find out. A couple of non-gaming newspapers claimed $500m but that was some kind of insane misunderstanding. Anyone claiming $100m for Valhalla (let alone earlier games) is likely full of it given the engine was fully developed and it's largely just Odyssey with a ton of new assets (not that that's a bad thing, Odyssey is excellent though I think it would be more excellent without the leveling and random loot), and it didn't take very long to develop (one of the big factors here is actually paying all those devs, year after year).</p><p></p><p>Very very few AAAs actually crack $100m on <em>dev</em> costs. Once marketing gets factored in, plenty do. CoDMW2 back in the day was like $40-60m dev, but went over $200m when marketing was included (given they were doing stuff like taking every large advertising board in entire train stations in multiple countries as well as TV spots and on the side of buses and so on this isn't surprising - that and FO4 had the most intense advertising blitzes I've ever seen in the UK).</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop[/URL]</p><p></p><p>But yeah you're also making a valid point because even if developing an AAA "only" costs WotC $50m or whatever, they then need to market it, and that's going to be another several more tens of millions (or more, if they want to go really hard).</p><p></p><p>Given WotC made $400m+ in PROFIT (not gross or turnover) last year, they can definitely afford all this though, so there's that. But it's a huge investment for sure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 8210835, member: 18"] That's not quite right I'm afraid - you're including marketing budgets in those figures. GTAV's dev cost was estimated at $137m - dev+marketing was $260m. RDR2 was $80-100m dev. Destiny was somewhere north of $140m, that's probably the most anyone has ever spent on an actual game. Budget including marketing has been claimed to be north of $500m though that may be inflated (still, it is one of the people in management who claimed it). It was pretty content-light at launch for the insane amount they spent on it. The only games with reliably-reported development budgets above Destiny are Star Citizen ($300m+ and they still don't actually have a playable game), and SWTOR ($200m but it probably includes marketing). No-one has any costings on AC:Valhalla yet, but AC:Odyssey was likely $50-80m based on what reliable publications can find out. A couple of non-gaming newspapers claimed $500m but that was some kind of insane misunderstanding. Anyone claiming $100m for Valhalla (let alone earlier games) is likely full of it given the engine was fully developed and it's largely just Odyssey with a ton of new assets (not that that's a bad thing, Odyssey is excellent though I think it would be more excellent without the leveling and random loot), and it didn't take very long to develop (one of the big factors here is actually paying all those devs, year after year). Very very few AAAs actually crack $100m on [I]dev[/I] costs. Once marketing gets factored in, plenty do. CoDMW2 back in the day was like $40-60m dev, but went over $200m when marketing was included (given they were doing stuff like taking every large advertising board in entire train stations in multiple countries as well as TV spots and on the side of buses and so on this isn't surprising - that and FO4 had the most intense advertising blitzes I've ever seen in the UK). [URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop[/URL] But yeah you're also making a valid point because even if developing an AAA "only" costs WotC $50m or whatever, they then need to market it, and that's going to be another several more tens of millions (or more, if they want to go really hard). Given WotC made $400m+ in PROFIT (not gross or turnover) last year, they can definitely afford all this though, so there's that. But it's a huge investment for sure. [/QUOTE]
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