Levine Douses BioShock Infinite $200 Million Budget Claim

Karloff

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Levine Douses BioShock Infinite $200 Million Budget Claim



Don't you look at Ken Levine's American Girl Doll collection; he's been building it up for years.

The New York Times became convinced, thanks to unnamed analysts, that Irrational Games' latest entrant to the BIoShock series probably cost something in the region of $200 million; the exact wording in its article is "the estimated cost of the project is upward of $100 million, not including marketing expenses, which could add another $100 million, analysts said." This struck a nerve with Irrational's Ken Levine, who has taken to Twitter to throw cold water on the claim. "$200 million for Infinite?" he Tweets. "Did someone send some checks to the wrong address?"

What might have happened to that cash? Levine has the answers. Those action figures [https://twitter.com/IGLevine/status/314912025161646080]. Totally different.

BioShock Infinite probably cost a buck or two; you don't keep a company the size of Irrational afloat, working on a title for four years and counting, on love and pizza . The trouble is, unnamed analysts can pitch its budget pretty much however they like and not be held to account; after all, it's only an estimate. It's not as though anybody's going to take it too seriously [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/arts/video-games/the-nerd-as-auteur-in-bioshock-infinite.html?pagewanted=1&_r=5].

You haven't long to wait for BioShock Infinite, by the way. It's due March 26th, for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

Source: Ken Levine Twitter [https://twitter.com/IGLevine]


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Zombie_Moogle

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DVS BSTrD said:
On a side note: Maybe I'm just being contrarian here, but Booker actually looks way better without the stubble. Almost like he's his own character, not a knock off of Nathan Drake.
It's more than just the stubble, I think; it looks like the hair style is different from the other cover & I think they made him less... pretty-boyish in this one.

An improvement, I agree
 

Zhukov

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I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but I think Ken Levine's a really cool guy.

I've seen a bunch of interviews and such with him and, well... I really can't find anything to fault him on.

- He makes great stuff without being a pretentious arse about or running around saying nobody is as good as him.

- He tries to make games do interesting things without trying to transform them into movies.

- He's upfront about stuff. Remember the thing with the Infinite cover art? His response was, "Yeah, we wanted it to appeal to dudebro frat boys who just want to shoot stuff. Better to do that with the cover art than to compromise the game."

- He's also really blunt about the business side of things. At the end of the day you have to sell units to make payroll and keep the lights on.

Ahh, Ken Lenive, why don't you respond to my letters?
 

VanQ

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Does anyone care to spoiler the content of that NY Times link? I can't be arsed to make an account just to read one article.

Zhukov said:
Ahh, Ken Lenive, why don't you respond to my letters?
Love letters from creepy fan boys? He's got it hard, this Ken.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
VanQ said:
Does anyone care to spoiler the content of that NY Times link? I can't be arsed to make an account just to read one article.

Zhukov said:
Ahh, Ken Lenive, why don't you respond to my letters?
Love letters from creepy fan boys? He's got it hard, this Ken.
Hes too busy working on his awesome bioshock/mlp fan fic.

If you don't love that then your a horrible person.
 

Ickorus

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The first hint that that number might have been off should have been that an Analyst said it.

When was the last time an Analyst was right about anything to do with gaming?
 

Ishal

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Worgen said:
VanQ said:
Does anyone care to spoiler the content of that NY Times link? I can't be arsed to make an account just to read one article.

Zhukov said:
Ahh, Ken Lenive, why don't you respond to my letters?
Love letters from creepy fan boys? He's got it hard, this Ken.
Hes too busy working on his awesome bioshock/mlp fan fic.

If you don't love that then your a horrible person.
I'm so happy he did that, the way he read that was just so amazing. Also its in good taste w/o being malicious. The animations are pretty funny in this as well.

That is the kind of humor that everyone can laugh at.
 

Zhukov

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DVS BSTrD said:
On a side note: Maybe I'm just being contrarian here, but Booker actually looks way better without the stubble. Almost like he's his own character, not a knock off of Nathan Drake.
Personally I really liked how he looked in this ad:


Kind of thuggish would-not-want-to-meet-him-in-a-dark-ally in a period appropriate flavour.

Then again, maybe I just want to play someone ugly.
 

Newtonyd

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Any idea on what a game like this actually costs? I've been curious for a long time about the budgets for major and independent games.
 

Lightknight

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Zhukov said:
I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but I think Ken Levine's a really cool guy.

I've seen a bunch of interviews and such with him and, well... I really can't find anything to fault him on.
A person in charge who is vocal and has a great sense of humor is a rare thing these days. All we usually get is corporate speak and all that crap. Good to have people like him around.
 

Ishal

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Desert Punk said:
Zhukov said:
DVS BSTrD said:
On a side note: Maybe I'm just being contrarian here, but Booker actually looks way better without the stubble. Almost like he's his own character, not a knock off of Nathan Drake.
Personally I really liked how he looked in this ad:


Kind of thuggish in a would-not-want-to-meet-him-in-a-dark-ally in a period appropriate flavour.

Then again, maybe I just want to play someone ugly.
That was a good ad. Though at the end when they turned around I was half expecting Songbird to sorta be chilling there
I was expecting that too, the zeppelin was a bit of a let down. However it makes hope that I'll be able to jump around and board many zeppelins in the game. Can't have a good steampunk game w/o zeppelins :D
 

direkiller

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Newtonyd said:
Any idea on what a game like this actually costs? I've been curious for a long time about the budgets for major and independent games.
They expect to sell about 5 million copy of the game based on past Bioshock games
so in the realm of 40-60 million is my guess

200million is WAY out of the ballpark.
SW:TOR is the only game that hit that budget mark in a single game

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Most_expensive_video_games
this is probably useful in your endeavors as well
 

Erttheking

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That would've been a nasty slap in the face if it turned out to be true. "Wait a minute, WHAT!? When did this happen?"