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Current Events > the budgets of AAA Sony games are crazy

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Baron_Ox
09/21/24 2:50:50 AM
#1:


the poster was making a point about Concord's budget, but the budgets for the other games they listed are still pretty mind-blowing (with the exception of GoT & HZD):

https://Twitter.com/Jorraptor/status/1837200042379104670

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Necronmon
09/21/24 2:57:21 AM
#2:


What WAS in this game that was so damn expensive?
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archizzy
09/21/24 2:59:00 AM
#3:


The jump from Horizon in the first game to the second is eye opening. 47 to 220
Spider-Man 1 to 2 is 90 to 315? Crazy.

So will the next Ghost of Tsushima game go from 60 to like 250+?

The budgets are out of control. I really dont see that much difference in those horizon and Spider-Man sequels to justify that type of cost increase.

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Baron_Ox
09/21/24 12:24:29 PM
#4:


I'm wondering how future iterations of series where the games are already $200m+ will cost

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DodogamaRayBrst
09/21/24 12:26:25 PM
#5:


IIRC, Concord was already in production when Sony bought the company that made it so I dunno how much of that budget is Sony.
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Tyranthraxus
09/21/24 12:30:01 PM
#6:


Necronmon posted...
What WAS in this game that was so damn expensive?

  1. It was in development for 8 years.
  2. Lots of marketing on stupid things like packs of frozen food and story-based animated shorts in a game with no story.
  3. TV episode in a cultural gaming series that includes other things like Dungeons and Dragons & Warhammer.
  4. Special edition Concord controller.
  5. Just speculation on my part here but they likely had produced PS5 Pro Concord bundles that now had to be scrapped.

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party_animal07
09/21/24 2:05:40 PM
#7:


There has to be money laundering going on in game development.

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R_Jackal
09/21/24 2:11:25 PM
#8:


Kinda weird how, by and large, the lower the budget the better the game.

The price jump between the two horizon games smacks of the entire industry being a mismanaged garbage fire.
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Ivynn
09/21/24 2:13:31 PM
#9:


If they wanna waste 400 million dollars, why not just give it to me

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Baron_Ox
09/21/24 11:09:08 PM
#10:


one more

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ClayGuida
09/21/24 11:12:16 PM
#11:


I don't buy the list. How was Spider-Man 2 like 3.5x more to produce? These devs don't get raises between games like actors do in sequels.

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Baron_Ox
09/21/24 11:25:19 PM
#12:


iirc, some of the info came from the "Insomniac Leaks".

I'm not sure if it's the case for all of the games, but here's what Google came up with:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a377c6b6.jpg

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ZacharyBraun
09/21/24 11:28:07 PM
#13:


May I have 1 million? 1 million and I'm set. For life. The way these are looking that's like a few textures in a subway. Right? Some trees?
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kelemvor
09/21/24 11:36:16 PM
#14:


That's like Star Citizen levels of development costs, and they aren't crowd funded at all. Crazy.
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pfh1001
09/22/24 12:06:20 AM
#15:


Necronmon posted...
What WAS in this game that was so damn expensive?


Supposedly the game was an unplayable broken mess so that they ended up having to outsource to a lot of other companies to get it into a release-able game over the last year or so.
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ClayGuida
09/22/24 11:32:03 AM
#16:


So you're telling me I could have 8 new Ratchet and Clank games for the price of one Spider-Man 3?

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Kamil
09/22/24 12:42:43 PM
#17:


pfh1001 posted...
Supposedly the game was an unplayable broken mess so that they ended up having to outsource to a lot of other companies to get it into a release-able game over the last year or so.

So why even bother? I get it was a sunk cost thing probably. Who wanted a hero shooter these days.

I remember Playstation All Stars was clearly trying to capture some Smash Bros vibes but I am sure it wasn't that big if investment and if ppl made fun of it eh it was an effort that probably wasn't as costly in many ways. From monetary, respect, face value etc.

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#18
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BakonBitz
09/22/24 12:49:17 PM
#19:


ClayGuida posted...
So you're telling me I could have 8 new Ratchet and Clank games for the price of one Spider-Man 3?
Yeah...
The stain of AAA is affecting so many potential projects that would've been just as fun for the consumer and likely would've sold just as well if they held brand recognition.

I enjoy many AAA titles myself but this shit is ruining the industry. I suppose I'm part of the problem if I buy them anyway though.

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Kamil
09/22/24 1:05:39 PM
#20:


[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Nintendo is draconian in so many ways and has under powered hardware and put out flops too. But uhh they don't all things said and done are involved in a 400million immediate flop.

The Virtual Boy lasted longer and I thought that fucking sucked as a kid.

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#21
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#22
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ZevLoveDOOM
09/23/24 9:11:39 AM
#23:


how can a game have that big of a budget yet turn out mid as fuck?? lol
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R_Jackal
09/23/24 11:29:28 AM
#24:


ZevLoveDOOM posted...
how can a game have that big of a budget yet turn out mid as fuck?? lol
Same way you can hire all the world's top chefs to make a single dish and have it come out bad: using too many tools for the job at hand.
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SammyLiimex
09/23/24 11:33:55 AM
#25:


party_animal07 posted...
There has to be money laundering going on in game development.


Tyranthraxus posted...
1. It was in development for 8 years.
2. Lots of marketing on stupid things like packs of frozen food and story-based animated shorts in a game with no story.
3. TV episode in a cultural gaming series that includes other things like Dungeons and Dragons & Warhammer.
4. Special edition Concord controller.
5. Just speculation on my part here but they likely had produced PS5 Pro Concord bundles that now had to be scrapped.

Basically

Look at how long Concords credits sequence is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfbu0De0oBU

Over an hour of people
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AceMos
09/23/24 11:36:30 AM
#26:


lol in the replies there are sony fans trying to insist this information is not true

but yea the AAA industry is not sustainable

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TheoryzC
09/23/24 11:40:10 AM
#27:


Shit blew up post-Covid

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Charged151
09/23/24 11:41:26 AM
#28:


https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/25961405.jpg
Looks like every game cost more than the last...ha! This isn't sustainable at all. Budgets really need to be scaled back. Not a unique problem to Sony of course.

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kirbymuncher
09/23/24 11:41:29 AM
#29:


Tyranthraxus posted...
It was in development for 8 years.
this is the really big one I think. say devs are making $100k per year. now since it's like a super big game say there's 400 people working on it. that's 40 million per year x 8 years = 320 million on salaries alone

I feel like that doesn't leave much room for other expenses so I have probably overestimated numbers somewhere but you can easily see how paying a large number of skilled professionals over a long period of time can add up

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Baron_Ox
09/23/24 11:44:19 AM
#30:


unfortunately, I can see developers being replaced by AI in the future when the tech is more sophisticated, if it means they can shave off a dozen or more people

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TheGoldenEel
09/23/24 11:45:11 AM
#31:


I imagine part of the budget increases is due to the increased scrutiny on industry crunch

It has became way less common for salaried game studio employees to be putting in 60-80 hour weeks than it used to be

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AceMos
09/23/24 11:47:45 AM
#32:


TheGoldenEel posted...
I imagine part of the budget increases is due to the increased scrutiny on industry crunch

It has became way less common for salaried game studio employees to be putting in 60-80 hour weeks than it used to be

studios are still abusing crunch thoe

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Voidgolem
09/23/24 11:49:28 AM
#33:


when people are paid for their expertise and the dev cycle is 8 years long, that adds up.

I'd imagine getting the spiderman license or whatnot probably also costs and arm and a leg

I don't know what brings the cost up for horizon and god of war. Mocap, I guess?

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Time
09/23/24 11:50:28 AM
#34:


Crazy because Horizon Zero Dawn was better than Forbidden West in my opinion.

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Kai_Laguna
09/23/24 11:51:04 AM
#35:


That $400 mil budget is almost assuredly wrong. Saw a report that the entire budget for Probably Monsters back when Concord was still under them was $200 mil, which was split between multiple games.
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Seaman_Prime
09/23/24 11:51:08 AM
#36:


And thats why we couldnt have Japan Studio anymore
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SammyLiimex
09/23/24 11:51:57 AM
#37:


kirbymuncher posted...
this is the really big one I think. say devs are making $100k per year. now since it's like a super big game say there's 400 people working on it. that's 40 million per year x 8 years = 320 million on salaries alone

I feel like that doesn't leave much room for other expenses so I have probably overestimated numbers somewhere but you can easily see how paying a large number of skilled professionals over a long period of time can add up

They had a LOT of external help, lots of outsourcing to people charging them tons of money.

So many external studios in those hour long end credits
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LeoRavus
09/23/24 11:53:17 AM
#38:


I don't get the difference in price between the Horizon games. I know they were 5 years apart but over 4.5 times more for a game with the same foundation is nuts even considering inflation after covid.

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CARRRNE_ASADA
09/23/24 11:59:01 AM
#39:


TheoryzC posted...
Shit blew up post-Covid


how exactly? There were delays, but these things 2x, 3x their previous budgets and its absurd. Not even good business. Spiderman 3 would have to sell 8 million just to break even and Spidey 2 has sold 11+ thanks in big part to the bundles.

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_Blur_
09/23/24 11:59:19 AM
#40:


I also imagine the cost had something to do with the planned weekly cinematics. They had probably had like 6 months at least already made in advance just to be able to keep up with them in the future, and those ridiculously high fidelity, mo-capped cutscenes are maybe the most money-devouring projects in AAA gaming.

Basically just a hilarious misuse of resources for something next to no one cares about.

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SammyLiimex
09/23/24 12:00:01 PM
#41:


Kai_Laguna posted...
That $400 mil budget is almost assuredly wrong. Saw a report that the entire budget for Probably Monsters back when Concord was still under them was $200 mil, which was split between multiple games.

The former developer who leaked the number said it was so expensive because they had already spend 100-200 million before Sony's acquisition of the game and it was almost nonfunctional, so Sony had to dump tons of money getting it working by bringing in tons of outside help
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CARRRNE_ASADA
09/23/24 12:00:43 PM
#42:


kirbymuncher posted...
this is the really big one I think. say devs are making $100k per year. now since it's like a super big game say there's 400 people working on it. that's 40 million per year x 8 years = 320 million on salaries alone

I feel like that doesn't leave much room for other expenses so I have probably overestimated numbers somewhere but you can easily see how paying a large number of skilled professionals over a long period of time can add up


Think its 170 local employees. Apparently they spent 200 more rushing to the finish due to the outsourcing, Thing is..game is so basic! Characters, stages and battle system.

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jblrulez
09/23/24 12:01:10 PM
#43:


archizzy posted...
The jump from Horizon in the first game to the second is eye opening. 47 to 220
Spider-Man 1 to 2 is 90 to 315? Crazy.

So will the next Ghost of Tsushima game go from 60 to like 250+?

The budgets are out of control. I really dont see that much difference in those horizon and Spider-Man sequels to justify that type of cost increase.

I personally think the numbers are inflated. Maybe not by much, but inflated nonetheless, mainly because of the things you pointed out: theres not really much of a jump between the sequels, so I dont get why the budgets grew so much.
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BakonBitz
09/23/24 1:17:05 PM
#44:


ZevLoveDOOM posted...
how can a game have that big of a budget yet turn out mid as fuck?? lol
Too many cooks in the kitchen could be it. The larger the dev team the more of a chance that things go wrong due to lack of communication.

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R_Jackal
09/23/24 1:29:36 PM
#45:


jblrulez posted...
I personally think the numbers are inflated. Maybe not by much, but inflated nonetheless, mainly because of the things you pointed out: theres not really much of a jump between the sequels, so I dont get why the budgets grew so much.
Over hiring, seriously. COVID saw studios trying to grab talent left and right. These companies assumed tripling staff meant games would come out three times as fast during the gaming boom.
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