Yes, PC development is definitely cheaper on average. There are always exceptions (again Blizzard, Id, Half Life 2, MMORPGs, etc.) But even these budgets can be dwarfed by their console counterparts. Especially because console developers have to pay for dev kits (Sony's started at $20K each...now down to $10K) on top of high end PCs. Then you have to pay a fee of ~$7 per unit to Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo. Then you usually have to pay special manufacturing/mastering costs (Nintendo is the worst at this). Then, on top of all this, the hardware manufacturer has the right to refuse to publish your game, and you can see how it is just too expensive and risky for a small group to publish a console game. The PC has a much lower cost of entry for a new developer.
If you have even a reasonably small development team (say 20 people) for three years, your dev costs alone are going to be around $10M. Add on marketing costs and you better have a great game or you won't turn a profit. Hugh -----Original Message----- From: Marco Thorek [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 4:36 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [SWCollect] Sam & Max II Hugh Falk schrieb: > > Well, I don't really track PC data too closely anymore since I'm doing only > console games. However, 250K units on a console would usually be a failure. > The only reason you can get away with such small sales on the PC is the > lower cost of PC titles (don't have to pay Sony royalties and don't need > special dev kits for example). AAA console games are going to hope to sell > 500K units or more. PC development is cheaper than console development? Popular opinion has it that console development is cheaper as you have a standardized platform to develop for. So that's wrong? It would be really cool if you and John could give us more details on how the costs of development add up. How much goes into the actual production, advertisements, licenses, box, manual, CD pressing, etc., as a lot of this eludes me. For example, I can't understand how a developer or a publisher can develop a title for three years or more and expect to make a profit from it (Republic: The Revolution, Duke Nukem Forever). Marco ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent to you because you are currently subscribed to the swcollect mailing list. To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of 'unsubscribe swcollect' Archives are available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
