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Grand Theft Auto V Earns $800 Million in a Day

variety.com

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

#41

Post by wwwong »

adamnemecek wrote: post #20
jlgreco wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The overwhelming majority of revenue comes in the first weeks of a game launch. For a major franchise like this, you safely know what minimum dollar amount you'll make. Invest in market for hopes of a big hit.

Sure, ROI is tough. But think about the wrong decision to not market and sales flops in the first 2-3 weeks. You can't make up that lost revenue from launch.

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

#42

Post by wwwong »

pratik661 wrote: post #21
dpiers wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average salary in the game industry is 84k.

I've noticed that people in the game industry make significantly less than other software engineers. Why do you think that is? The few software engineers that I know who work the hours that are the norm in the game industry make even more. I wonder what market forces are at work here.

Coming from the games industry, people who work on games work on them for the love of making games, not the money.

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

#45

Post by Blara »

narfquat wrote: post #2

To put that in perspective, here is a list of opening day top grossing movies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_openin... , and the previous video game record was $500 million, for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.

I'm not sure that is a fair comparison, Movies have a very strict number of people who can see the movie the first weekend (seats in movie theaters and not opening around the world, though the highest movie in the list was harry potter which I think had "world premier"). Where games have no limit on how many can buy it the first day, which is especially true since digital download has become so popular.

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

#46

Post by sspiff »

grannyg00se wrote: post #7

That official gameplay video is really impressive if you haven't looked at the state of the art in video games lately. It looks like a wish list of gaming features put together by hardcore fans with no limits on budget or creativity. If I didn't know the game was released and well received, I'd say there's no way in hell it would be possible to put it all together on time, on budget, and without major flaws. Damn imp…

I don't know about Rockstar, but from what I've heard from game developers from big studios, they're driven like slaves. Crunch time, unpaid overtime, wages that are not paid on time, etc etc.

It's easier to be on time and on budget if you break rules like 8 hour days and proper remuneration of the workforce.

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

#47

Post by coldarchon »

nonchalance wrote: post #14

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

Why is he grey? Who downvoted him? The way people communicate here is getting down to levels of imgur, do I have to post pictures of cats to get votes?

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

#48

Post by sspiff »

maximilianburke wrote: post #35
adamnemecek wrote: post #4

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

Marketing has been a larger cost than development for quite some time now in the world of AAA video games.

Exactly. I remember a greater inbalance in the Call of Duty series, where marketing dwarfed development. I can't seem to find the source though.

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

#49

Post by sgloutnikov »

jevinskie wrote: post #6
adamnemecek wrote: post #4

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

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

"The game spent four years in full development, by a team of an estimated 250 people. Media analyst Arvind Bhatia estimated the development budget for the game exceeded US$137 million, and The Scotsman reporter Marty McLaughlin estimated that the combined budget of the development and marketing efforts exceeded £170 million (US$265 million), which would make Grand Theft Auto V the most expensive video game ever made."

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

#50

Post by sharkweek »

wwwong wrote: post #41
adamnemecek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The overwhelming majority of revenue comes in the first weeks of a game launch. For a major franchise like this, you safely know what minimum dollar amount you'll make. Invest in market for hopes of a big hit. Sure, ROI is tough. But think about the wrong decision to not market and sales flops in the first 2-3 weeks. You can't make up that lost revenue from launch.

Exactly -- and from a GTA franchise standpoint, their biggest success is just hyping the release as much as possible. They have tons and tons of fanboys who all rushed to buy copies on opening night. There was no doubt this would be a success --

But to build awareness and convince more people to go out and buy it during the opening weeks, that's where a poster like this comes into play. Constant visible reminders of the release date turn a 500m release into an 800m release

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