Selling 500,000 copies of one PS3 game to break even for NAMCO?

[GmanJoe]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=az3neI1eJui8&refer=japan

Graphics for the high-definition games cost about 1 billion yen ($8.6 million) to create......


.......``We have to sell at least 500,000 copies per title worldwide to make a profit on PlayStation 3 games,\'\' said Takasu. He said titles for the new Sony console are ``selling well.\'\'

Damn. Luckily Ridge Racer should sell well. But considering there aren\'t even 500,000 systems out there yet, it\'s an uphill climb.... Damn.

[GmanJoe]

Not even sure what this $8 million dollars for "HD Graphics" entails. Is it the initial cost of the dev kits, cost of developing for HD TVs? Patents costs?

It\'s like the guy just dropped a bombshell just to discourage others from competing with their game. Of course....I\'m just biased.

i always like hearing the economics of the gaming business.  with systems costing a measily ~$400 and games costing $60 it\'s interesting to look at the raw numbers and try to figure out the bottom line.

considering movie budgets for animated 3D features are 10x that amount I can believe what namco\'s saying.

It\'s true probably for the first game, but they will use the same tools, shortcuts, and possibly engines in future games, making those games much cheaper to develop.  Pretty much what GmanJoe is saying... we have no reference as to what he considers \'cost\' and for which one(s) of the games they have/are-developing/will release...

But games are different compared to CGI movies. Art assets and labor increase with every gen.  Shorcuts, engines etc may reduce costs, but even with these cost reductions they always get more expensive as gaming evolves.