Why dos it cost so much to make a game ( the good ones )

I dont no if this is the right bit of the forum too say :stuck_out_tongue:

hello i was reading about games and stuff , i saw that games like GTA4 costs like $10 million to make.
and most games today costs millions and millions of $s to make.

why is it so much to make a game?

i can understand that you need a team of like 15 - 40. and some money to pay them and stuff
The money to make the cds and sell it in shops, the money to make tv advs and posters and websites and stuff
but i cant see that to would cost 10mill +

or maybe im not right and it dos not cost that much to make a game.

what do you think?

Just think of 12 artists working at 40k a year for 1 year. Thats just twelve people crank that number up and watch out. Many companies probably don’t develop their '“development” environment and have to out source then its almost double the man wage cost to outsource. But if your company doesn’t have those capabilities you’re forced to outsource. Large dev. teams creating engine or paying for an engine GTA has to pay voice actors and they getting a couple of famous people in there sure that cost a time or two.

plus license fees to use the car bodies, and trade names. And 40k is only the wages. The employer has to pay a manager for each set of 7 people, FICA, unemployment, benefits,=double the wage is the guideline, so each employee costs $80k. Plus office space rent (at $12 per foot), high-end PC’s for everyone. It does add up.

It’s worth pointing out that with games you don’t actually know what you’re trying to make until you’re sat in front of a product and it’s wrong.

All the best companies (those with enormous budgets and a “we ship when it’s ready approach” like the GTA types have, but also Nintendo are famous for) will develop a lot, throw it away, and develop what works from the first version. 90% of the games industry get told to take their prototype and magically make it work on all major consoles.

This isn’t limited to code - I know of large amounts concept and final graphics done for various GTA games (externally) that never made it in (and apparently the code for these things was also written), and this is not unusual. It’s also not cheap when you consider the scale of those games.

You will find the games industry is full of chatter about projects being canned, or radically changing direction half way through and so on. Every change like that costs an enormous amount of money - but it takes a really brave producer to work out early on what needs fixing to save money in the long run, so most just wait until the crunch, and that’s when hell happens.

When you have external IP holders (licensed cars/people) it adds to the fun, because you can show them a finished product, and sometimes they’ll turn round and want a change, or in one case I was in, flat out refuse to be in it anymore, so we had to rebrand the whole product. Costly, considering it was already quite a long way through QA.

I think 40K is a bit low on the salaries too! I’m thinking many go towards 80K. They also get a big fat “royalty” check when the game is finished and it sells to the buyer (like Sony or such). You come in one day and there’s a check on your desk for 50K.

Dont forget all the money you must give to Gamespy and PC gamer…

it is obvious that they give good reviews only to the games that have advertisements with them.

I have seen quite a few good games go down the tube, because of poor reviews .

:eek: wow, I wish i was that guy

Don’t forget the advertising and ‘bribes’. Just making an advert or trailer can run into millions of pounds. It’s really quite an eye opener.