Activision to Spend $500 Million to Develop and Market Destiny

[Andy Shandy]

Not that I want it to, but I think that this could well in spectacular failure.

They have to sell 15 million copies on what looked to me like a boring mix of Halo/Borderlands, only on consoles? And that's to break even.

I suppose it may end up teaching developers/publishers to be careful with their budgets I suppose, which could be more beneficial in the long run.

 

[The White Hunter]

And yet no PC release.

Anyway seems ludicrous to spend so much on an unproven IP in the current market, especially after Titanfall really didn't sell too well in the physical space (though it's digital sales from PC and X1 bundles were likely much higher.. hmmm). I know they're too differrent beasts but how much do you think the marketing of this will focus on the MMO aspects and what sets it apart rather than "shoot dudes with your bros bro".

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Bit stupid of them to blow that much but I'm not going to damn them to hell just because they happened to not put the game on PC, other people here though....

Kind of saddening how people get these days.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

What the fuck is wrong with this company? Of all the things they could have done with that money, they decided to invest it all in one FPS. Fuuuuuuck.

 

[Albino Boo]

If you bother to READ the article, it states that part of that cost is for developing the game engine and the back-end (read: multi-player/severs/etc) stuff.

It's not 500 million on JUST the game.

That 500 million is being used to create stuff that can then be used in OTHER games.

It doesn't matter that it can still be used later, that' still a lot of money (it could comfortably fund a few hundred human lifetimes) to be investing in developing a video game, especially at a time when many publishers are complaining about shrinking profit margins to justify DLC and other micro-transactions. I'd congratulate them for thinking about the future, but this is still kind of short-sighted in the sense that it doesn't do anything about the rest of their stagnating IP, production model or pricing schemes.

Take two spent $260 million on GTA5 and its going to generate around $2 billion in revenue. GTA is an established franchise, so its not unreasonable to expect that a new franchise will cost more to market. Spending $260 million to generate $2 billion revenue is not bad in any business. Activision's gross profit margin is about 25%, so if sales equal that of GTA5 they break even.

 

[Shadefyre]

Yet another big publisher not realizing that the more money you feel into the game industry machine, the more it'll ask for the next time. More and more triple-A budget games are going to go the way of the Tomb Raider reboot, selling and reviewing well but being considering failures for not covering the cost of all the money pissed away on marketing.

 

[Bindal]

Who's gonna bet that if the game doesn't make 2 billion bucks in three minutes after release, Activision is going to call it a failure and never bother with Destiny again?

 

[Kameburger]

You know if they really think that investing this much is going to be worth it, then all power to them. I like triple A games that push the new current gen hardware to its limits and certainly at 500 mil I think it should look pretty damn good. That being said, Activision does seem to be betting on lightning striking twice and considering recent history, 8 in 10 mega-budget titles don't seem to recoup expenses and even if they do, it isn't fast enough. Who can say for sure if there is a crash coming but if there is, it's going to start with this kind of game failing, mass lay-offs to follow, and surrounding companies downsizing to follow suit, resulting in a lot of out of work game developers a lot of free to play experiments.

lol I do agree with the above that this seems like a good candidate for next weeks Jimquisition.

 

[Hawkeye21]

Still not on PC? Still not interested. Also, all videos I've seen of it that show gameplay look generic as fuck. The only thing good about this game is armor design.

 

[Revolutionary]

Were gonna' sell 15 million copies without releasing to the pc.

Spoiler: MFW

 

[Synthetica]

Still not on PC? Still not interested. Also, all videos I've seen of it that show gameplay look generic as fuck. The only thing good about this game is armor design.

To be fair: it does look more amusing than just sitting in a room arms and legs crossed.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I mean...Destiny looks neat and all, but I don't think it will do nearly as well as they think it is. I mean, why do they think that? Because it's an FPS riding on the back of Halo?

Whatever. It's their money. Though like most people, the lack of a PC release seems arbitrary, especially if you're already planning on spending that much money.

 

[RicoADF]

I actually kinda hope that happens.

It might be mean, but I hope that if they spend this much it'll crash and burn, horribly. Just so developers realize that toning stuff down is not necesarily a bad thing.

I hope it crashes and burns as well, if the game succeeds it'll convince AAA publishers that always online for a sp game is acceptable, sofar Diablo and Sim City have proven that publishers can't be trusted with so much control. I don't want to see the industry go down the drain with all games requiring servers that are switched off killing the game. Talk about the end of the industry and the art form itself.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Well, if nothing else this explains why Bungie high ups are getting fired without warning or reason, Activision thinks it's got a mega hit on it's hands and it wants all the people with big bonuses in their contracts gone before it comes out. Bet Microsoft seems like a really nice place to be now that Activision's in control of the money.

We'll see...

 

[Erttheking]

FIFTEEN MILLION UNITS!? Jesus Christ guys! I think Destiny looks really good, but FIFTEEN MILLION!? Maybe make your expectations a little more fucking reasonable!

 

[Colt47]

I don't even think Jim would have to do a Jimquisition on this development. The question I have is if that 8 million units not being satisfactory is pure speculation or coming from an inside source. The story does point to the fact that they are building a brand new game engine to run the game on, which is a massively expensive thing to construct, but also a "reusable" piece of tech.

Edit: Also, important piece of information being withheld from this article: It's supposed to be the budget for a decade long plan. Yes, it's 500 million, but it's 500 million being budgeted for a decade.

 

[Under_your_bed]

$500 million on one game? That might literally be a world record.

Spoiler: Here's a few examples to compare it with.

Considering how much we've seen the failure of games to meet sales expectations recently [http://pixelenemy.com/ea-reveals-dead-space-3-crysis-3-sales-well-below-forecasts-in-financials-call/], we seem to be rapidly approaching that crash that's been promised for so long now [http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/07/02/the-rise-of-costs-the-fall-of-gaming/].

 

[shirkbot]

Take two spent $260 million on GTA5 and its going to generate around $2 billion in revenue. GTA is an established franchise, so its not unreasonable to expect that a new franchise will cost more to market. Spending $260 million to generate $2 billion revenue is not bad in any business. Activision's gross profit margin is about 25%, so if sales equal that of GTA5 they break even.

Well snap, I guess I'm just an idiot then, but I thank you for holding me to account.

In the interest of saving face, what evidence do they have that this will sell anywhere near as well enough to justify the costs? It may be cheaper to produce the next games, but the plan at this point is dependent not only on the first game generating sales, but also that the next games will be able to sell equally well, or better, to help cover the initial investment and their individual budgets.

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

"Hey guys, wanna ensure that our attempt to ride the coattails of Halo will have to outsell Halo 3 to break even?"

--Someone at Activision.

I'm starting to worry that working in the business part of the game industry causes increased risk of stroke or something. These people do not think in the way humans think.

 

[Dragonlayer]

And yet I still haven't the foggiest what the game is supposed to be about.