Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmadsen" data-source="post: 2975850" data-attributes="member: 1645">I feel that people should study these numbers a bit before complaining about game publishers: Total value of 42-45% of retail is what we normally get from wholesalers. At 1000 copies at $75, that's $75,000, minus the wholesaler discount of 55% leaves $33,750. We have to assume we will sell most at this number. Keep in mind Clark and I have to share profits w/ WW too. I cannot disclose those numbers and the split though. Cover--$1,000 Maps and Interior art--reused a bunch, but still was $5,000 Boxes--$1,000 Advertising--$2,000 Printing--$20,000 (guess, based on WL Box set) Shipping from China--$2,000 or so you see where this is going. I fought really, really hard to get 2000 units made, but the sales folks at WW said no-go. The concern is that if we do not sell them all (and our breakeven is about 900 units on 1000 units), we could lose a ton of money.So the product could potentially -- if everything goes swimmingly, as it has in this case -- bring in $33,750, with explicit costs of $31,000, implying that the publishers might have $2,750 left over to pay for labor.Simply putting that $31,000 in stocks could earn you that much (less than 9%) in a year, with less risk and no work.And when you take into account the risk, that's a crazy investment.  If they sell 920 copies, rather than all 1,000, they make zero money, and if they sell just 500, they lose $14,000.</blockquote>