Witcher series sales reach 8 milions! (F*ck DRM Edition)

[GuyNwah]

http://www.pb.pl/3169838,32789,wiedzmin-3-bedzie-kosztowal-ponad-100-mln-zl

"Altogether, more than 110 million zł", 40-45M zł for production, US $25M for marketing. Marketing costs are borne by distributors and made good on sales. So they have only some $13M of capital tied up in the game. That's a bargain.

A number of first-class games have run more than $60 million in production costs alone (and marketing costs always run much higher than production).

Their ability to produce and sell a first-class game for that budget, assuming they actually pull it off, which looks like a good bet, is astonishing and actually much more important to them as a competitor in a cutthroat industry than their anti-DRM position.

 

[SilverFox07]

Japanese Yen

Seriously - USD of course.

Lol... omg... *facepalms self*

 

[Blothulfur]

Well fucking deserved in my eye. One of the big draws for me has been the powerful, independent and self motivated characters, especially the women. Compare Philippa to any of the other women portrayed in most rpgs and it's just embarassing, the opposition comes off as squeeing morons, who need help finding their own arses, and have no self motivation or long term goals. Only comparison I can think of is Kreia.

Of course the fantastic art design, the stunning graphics, the cohesive and deep plot, the subtlety and nuance of the presentation, the realism and internal consistency of the world, the involved combat and the customer respectful business model also helps win my business.

Course there's downsides like the horrible inventory and UI of the second game, the clear emphasis on the peasants controllers over goodly mouse and keyboard, the rolling etcetera. But i've bitched about them enough in other threads.

 

[Garrison72]

"Altogether, more than 110 million zł", 40-45M zł for production, US $25M for marketing. Marketing costs are borne by distributors and made good on sales. So they have only some $13M of capital tied up in the game. That's a bargain.

A number of first-class games have run more than $60 million in production costs alone (and marketing costs always run much higher than production).

This just boggles my mind. Other studios are spending triple that number and still cutting corners. It's cheaper to make games in Poland yes, but how can it be that cheap in 2014?

 

[GuyNwah]

This just boggles my mind. Other studios are spending triple that number and still cutting corners. It's cheaper to make games in Poland yes, but how can it be that cheap in 2014?

Labor costs in Silicon Valley are three, four times what they are in Eastern Europe, but that's just a visible tip on a very large submerged iceberg. There's also debt from acquisitions (and because it's junk debt, it carries ruinous interest rates) and venture capital management practices (meaning too much management, too many chiefs paid atrocious fees).

 

[JackalJ]

If we get a game like TW3 for that budget then Bungie should be ashamed for Destiny and what they produced in their big budget. But I'm not going to start a destiny post...

OT: Let's hope there will be a few million more copies added in the future. Then again when I see a TW or TW2 sale that sells TW for 2 and TW2 for 4 bucks it doesn't really come as a surprise the games sell well. I mean seriously GOG do you have to drop the price so low?

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

That what differentiates a masterpiece from some mass market production. The former can take less money to produce but it remains timeless, while the later can reap some sales short term but later it's mostly forgotten.

 

[Degs29]

DRM is not just pointless, it damages sales.

This.

I only recently got into Ubisoft games (Watchdogs, AC4, FC3). I doubt I'll pick up the next FarCry or Watchdogs. I might pick up the next Assassin's Creed. And there are other games coming out by them I'm interested in. But I find Uplay frustrating to work with. All it's doing for me is adding a barrier to me purchasing their games. It doesn't mean I won't; but it's factored into the equation.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

@Degs29: We have a lengthy thread about it here if you want to elaborate on it.