Full post: Exact budgets of video-game productions can be tough to corroborate (more transparency from publishers would be nice!) but the numbers I’ve heard floating around AAA game dev these days are $300 million or more — sometimes much more! — which I think helps explain the current state of the industry
To address some frequently asked questions:
- These are US and Canada productions. If you’re wondering why game X cost so much less, it was probably made elsewhere
- These budgets are almost entirely dev salaries + overheard and have nothing to do with executive compensation (which is mostly stock)
Yup. People don’t realize that most professional authors are not earning a living through writing.
I mean he did after a few years but in order to have the time to make it a go he needed to devote all his energies to it. Do it full time. This was way back when books and publishers was more a typical thing. I assume its even harder today.