Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day • Hacker News Board

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#11

Post by colmvp » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:11 AM UTC

DigitalSea wrote: post #10

What is even more impressive about this figure is that it's just XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 sales. GTA V hasn't been announced for PC yet which is a severely underrated market when it comes to games I reckon. If GTA V launched with a PC version I think they would have eclipsed $1 billion in 24 hours, easily, if not 1.1. I played this yesterday (I don't own a console) at a friends house and what they've been able to a…

I played this yesterday (I don't own a console) at a friends house and what they've been able to achieve on these consoles is impressive considering these consoles aren't next gen and are resource limited.

It seems like that happens at every end of every console's life. Last of Us, BioShock Infinite, and GTA V are three fantastic games to close out the PS3.

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#12

Post by jamesaguilar » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:13 AM UTC

danielharan wrote: post #8

jevinskie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$115 million? Wow. How many developers/artists/QA/management folks (or man-hours) does that buy you?

Roughly 1000 person years at 115k/person/year?

Which considering some people on the team are undoubtedly paid more, is not that surprising a number. (Although some are paid less too.)

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#13

Post by dpiers » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:15 AM UTC

danielharan wrote: post #8

jevinskie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$115 million? Wow. How many developers/artists/QA/management folks (or man-hours) does that buy you?

Roughly 1000 person years at 115k/person/year?

The average salary in the game industry is 84k.

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#14

Post by nonchalance » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:15 AM UTC

I clearly posted this 7 hours too early: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/take-two-first-day-gta-v-sa... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6407415

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#15

Post by erichurkman » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:19 AM UTC

vijayboyapati wrote: post #3

There goes my productivity for the next month

If you're like some of my friends, your productivity has been shot for months leading into the release, endlessly looking at the latest screen shots, articles, teasers, pre-pre-reviews, ... They had a very effective marketing effort.

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#16

Post by dualogy » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:20 AM UTC

adamnemecek wrote: post #4

Kind of surprised that marketing cost them more than development ($115m vs $150m).

Often missed is the massive amount of motion-captured acting and voice acting in that game. How many voice actors just for random peds, hundreds?

Another big-ticket budget item is clearly music licensing and celebrity involvement for major-character voice acting (like GTA:SA had Samuel L. Jackson in a major role for example and some old-school rap celebs for "radio moderator" talking).

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#17

Post by thejosh » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:21 AM UTC

DigitalSea wrote: post #10

What is even more impressive about this figure is that it's just XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 sales. GTA V hasn't been announced for PC yet which is a severely underrated market when it comes to games I reckon. If GTA V launched with a PC version I think they would have eclipsed $1 billion in 24 hours, easily, if not 1.1. I played this yesterday (I don't own a console) at a friends house and what they've been able to a…

I played it on PS3, the only downside is the FPS drop that occurs when driving at fast speeds... which is a fair payoff for the impressive visuals they have managed to achieve.

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#18

Post by mehwoot » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:23 AM UTC

dpiers wrote: post #13

danielharan wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly 1000 person years at 115k/person/year?

The average salary in the game industry is 84k.

The quoted average salary is not the cost of employing someone though, there are always significant on costs.

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#19

Post by cynest » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:28 AM UTC

I wonder if COD:GHOSTS will beat this. From what I'm seeing, GTAV has a few advantages:

Non-yearly (or biyearly) release schedule for an extremely well-known franchise.

No outstanding publisher issues of note, especially gaffes related to gameplay "dumbing down"

A number of factors contributing to somewhat inflated review scores including normal reactions to AAA titles and the GTA series' tendency to hit the right buttons for reviews that doesn't necessarily reflect on gameplay

Re: Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

#20

Post by adamnemecek » Thu, Sep 19, 2013, 4:28 AM UTC

jlgreco wrote: post #9

jevinskie wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$115 million? Wow. How many developers/artists/QA/management folks (or man-hours) does that buy you?

That money bought them things like this: http://static.trustedreviews.com/94/000028992/826f/GTA-5-mur... (That is a massive painting on the side of a building, incase that isn't clear)

I'd like to know what are the ROIs for an advertisement like that. I can't really imagine that the people who will buy the game will buy it due to this advertisement. At the same time though, Rockstar probably knows what they are doing.