BioShock Infinite: $100m to develop, $100m to market

At 200 million cost, the break-even point will be close to 4 to 5 million units. Bioshock 1 and 2 shipped around 4 million life-time each as far as i know.

To break into a new demographic and capture a larger audience (and thus actually generate a profit if these cost numbers are correct), the game really needs to be accessible and attractive to people who are not fans of the franchise. High review scores alone won't do that.

Posted:2 months ago

When i see this cover of Bioshok Infinite always remember the movie "Johnny got his gun". Sometimes i have the feeling games marketing is caught in the 90's wher Tarantino sayd: Put a gun on the tabel and you have a story.

Posted:2 months ago

Staff of 200, 4 year development, $100 million budget...is the average salary at 2K Marin and Irrational $125,000?

At best, the budget is closer to $60 million.

Hang on, that $200 million ($100 development + $100 marketing) comes from an unnamed analysts. Never mind.

Posted:2 months ago

It's not just staff though Jim. Outsourcing materials, animation and VO captures, expenses (travel, overtime food etc.). - over the course of 4 years that stuff adds up quite nicely for 200 people and a project like Infinite.

Posted:2 months ago

Sometimes I wonder if our industry is heading in the right direction...

Posted:2 months ago

@Krzysztof
Maybe there is not only one direction, even less a "right one". As long as you wonder, you may have some sanity left though. ;)

Posted:2 months ago

Agreed, Andreas. But those expenses should never be a 3:2 ratio with your staff overhead. Unless the majority of your project is outsourced to begin with.

Looking at the original Bioshock, and many other large projects, the figures here just don't make much sense. Bioshock itself had a team of 100 and a 4 year development schedule. But a budget of only $15 million. Double the staff, account for inflation and wage increases, add in the extras and that should put it around $50-60 million.


I think this is a case of another analysts throwing numbers out.

Posted:2 months ago

Quite possible true Jim, but still i would not be surprised at those numbers. I have seen a team of less than 75 burn through around 20 million GBP in 2 years. And the result was anything but AAA.

Posted:2 months ago

It's probably an exaggeration - still many millions but $100 million is the realm of a new GTA game where an entire open world city is created from the ground up. Even if the total is closer to $100 million for both marketing and development, that's still quite a mint.

Posted:2 months ago

The cost to a company of an employee is a hell of a lot more than just their salary, Jim. Insurance, training, equipment, software licences, cost of running the building, recruitment fees...

Posted:2 months ago

Yes precisely. Salaries are only the absolute tippy tip of the iceberg.

You also have to take all of the overhead, admin staff, oop costs, CapEx, etc, etc ETC and come up with an overhead multiplier if you wanted to actually figure it out, and it's really not worth it if not your headache to begin with.

Posted:2 months ago

Looks like Jim was right: https://twitter.com/IGLevine/status/314909899295444992

Posted:2 months ago

$10k/head/month is a pretty good estimate of total economic cost of AAA development in North America taking into account all hidden costs and overheads. 200 people for 4 years would come out to $96m using that rule of thumb.

The reason I don't believe that much was actually spent on development is because I don't believe 200 people were devoted to the project for the entire 4 years. My vote goes with the other people here guessing closer to $50m in dev costs.

Posted:2 months ago

I was just about to say that Brett, games tend to ramp up the team size as they get nearer to the end and so the team may have been 200 by the end, but probably not for most of the development time.

Posted:2 months ago