40 MILLION dollars...

[Xtasy0]

Plug: I was working on the Battlecruiser games for 3000AD. I'm working on some stuff for handhelds at the moment (with some top-class industry veterans) as well as the project vaguely hinted at in my sig which I'm not allowed to talk about

battlecruiser like...derek smarts battlecruiser?....bahaha....

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Yeah, that's the one. Look, I'm not proud of it, ok?

 

[Apos]

Consider too how much money in bandwidth Valve is shilling out for Steam alone. They foot the bill for tons and tons and tons of it to do massive content downloads and general account work. That kind of bandwidth does not come cheap. 40mil is totally reasonable.

 

[Apos]

Derek Smart rules!
http://www.canadiangamer.ca/Interviews/3000AD/photo_dsmart.jpg

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

No. He doesn't.

 

[dscowboy]

Uh, I don't know what country you guys live in, but US $40 million is pretty frikin cheap to run a software company for 6 years in the states. That's less than US$7 mil a year. The software company I work at burns through US$70-90 mil a year, and we're definitely NOT 10 times the size of Valve, i'm sure there's almost nobody on this board that's even heard of us.

Maybe it's difficult to understand if you've never done budgets at a real company before, but believe me, 40$M is CHEAP. 30 full time employees *(salary+benefits+office rent in seattle+asset depreciation+licensing) * 6 years > $40M easily.

 

[Apos]

I meant, "...with an iron fist." His other fist is holding a PhD, but it's made of tin (the fist, not the PhD.)

 

[Reaperman]

Just between HL, RTCW, MoH, SoF2, CoD and the three Quake titles themselves, that's a metric assload of money.

hahahahhaha :cheers: quoted for hilarity!

 

[DEATH eVADER]

This applies to Valvesoftware in general (Including maintenance)
Salaries
Electricity/Utilities bill
Cleaning/Maintenace
Softimage contract/Licencing
Havoc Contract/Licencing
Company Insurance
Licensing/Copyrighting
Company Trips/Business Conferences
Hardware/Software upgrades
Food supplies/Cleaning equipment
Nights out/Mini Van hire/Plane flights/Train tickets etc
The Leak

If I missed anything else, please add them in your reply

 

[Ahnteis]

Lesee--we'll guess 30 people, average of $100,000 / year (including benefits) which isn't really that high a salary average.

= $3,000,000 / year
X 5 years
---------------------
$15,000,000
And that's just conservative salary for 30 people over the 5 years. That says nothing about hardware, licensing, etc etc etc. And if there are more then 30?! Yeouch!

 

[Gorgon]

$35 million more and you can make THE MATRIX part one

This game better be Goooooooooooooood.

$40 milloin ==== The best game ever

 

[The Dark Elf]

$35 million more and you can make THE MATRIX part one

This game better be Goooooooooooooood.

$40 milloin ==== The best game ever

doesn't mean it'll be good if it cost a lot of money. Look at waterworld.

 

[chimpmunk]

Or titanic...

 

[alehm]

Ya but too little money and it they will have to rename HL2 to Half Life 2: Blair Witch in the Projects.

 

[Mountain Man]

$40 million sounds like a lot until you realize that Valve will make back 10 times that from sales of Half-Life 2 alone not to mention they are now part of the lucrative engine licensing business which means even more $$$ to line their pockets.

 

[Triggerhappy41]

lots of good theories, and i think that valve is telling the truth. This is a huge game with one of the longest production times ever for a game, and as far as ive seen from the latest info about the game, it IS going to blow our socks off.

Remember the in-game voice communication system with lip-synch?

No, but im drooling now.

Expences will add up.

 

[zex]

I thought 40 million sounded a little low for all they're doing.

 

[alehm]

All that money could have gone to cancer or AIDS research or feeding the poor. You think human lives would be worth more than a game.

This comedy killer was brought to you by Alehm.
/me runs

 

[Subz]

Well how much does doom3 cost or farcry to make? anyone have comparisons to judge this 40million mark by?

 

[Ahnteis]

Alehm--all you have to do is donate your $50 to [whatever] instead of buying HL2.

 

[The Mullinator]

All that money could have gone to cancer or AIDS research or feeding the poor. You think human lives would be worth more than a game.

This comedy killer was brought to you by Alehm.
/me runs

This is what a capitalist society is all about. If fighting cancer and AIDS were profitable then I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't already been eliminated by now.

Besides can YOU convince potential customers to put $40-70 into fighting AIDS and Cancer instead of buying HL games?

/me hopes comedy will be revived

 

[Eternity]

I love how that moderator played coy for a couple posts, vaguely alluded to breaking his NDA, and then finally had to reveal he is working on Battlecruiser and handheld stuff. Someone just got served, yo.

SOMEONE JUST GOT SERVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. 40 mil. is extravant. I love how some of you guys think 100,000 is a typical salary -- which it isn't -- and isn't for game coders, I would wager. However, I'm pretty sure the staff is over 70 people, just to sling some new information out there.

 

[The Mullinator]

I found this article:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1555005,00.asp

Its about what John Carmack said at GDC 2004, and I thought this little part of it stuck out.

Meanwhile, game budgets will continue to rise, possibly reaching $100 million for certain projects within five years. "What we're doing now is just plain better," he said. "But it's better at a massive cost." The cost he was referring to was the ability to take risks and try truly unique concepts.

Its in the middle of the second page of the article.

So really does $40 million seem so unrealistic considering its HL2 were talking about here?

 

[Daiceman9]

Carmack talked about how game development is getting more and more
expensive and how more and more people are needed to make major game
releases (He said he wouldn't be surprised to see a game with a budget of
$100 million fairly soon). However, he also said there is still room for a
small team to create games that can have mass appeal and be successful,
like teams who make web based or small downloadable titles.

Well, looks like 40 million will be a pittance in the future

Edit: Bastard , posted before me

 

[dscowboy]

P.S. 40 mil. is extravant. I love how some of you guys think 100,000 is a typical salary -- which it isn't -- and isn't for game coders, I would wager.

Salary + benefits + the space for their cubical is about 100k per person for technology companies. Like I said above, running a mid-sized company for 6 years on $40M is not extravagant at all.

 

[Quixote]

Derek Smart... lets just not get into what a horses ass... nevermind.
40 million isn't all that much when you compare it to, say, a Holleywood blockbuster. Those can go 100 million plus and only take a few years to develope. Given that so much more money that used to be going to movies and TV is now going into video games, I think we're seeing the start of the "video game blockbusters" were mass amounts of money is spent to create exciting games.
The next big thing? Product placement in video games. Think of it Valve works out a deal with Pepsi or coke so that all the vending machines display their logo... ooo the possibilities.

 

[The Mullinator]

Well, looks like 40 million will be a pittance in the future

Edit: Bastard , posted before me

heh heh, at least they aren't from the same site. :cheers:

 

[Gorgon]

So whats the UT3.0 estimation then ?

will it cost over $40M

 

[crabcakes66]

doesn't mean it'll be good if it cost a lot of money. Look at waterworld.

OT: i dont understand what was so bad about that movie....I liked it..



If you want bad expensive movies look at all the movies based on comic books with there crappy CG effects......I miss the days of the original starwars....the models look more realistic than alot of todays movies.

 

[operative x]

yeah...i ...kinda.....liked...waterworld...

 

[RoguePsi]

yeah...i ...kinda.....liked...waterworld...

Can we have a minutes silence for this thread please?

 

[Fender357]

doesn't mean it'll be good if it cost a lot of money. Look at waterworld.

But waterworld was amazing!!!! I mean come on!!!! There was SO much water!!! There's never been a movie that used water so well!!

And you know its gotta cost alot to get Kevin Kostner(sp) to stand around looking like a dumbass for a couple of hours.


Anyway......back on topic......don't bitch about all the money......you should be damn happy they're willing to spend that much on a game for us.
And if Gabe wants to buy a 20M$ snow cone machine...then good for him. He freakn' deserves it....(even though he'd be getting majorly ripped off)

 

[Kadayi]

All that money could have gone to cancer or AIDS research or feeding the poor. You think human lives would be worth more than a game.

This comedy killer was brought to you by Alehm.
/me runs

Get a life.......

 

[Kadayi]

I'm pretty sure the staff is over 70 people, just to sling some new information out there.

Staff is around 35ish. 8 Coders, the rest are level designers/ graphics etc.

 

[Subz]

Get a life.......

same can be said about you for actually taking that seriosly.

 

[operative x]

"All that money could have gone to cancer or AIDS research or feeding the poor. You think human lives would be worth more than a game.

This comedy killer was brought to you by Alehm.
/me runs"
if you want to go down that road start with hollywood they spend 100 of millions on retarded movies that suck. And also DMX's movies are a complete waste because they ALWAYS suck. just think of the millions that could have gone to aids research instead of a floped moive
/me continues to wonder why an the hell would they choose "Never die alone" for a title..... :sniper: :afro:

 

[torso boy]

this is how its so expensive
1.salaries
2.hardware for development
3.Liscense tech....havok, some of the sound system
4.bills and rent for the building they are in
5.other expenses

 

[noah]

Marketing is very expensive. I bet half of that $40 million went to PR. Easily. (Though, ATi probably helped out in that area.) Considering the pay of employees, R&D, Steam, the length of development time etc., it's not difficult to imagine a wildly popular game like Half-Life 2 needing millions to develop.

 

[Mountain Man]

All that money could have gone to cancer or AIDS research or feeding the poor. You think human lives would be worth more than a game.

Feel free to donate your $50 you would have spent on Half-Life 2 to the charity of your choice. As for me, selfish bastard that I am, I'll be buying Half-Life 2 as soon as I'm able.

 

[CyberSh33p]

as well as the project vaguely hinted at in my sig which I'm not allowed to talk about

..omg, its hl2! yuo aer Gaibe!!!!!!!