Random Thoughts Thread

[isiolia]

I feel sorry for game developers after reading this article that breaks down the price of a video game console, it states developers profit $1 on each game sold. The numbers seem a bit off, but if its true that console manufacturer fee is $7 per game, then Nintendo pockets must have exploded in the Wii era. I wonder how many total games sold for Wii, not how many released.

I think you're reading that a little wrong. Rearranging it a little, what I would assume...


ON A $60 GAME OF GEARS:

Developer:
* 25% (aka $15) goes to pay the art and design guys.
* 20% ($12) goes to pay the programmers and the engineers.
* 0.05% (less than 3 cents) go into the cost of paying for the Developer's Hardware. Who knew an SDKs can cost tens of thousands of dollars?

Publisher:
* 1.5% (just $1) goes into the publisher's pocket.
* 0.3% (about 20 cents) goes into corporate costs. Management, overhead, lawyers, etc.

Physical Production (no longer a given)
* 1.5% (also $1) goes into the distributor's pocket.
* 5% ($3) goes to actually manufacturing and packaging the disc.

Retailer
* 20% (also $12) goes to your friendly neighborhood retailer. EB / GameStop, whoever.

Platform Holder (I'd assume this is the same as retailer if digital now)
* 11.5% ($7) goes to a "Console Owner Fee" - ie. whichever one of the Big Boys made your hardware (Sony, MS, Nintendo.)


Advertising (will vary, smaller games may have little or none)
* 7% ($4) goes to marketing, and puts Mad World and Marcus Fenix on MTV.
* 5% ($3) goes to "market development" -- paying for cardboard Standees of the Gears Crew and elbowing other games out of the way for shelf space at your local retailer.


Misc (probably applies a lot for engines/etc)
* 5% ($3) is spent paying the Man for IP licenses or maybe hiring some big name voice actors. If your game isn't an original IP, here's where you get dinged by Marvel, Disney, or Ray Liotta's agent.

So, going by that (which is likely dated and/or only particularly applicable to the big AAA titles), the actual developer would be getting about $27 of the $60 a new game costs. The surprising "only gets $1" thing is the publisher, though that probably depends a lot on the specific setup. Plenty of the bigger games are made by studios that are subsidiaries of the publisher, for instance. In turn, digital sales mean that many games don't need a publisher per se, but are instead still paying a cut to the storefront and platform holder.

Regardless, the actual developer is getting a pretty fair cut.

[RCBH928]

All you have to do is read the comments to know that breakdown is pretty nonsense. For one, retailers actually get a pretty small piece of the pie these days. And you can’t use percentages like that for fixed costs. You don’t pay your programmers more per year because their title sells well. They may get a performance bonus, but it ain’t a percentage of sales.

original source is Forbes, so I didn't question it. It is outdated though, its from December 2006.

[RCBH928]

I never like to question people who are paid to work in top positions and have more experience than me, but when I see things like the Sonic cgi model in the movie... I just wonder, do you even have common sense?

None the less, I think this is one rare instance where a company did actually listen to the fans. I think this is the only movie that got altered before release based on consumer feedback. I am also super impressed by the CGI artists for basically having to recreate the whole movie in such a short time. But then, there is always the theory that it was all just a publicity stunt!

[PartridgeSenpai]

But then, there is always the theory that it was all just a publicity stunt!

Given how much marketing material had already been produced and shipped to theaters, it'd be a hell of an expensive publicity stunt. I think this is just another example of movie executives having NO idea what they're doing and refusing to listen to voices of common sense around them XP

[BoneSnapDeez]

I totally wiped the fuck out on a treadmill this morning. I was running along and my daughter came downstairs to ask me where her Kiki's Delivery Service puzzle was. I turned a bit to speak to her and one of my feet went off course. Think I stepped right where the belt meets the treadmill frame. I fell hard and flew into the wall. Lots of nice road rash. Hurt like a mother. I actually ended up needing to repair the treadmill a bit too.

My right hand received the brunt of the damage. It's all scraped up and sprained. Guess I now have a better chance of succeeding in No Nut November.

I'm reminded of the time my father fell on a treadmill. That was because he fell asleep though.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Ouch!!

I hope you’re feeling better, Bone.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I posted that almost two weeks ago, so yeah, I'm good.

[RCBH928]

Anyone have any idea why my PS3 refuses to recognize an original DVD? The only reason I can think of is that my PS3 is region 2 and the dvd says its region 2&4. So it should work.

The irony when the pirates of media get a better and more convenient experience than paying customers.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Wife got her student loans paid off (she graduated with $100k+ in loans). That's a $1000 monthly bill we no longer have. Stoked.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Awesome. That’s great news, Bone. My wife and I graduated with almost that much debt, and we’re still working on them. (They’re consolidated at a 2% interest rate, however; so, we pay down other debt first. Still, it will be nice when they’re gone.)