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Intereting note about Crackdown

1507 Views 23 Replies 20 Participants Last post by eatenbacktolife, Jul 23, 2009

deveng

Discussion Starter · Jul 16, 2009

Well it seems that despite selling 1.5 million new copies of the game, they say that they just broke even. If that is the cost (or number of units sold) for a game, especially a new IP, to break even, then I can see why game developers are having issues with loosing money. If they can use the same game engine, and thus save costs on R&D for Crackdown 2, then hopefully they will makse some money this time around.

http://kotaku.com/5315625/crackdown-...u-think-it-was

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eatenbacktolife

· #2 · Jul 16, 2009

The Crackdown engine was very impressive, and still is considering when it came out. I doubt they'll be able to use it again though.

Wasn't Crackdown originally an Xbox title? I'm guessing it spent more time in the cooker than planned, as lots of publishers would love to sell 1.5 million.

tronn

· #3 · Jul 16, 2009

they do point out that while selling 1.5 mil retail copies, they can estimate the used market sold another 2-3 mil.

deveng

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jul 17, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by tronn /forum/post/16837628

they do point out that while selling 1.5 mil retail copies, they can estimate the used market sold another 2-3 mil.

But the used market does not help their bottom line, as they see no profits from it. To me the 1.5 million and break even is shocking, as most games barely sell 1 million copies. It funny because I read that the developers of heavenly Sword decided not to make a sequal, despite selling 1 million. They must of taken a loss. I initially did not believe this, but maybe that is the truth.

To me something does not add up. It does not make sense that they need to sell that many copies to break even. That, or it truely costs an extreme amount of money to make new games. Even though I think that $59.99 is too much for new games, that tells us that they might actually raise prices. The latest news is that Activision is raising prices in England, and their games are going to cost 5 pounds more. That means there may be a chance that Cod:MW2 is going to retail at $69.99.......

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mbyrnes

· #5 · Jul 17, 2009

I don't believe it. If they averaged $40 a copy, which is low, they made $60,000,000. They did no advertising at all (Halo 3 picked up that tab). You mean to tell me that game cost more than $60,000,000 to make? $45 a copy is $67,500,000.

If they didn't make a good chunk of change they wouldn't be making a sequel.

deveng

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jul 17, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by mbyrnes /forum/post/16838360

I don't believe it. If they averaged $40 a copy, which is low, they made $60,000,000. They did no advertising at all (Halo 3 picked up that tab). You mean to tell me that game cost more than $60,000,000 to make? $45 a copy is $67,500,000.

If they didn't make a good chunk of change they wouldn't be making a sequel.

The problem is that I really doubt that the game makers are gtting $40/game. Assuming that $59.99 is retail, I am sure that $10-15 is the seller (BB, Walmart, etc). Then the distributor probably gets his cut. Then the publisher gets their cut. Then the makers get their cut. In the end, it is possible that they may only see $10-20/game sold depending on the deal they have with the publisher (MS), who may want a bigger chunk if they did the marketing, etc. They may also have to pay a liscencing fee to MS to be able to make a game on the Xbox. Assuming that they broke even at 1.5 million sold, that means that it cost between 15-30 millon to make the game. That seems a lot to me, but I have no idea the costs involved.

257Tony

· #7 · Jul 17, 2009

Damn, even at $10 a copy that's 15 million, I can;t see it costing more than that to make Crackdown. Of course I have no idea what I'm talking about though

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pcweber111

· #8 · Jul 17, 2009

I'm really starting to not like how Kotaku reports news. Just rubs me the wrong way.

As for Crackdown, I'm not surprised. Heck I wonder what it would have sold had the Halo 3 beta not been included. Methinks it wouldn't have been pretty.

benjamin-benjami

· #9 · Jul 17, 2009

i am so sick of everyone blaming used game sales.... do manufacters blame used car sales. what about the houses, are contrators sitting around whining about used homes, are authors crying about used book stores and amazon and ebay.... it is a free market, quit whining... why are video games the only market where used is such a bad thing...

eatenbacktolife

· #10 · Jul 17, 2009

According to wikipedia the game started development in 02, and was released in 07. So a 5 year dev time, with a late engine change and a shift to a whole new platform could have been costly.

Even games that horribly bomb like Bionic Commando cost over 20 million nowadays. I've heard games are about $48 wholesale, and the licensing fees are around $7.

eKretz

· #11 · Jul 19, 2009

There is basically zero chance that MW2 will cost more than the normal $59.99 price that most other normal edition games cost here in the U.S. The only reason the cost of the game is going up in England is because the exchange rate between the publisher's country (Europe, currency is the Euro) and the country they are being sold in (England, currency Pound Sterling) has seen a nasty decline, so in order to not throw money away, they (the publisher) had to raise the cost to break even. This was already explained in an article on IGN.

boblinds

· #12 · Jul 19, 2009

We have sales numbers available for games in a similar genre.

We have detailed ways to project costs.

We have ways to manage development to keep it within budget.

We know how much it costs to market and distribute product.

And we can project potential sales numbers.

So, with all that knowledge and planning, Realtime Worlds spends just as much to develop a product as they're capable of earning with it.

That's called bad business.

Realtime Worlds shouldn't be blaming used sales for their poor business decisions.

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flood222

· #13 · Jul 19, 2009

I got my copy used. Thankfully, the game isn't worth more than $10.

formulanerd

· #14 · Jul 19, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by flood222 /forum/post/16851053

I got my copy used. Thankfully, the game isn't worth more than $10.

to each their own i guess.

this is one of my top 5 games (out of the 70+ i own) and would gladly pay retail.

pjb16

· #15 · Jul 19, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by formulanerd /forum/post/16851068

to each their own i guess.

this is one of my top 5 games (out of the 70+ i own) and would gladly pay retail.

I didn't pay retail, and I did indeed get it used ($20 maybe?). But I am glad I did, it is also one of my favorites to play.

Ripeer

· #16 · Jul 19, 2009

By the time I finally got the Retail game I had played the demo so much that Halo 3 was a month away... But great game.

number1laing

· #17 · Jul 20, 2009

Quote:
break even is shocking, as most games barely sell 1 million copies.

Most games don't even come CLOSE to 1 million copies. Crackdown is easily in the 90th percentile, more likely the 95th - 98th.

If this isn't some Hollywood studio style ploy to make the game look like it did worse than it actually did (very possible), then it is pretty surprising it broke even, and it's not GameStop's fault. Games are costing way too much to make nowadays. In the past, that was okay because the market was roughly growing in proportion to the costs. That's no longer the case - this gen, costs have exploded while sales of these systems have been pretty slow. Even added up the PS2 far outsold the 360 and PS3 at this point in time. This is not really sustainable - something has to give.

WJonathan

· #18 · Jul 21, 2009

I wonder if we could be headed for, if not a crash, at least a correction in the new game market. Where many small publishers would sink and big houses would emerge smaller and leaner with the goal of producing lower-cost games. There is a breaking point in both the virtual size of games, and the amount of time and money that can be spent on each release.

bbexperience

· #19 · Jul 21, 2009

Quote:
Originally Posted by flood222 /forum/post/16851053

I got my copy used. Thankfully, the game isn't worth more than $10.

Thank you! I was starting to go crazy thinking I was the only one that didn't think this was the greatest game ever.

I got mine for $10 new and was glad I didn't pay more.

abelincoln

· #20 · Jul 22, 2009

It's kind of funny to me how much of a love it or hate it game this is. Pencil me in for love it. I recently got the original from goozex and am looking forward to buying the sequel at retail.

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