KatsBits Community
General Category => Blog => Topic started by: kat on January 14, 2010, 08:55:56 AM
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So just how do you get a game to sell as well as Modern Warfare 2 with it's $1+ Billion US dollars in World wide sales? (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37127/Modern-Warfare-2-sales-hit-1bn) No idea. But if I were the developer of that game I'd be kind of annoyed right now, $50 million in production costs and very little company profits at the back end of the deal, and that's only a couple of months into the games availability (http://www.katsbits.com/index06-09.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1258044328&archive=&start_from=&ucat=10&). So in an industry where the average production costs associated with developing a cross platform "Next gen" titled game are a chilly $23 Million (http://www.develop-online.net/news/33625/Study-Average-dev-cost-as-high-as-28m); where developers are generally decrying their collective poor lot in life - low salaries and studio earnings; it would seem that those who slave over a hot stove to give tangible value to the various publisher owned IPs and Brands get nothing in return except a job (which one should be thankful for) and the opportunity to say "I made that". Some one's being royally poop-decked.
$1 Billion in sales vs $50 Million production (http://www.develop-online.net/news/33312/Modern-Warfare-2-dev-costs-put-at-40-50m) costs + lets say a generous (guesstimated - rumours abound that it's no-where near that) $100 Million in cross-format advertising, publicity and promotion (TV, Radio, Internet) for MW2, leaving a very nice $850 Million pre-tax for Activision. That's funding for a lot of potential games spread over a large portfolio which emphasises the point I've made before about publishers being able to off-set loses of one brand against the gains from another - it just takes one reasonably strong brand (notice that was "strong" and not "good", being "good" has nothing to do with failure or success as the history of computer games can testify). The developer on the other hand, doesn't have that luxury[1] (http://www.katsbits.com/index06-09.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1250724290&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&) [2] (http://www.katsbits.com/index06-09.php?subaction=showcomments&id=1251337861&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1&), they get their $50 million in costs, which is actually an 'advance' and not a 'payment' - it's more correct to think about it as a 'loan', the publisher hands over a fixed amount of cash on the condition that it's paid back from the profits gained from the sales of the product; the developer doesn't make any money until the publisher has recovered all their costs. Does that sound familiar? It should do to those of you that have looked into the music business and/or are professional musicians.
Granted this issue is a little more complicated than can be said in a few words in black and white text, but if developers want better pay, they're going to need to negotiate better terms, that is of course if publishers aren't holding them to ransom with the implied threat of out-sourcing to China and the Far-East, just one of many reasons to think about digital distribution and self publishing I suppose.
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Some decidedly weird stuff going on between Activision and Infinity Ward as of late... Activision ‘axes’ Infinity Ward bosses in new row (http://www.develop-online.net/news/34001/Activision-dismisses-Infinity-Ward-bosses-in-new-row). No details on this as of yet so no idea what the back story is here, could be that Activision is getting rid of a couple of people to increase profits as I'm sure the two studio heads at IW had quite substantial Royalties on Modern Warfare's success ;)
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Activision confirms dev switcheroo for CoD (http://www.develop-online.net/news/34012/Activision-confirms-dev-switcheroo-for-CoD). New studio, Sledgehammer, to carry on with Call of Duty franchise. If the next iteration of Modern Warfare doesn't make as much money we'll know why ;)
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Never change a winning team... :)
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"It also seems that the game won't be an FPS. Instead, it will "extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre"."
Im not one to support publishers milking the same franchises over and over to get a few more pennies out, but for CoD its one of the few occasions where the gameplay improves every time and actually makes it a worthwhile experience. Madness
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Ha! I totally called this one!
IW devs sue Activision (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37827/IW-devs-sue-Activision)
The pair claim that Activision terminated their employment just weeks before they were due to be paid ‘substantial royalty payments’ as part of their existing Modern Warfare 2 deal.
This is soooo why you don't sell your IP's to publishers.
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very interesting and I don't know how I didn't see this topic before today.
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According to Develop 100 (http://issuu.com/develop/docs/develop100_2010), earnings for Modern Warfare netted the studio Infinity Ward around £110 million (at time of writing that's c.$163 million US) in UK sales. That leaves the remaining $800+ million spread around the rest of the World. Would be very interesting to see how much the studio itself earned from that *cough* publishing £1 billion, studio $5 million
Wolfenstein had UK earnings of approx. £3.3 million in the UK; Worldwide I'd guesstimate that to be around £10 million. Not too shabby for a game that everyone said tanked (iirc Doom 3 and Quake 4 had about £5 million Worldwide).
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Black Ops topples Modern Warfare 2 record making $360m in one day in the US and UK (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41760/Black-Ops-rakes-in-360m-in-one-day)
The Treyarch-developed FPS has sold 5.6m units across both North America and the UK. Almost a million more than the 4.7m units Modern Warfare 2 sold over the same period.
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Treyarch’s Call of Duty title nets $650m worldwide – beating Modern Warfare 2’s $550m (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41875/Black-Ops-claims-5-day-sales-record)
The publisher has revealed that the game sold an astonishing $650m of stock in its first five days on the market. By comparison, Modern Warfare 2 managed $550m in the same time period.
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it does look very polished but i've heard the campaign story doesn't make much sense, and is apparently very disjointed? the rpg game i'm designing is very character and story driven so i'm surprised how a game with hardly any story can be so popular nowadays, i guess it's the adrenaline rush and hollywood style presentation of the campaign that makes it popular? or are most gamers just buying it for the mp modes?