[Kotaku] Bungie's 'Destiny' costs $500 million to make

[TopWargamer]

Source: http://kotaku.com/destiny-might-be-the-most-expensive-game-ever-made-1572352284?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

 

CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed that Activision is spending $500 million to try and make Destiny a hit. That's half a billion dollars, which is very likely more money than has ever been spent on a video game before. Dang.

 

To put some perspective on this, the money being spent on Destiny is more than twice the amount EA reportedly spent on Star Wars: The Old Republic and a little less than double the $265,000,000 Rockstar paid to get GTA V made. The Reuters article cites analysts saying that Destiny will have to sell 15-16 million copies at $60 to break even. So, the final game has to make a very, very good first impression.

 

Jeez, and I thought GTA 5 costed a lot to make! Activision must have a lot of faith in Bungie to be pouring $500 million into this project. I believe that it's taking this much money to make the game, because Bungie is developing 'Destiny' for four systems, they have a huge staff (300+ people), the game should be huge with loads of content, and of course there's the multiplayer aspect of the game. I mean, I hope 'Destiny' sells well and all, but from what I've seen, I'm not too impressed. I'll wait until I can play the beta before calling final judgment though. 

 

[Bluejay0]

5...hundred....MILLION?!?! and they didn't even bother a PC port?!?!?! BULLSH*T!!!!!

[Guest Kloaked]

Yet they still laid off their music producer. Asshats.

[That Norwegian Guy]

They may have spent $500 million, but do they have 500 million dollar talent anymore? Time will tell *spooky voice*

 

 

 

Why are those guys riding humanized Dark Eldar Reaver Jetbikes?

 

 

[qwertywarrior]

and a fully featured space sim costs a lot less

 

were they burning 100$ bills for heat ?

[squirrl]

I spent a good 10 minutes looking at the website and it didn't tell me anything about the genre of game. It looks similar to an MMO, but not so much when you look further. Also i never saw any mention of PC support. Just 4 consoles (for the beta anyway).

Looks very similar to a mass effect/halo style game. The website looks fancy enough, but none of the game really looks like anything new.

[Echodamus]

In my mind it is still a shit game if they don't even bother to bring it to PC. I am not saying this start a flame war, just my honestly opinion. 

[jmaster299]

5...hundred....MILLION?!?! and they didn't even bother a PC port?!?!?! BULLSH*T!!!!!

Bungie has no need or desire to make games for PC. That's coming directly from my brother who works at Bungie. I know they did originally, but their focus since Halo has only been consoles and will continue to only be consoles. Also, Activision spending $500 million on making Destiny successful does not mean they handed Bungie a check for that much. You have to remember that a nearly identical amount of money is spent on advertising and distribution, as is spent on development. They same goes for movies, that's why a movie has to make double it's budget just to break even.

That $500 million also accounts for DLC development and supporting the game servers as this will be a centrally hosted game. I messaged Slick with the info about trying to get someone from Bungie to do a Q&A for the game, but he has not yet got back to me about it. 

[Scionyde]

O mighty GabeN...please give Star Citizen the strength to smite this unworthy pretender... 

[Askew]

Maybe they plan to turn it into an annual churnout with plenty of DLC and recoup the money over a few years without making many substantial changes to the core game.

Sound familiar?

[RH00D]

They didn't spend $500 million just on development. They spent $500 million for the total budget. That means development, marketing, packaging, advertising, distribution, etc. and any other costs associated with bringing it to market.

[XTankSlayerX]

At least half of that is advertising...

[Misanthrope]

[dragosudeki]

That much money and its not on PC?

[geogga]

Well...they're gonna be disappointed when they don't make that back...

[Beskamir]

Well...they're gonna be disappointed when they don't make that back...

Or they will try to milk it to death in order to at least get some of that money back...

 

 

Anyways I've seen modders and indie devs that aren't getting paid make better stuff than what major companies that have 500 million dollars to throw around can. *cough* MERP, Lays of Althas, There and Back Again, etc. *cough*

[infamous_last]

No PC, no care...

[Yoinkerman]

and a fully featured space sim costs a lot less

 

were they burning 100$ bills for heat ?

 

^

[Whiskers]

It's still disappointing for me that they haven't worked on a PC version, but I'll be getting a PlayStation 4 at some point anyway so shall just have to enjoy the game on that.

Really looking forward to Destiny. It just seems like such an epic game.

[fade]

Actually I'm pretty sure this news gaurantees a PC version eventually.  No way they will reach their goals profit wise with that cost.

[jmaster299]

Actually I'm pretty sure this news gaurantees a PC version eventually.  No way they will reach their goals profit wise with that cost.

Nope, read my post. Bungie has no intentions of making any PC games of any kind. That is the number one question Bungie employees get asked and they all hate it. There is no quicker way to piss them off than to ask about a PC version that will never happen.

[CowsGoRoar]

There just gonna gamble with their money. Either they make a huge profit or lose it all and become history.

[Whiskers]

The previous Halo titles became profitable almost instantaneously in-spite of being locked to a single console. It's quite likely that Destiny will become profitable quickly when it's being sold on 4 times as many platforms.

[Joppsta]

Sadly... CoD is still pretty popular thanks to the morons that frequent consoles so even if Destiny was a steaming pile it would still get all the love and attention from these people.

 

I seriously wonder if they worked out that they can plug an Xbox Controller into a PC for the same effect... with much better graphics and cheaper games.

[Notional]

That $500 million also accounts for DLC development and supporting the game servers as this will be a centrally hosted game. I messaged Slick with the info about trying to get someone from Bungie to do a Q&A for the game, but he has not yet got back to me about it. 

Plus all marketing. That might easily be 100-150 million $ right there.