Game Discussions Star Citizen Discussion Thread v12

Intrepid3D

Intrepid3D
StuartGT said:
Oh boy. Let's crack on...
  • Grand Theft Auto: $265m $137m
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: $300m $50m
  • Cyberpunk 2077: $330m $121m+
  • Star Citizen: $410m ~$350m to date (assuming ~$60m spent on marketing so far)
  • Red Dead II: $550m $240m

List of most expensive video games to develop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

You really should at least use google.
Click to expand...

Its damned near impossible to separate out all the component costs of what it took to get SC to where it is now, with that Rock Star spent $200 to $300 Million on marketing.

Unless you know exactly how much CIG spent on marketing you don't know what the raw development cost is.

Lets do some quick maths, CIG have been a fully fledged developer for about 6 years, during that time they have had 500 to now 700 devs, so 600 average, average salery $30,000, $18m a year, X 6 years = $108m just on staff wages.
 

Dementropy

Dementropy
Intrepid3D said:
Its damned near impossible to separate out all the component costs of what it took to get SC to where it is now, with that Rock Star spent $200 to $300 Million on marketing.

Unless you know exactly how much CIG spent on marketing you don't know what the raw development cost is.

Lets do some quick maths, CIG have been a fully fledged developer for about 6 years, during that time they have had 500 to now 700 devs, so 600 average, average salery $30,000, $18m a year, X 6 years = $108m just on staff wages.
Click to expand...
Maybe I'm missing something, but what happened in 2015 that made them a fully-fledged developer and not before?
 

Intrepid3D

Intrepid3D
Dementropy said:
Maybe I'm missing something, but what happened in 2015 that made them a fully-fledged developer and not before?
Click to expand...

I'm not counting that because between 2013 and 2015 (roughtly) CIG was operating out of a large house (Edit) and a small studio with a couple dozen staff, what does that amount to? $20m?
 

StuartGT

StuartGT
Intrepid3D said:
Its damned near impossible to separate out all the component costs of what it took to get SC to where it is now, with that Rock Star spent $200 to $300 Million on marketing.

Unless you know exactly how much CIG spent on marketing you don't know what the raw development cost is.

Lets do some quick maths, CIG have been a fully fledged developer for about 6 years, during that time they have had 500 to now 700 devs, so 600 average, average salery $30,000, $18m a year, X 6 years = $108m just on staff wages.
Click to expand...
The marketing costs are itemised in CIG's sanitised annual financials.
 

Vetinari

V
That 'moved to Nyx' sounds a bit like 'I did y homework but left it at home, but I did do it honestly'

Agony_Aunt said:
It was a shock when he actually said something we knew to be true.
Click to expand...

lol Katherine Ryan (comedian) was on a program the other day and said something like "I find it hard to believe the government coz they say everything they do is a huge success, so even when it is a success its hard to believe. Its like if the toilet said something wise Id be like 'Well that sounds like wisdom but its coming from the toilet so...' "
 

VR Golgot

VR Golgot
Intrepid3D said:
I'm not counting that because between 2013 and 2015 (roughtly) CIG was operating out of a large house (Edit) and a small studio with a couple dozen staff, what does that amount to?
Click to expand...

Lol, nope 😄

Not even CIG claim 'a couple of dozen' for 2013 to 2015:

[VR] Golgot said:
CIG has muddied the water somewhat while pushing the 'small team, starting from scratch' argument, by leaving out the contractor contributions:

Staff Only Numbers for Dev 2012 - Aug 2015:

citizenemployees.jpg
Click to expand...

If they’d been honest they’d have added the contractor numbers in though:

[VR] Golgot said:
Staff + Contractor Numbers for 2013 - 2014:

Aug 2013: 90 (50 staff, 40~ contractors) [and rising]

Oct 2013: 110 (IE at Citcon. Approx 130-140 by this vid in Dec)

June 2014: 268 (approx half staff, half contract)
Click to expand...

Guess the 'plucky little studio narrative' worked though eh?
 

Intrepid3D

Intrepid3D
[VR] Golgot said:
Lol, nope 😄

Not even CIG claim 'a couple of dozen' for 2015. They say say approx 205 rising to 260 for that year:



If they’d been honest they’d have added the contractor numbers in though, which saw them hit those levels back in 2014:



Guess the 'plucky little studio narrative' worked though eh?
Click to expand...

Okay, so chalk up whatever you think it is an add it to the $108m Staff costs.
 

StuartGT

StuartGT
Intrepid3D said:
I'm not counting that because between 2013 and 2015 (roughtly) CIG was operating out of a large house (Edit) and a small studio with a couple dozen staff, what does that amount to? $20m?
Click to expand...
Oo eck. More shoddy research.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2ya7SRA3I&t=480s

From the above video:
  • CitizenCon 2013: 110 total
  • Dec 2013: 130-140 total
  • Projecting 200 total by Mar-Apr 2014
  • The totals are split roughly 50/50 between internal staff and contractors

Dc1siEK.png

5T0GpTl.png
 

Intrepid3D

Intrepid3D
StuartGT said:
Oo eck. More shoddy research.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc2ya7SRA3I&t=480s

From the above video:
  • CitizenCon 2013: 110 total
  • Dec 2013: 130-140 total
  • Projecting 200 total by Mar-Apr 2014
  • The totals are split roughly 50/50 between internal staff and contractors

Dc1siEK.png

5T0GpTl.png
Click to expand...

That makes my total over $300m to date, that's without paid actor costs, outsourcing for music, which they do, equipment, studio running costs.....

Making a game like this is expensive.
 

Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
Agony_Aunt said:
No its not, unless the circumstance you are referring to is being under the control of someone who doesn't have a clue about how to deliver on a project and control scope creep.

They totally could have focused on delivering a core game first with limited scope, you know, perhaps the game they said they could deliver for 5.5 million, the game they said they had been working on for over a year and had already done loads of work on. That game. Sure, they were never going to deliver that game for 5.5 million in 2-3 years. They were totally talking out of their rear ends even back then. But perhaps they could have delivered it within 10 years and for a few hundred million, and by now have a released product, and from there stopped selling dreams and instead sold a released product, and then gone on to making expansions/DLCs to build on the content. Hell, they could have done the expansions by crowdfunding as well, but i think the argument there would be if they have a sucessfully released product they should then be funding the game themselves, of course, with the sale of cosmetics probably to support things. You know, like actual real development companies do.

And when you say you don't have a problem with the model they are using, you mean you are fine with their use of artificial scarcity? FOMO? And other unsavoury marketing techniques? You're fine with that?

Because CIG were meant to be different. They were not meant to be like the evil and greedy publishers. Yet, from what we see, they are doing the exact same things the evil and greedy publishers do.
Click to expand...
Well, if it's actually about the scam and how it collects its money the statement may not be so wrong.
 

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
StuartGT said:
The marketing costs are itemised in CIG's sanitised annual financials.
Click to expand...
And I’m not convinced that figure is at accurate. From the sheer number of videos CIG churns out alone, which IMO should count as marketing, it’s easily at least twice what’s reported. Some of them are livestreams, but most of them are professionally shot and edited, and feature highly detailed CG images and videos.

I’m sure in the case of the latter, they probably itemize them as part of the game’s development, but many of those assets don’t make it into the game. 🤷‍♀️
 

Intrepid3D

Intrepid3D
Darkfyre99 said:
And I’m not convinced that figure is at accurate. From the sheer number of videos CIG churns out alone, which IMO should count as marketing, it’s easily at least twice what’s reported. Some of them are livestreams, but most of them are professionally shot and edited, and feature highly detailed CG images and videos.

I’m sure in the case of the latter, they probably itemize them as part of the game’s development, but many of those assets don’t make it into the game. 🤷‍♀️
Click to expand...

Like this from 2016, tho i have seen some of these assets in game.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdCFTF8j7yI
 

Cotic

Cotic
Intrepid3D said:
Apparently so.

support.robertsspaceindustries.com

Quantum Linking

Quantum Linking is the ability to travel large distances as a party between points of interests in the universe, such as moons or orbital stations. The leader of the party can initiate a quantum tr...
support.robertsspaceindustries.com support.robertsspaceindustries.com
Click to expand...
So much use of Quantum.

It reminds me of marketing companies using "quantum leap" everywhere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom