God of War 3 'right within budget' -- a $44 million budget

by Alexander Sliwinski on Mar 9th 2010 11:06AM

Anger management simulator God of War III cost $44 million to create, according to director of production development John Hight, which is "right within budget." Speaking with Giant Bomb, Hight revealed that the team of 132 staff required to finish the third installment was more than double the crew (of about 60) on hand to wrap up God of War II, with the biggest growth occurring in the graphics and art departments.

Considering the ultimate Kratos adventure will likely go on to become a phenomenal sales hit, the $44 million budget isn't as ridiculous as it might seem. Consider that Gran Turismo 5's budget, at last count, had reportedly ballooned to around the $60 million mark. On the other hand, Ken Levine previously put the first BioShock's budget at about $15 million. With such variation in current-gen development costs, in the end, the price is just a number -- and in the case of God of War III, it was certainly worth the dough.

God of War 3

[Via Edge]

Source

Tags: budget, god-of-war, god-of-war-3, god-of-war-iii, john-hight, santa-monica-studio, sony-santa-monica

Reader Comments (58)

That means anything over about 1.5 million in sales is pure profit baby. Should not be that hard to break 1.5 million copies sold... on release date.

as much as I would like to believe this will do 1.5 million on release day globally.....my guess is right around a million

Before anyone calls me a fan boy, I own a 360 and a PS3, finished both games in the God of War collection and loved them and have my copy of God of War3 set for release date delivery from Amazon. That being said, saying it is going to sell 1.5 million day 1 is probably a stretch. According to Vgchartz GoW has sold 3.2 million, GoW2 has sold 2.6 and the Collection has sold another 600k. So you are talking between 3 releases around 6.4 million copies. You really think the third game is going to sell almost 25% of that total on the first day? I would say that is probably being extremely optimistic.

That number is the development budget. Marketing is often more expensive.

So no, 1.5 million copies will not mean profit.

@Fragnem

1.5 million = $52.5 million. Assuming that they spend about $8.5 million marketing they would be making money. The Publisher (Sony in this case) makes around $35 a game and pays a chunk of that to the Dev (the $44 million in this case + bonuses depending on the success).

I'd say 1.5-2 million copies and they are then making pure profit.

@Huskercubfan

8.5 million on marketing? I'm not exactly sure how much they spent but if it's that low I'd be shocked.

$70 million if they sell 2 million copies. Thats quite a bit of marketing. Whatever it is they will make a bunch of money off of the game.

god of war 3 is definictly getting my 60$ and if i'm lucky enough to get me the limited ed then they well deserve my 100$ i want that box for my codoms

ahaa. ahah . haahaa. nice.

"I'm opening Pandora's Box, baby..."

"Yeah..."

"Then I put my robe and wizard hat on.."

"!!!"

I hope GOW3 becomes the best selling PS3 game and take the GOTY awards.

Why?

@D dogg

Because it's a really good game.

Also, I wonder what Santa Monica Studios is going to do next.

can anyone inform me as to what Uncharted 2's budget was?

also MW2's budget?

Uncharted 2 likely had budget of 20 million USD: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uncharted-sequel-costing-usd-20-million

and MW2's budget was 'ridiculous': http://www.joystiq.com/2009/11/03/initial-modern-warfare-2-budget-was-ridiculous/

edit.
Some sources say that the ridiculous budget was $40 to $50 million.

Am I crazy for picking this over Final Fantasy XIII?

You will get alot of people patting you on the back for that. I went the other way tho I never played the first or second so waiting for my friend to finish it then borrow it to me is no biggy

@zefur

I highly recommend the God of War Collection for PS3. It's the only way to experience the first two games! Plus it's like 40 bucks...

@OzCueball

Well I mean Final Fantasy XIII is an epic 4 or more years in the making. I know what is in store for me with God of War III. A great action game with gigantic set pieces and stunning graphics. Final Fantasy XIII has a battle system and adventure I have yet to experience...and yet damn it here I am buying another God of War game!

I'm doing the same lol. I guess we're just two crazy peas in a pod.

No multiplayer, no sale!

Just kidding, the only multiplayer mode is seeing how long you can hide with your friends before Kratos finds and skull screws you.

I'd play that

that actually sounds quite fun, a brutal version of hide and seek

*high five*

"Skull screw" just doesn't sound right.

That's allegedly what KZ2 cost to make.

I've heard rumors Gran Turismo 5's budget has grown to 80 million.

Yamauichi mentioned the $60 million budget just recently.

And I think one thing to note is that God of War 3 has been in development for about 2 years or slightly more. Whereas Gran Turismo 5 has been in development for roughly 5 (while rebuilding the game completely from previous ones) and has to deal with an extraordinary amount of licensing.

One more reason I need a PS3.

What crawled up your butt and died this morning? I'm so stupid and annoying because I don't have hundreds to drop on one right now? Also if you're going to call me stupid at least spell correctly.

The widespread unavailability of PS3s at retail right now is making it awfully enticing to download one via a torrent. I mean, hey, it's the only way to get a backwards compatible model these days, right?

We're so sorry to offend you, a442-whatever. We will calm down while you go somewhere and die in peace.

W/ so many games releasing this year, God of War 3 has been THE game for me this year. I can't wait to play it and see how everything ends. I might purchase a CE guide too.

I want a PS3 so bad right now.

If I didn't already have one, this would be the reason for me to buy it. GoWII was probably my favorite PS2 game of all time.

My reasons for buying a PS3 was Devil May Cry 4, Final Fantasy XIII, Tekken 6, and Grand Theft Auto IV

....

So I guess you signed a lot of internet petitions when all 4 of those went multiplatform, huh?

Lol, no. But I can't say I wasn't frustrated, I'm just glad we've had plenty of surprises for PS3

Sorry to be a spelling Nazi but you've incorrectly spelled "price" in the last sentence.

They weren't talking about the price. They were talking about the pirce, it wasn't a spelling error.

BOOM!

kratos is the new chuck norris. no, scratch that. kratos slaughtered chuck norris at birth and just pretends to be him to kill boredom.

That screenshot is from the demo build. Apparently they made some great improvements to the graphics.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-godofwariii-demo-vs-retail-blog-entry

"That screenshot is from the demo build."

Why is Joystiq using old and busted screenshots?

Perhaps a trip to IGN is in order to, um, "borrow" some assets?

$44,000,000 / $60 MSRP = 733,334 units. factor in marketing costs of ( i have no idea but let's guess 25% of development) $11M and that brings break even to 916,667 units. i think sony is going to make wii-like returns on this one.

With big games (or at least heavily pushed like God of War 3), the market costs can easily exceed the development costs. It might be an extreme example, but in Modern Warfare 2's case, the marketing (including distribution) was about $150 million+, compared to a $50 million development budget.

If that was the only way to gauge profit, there would be tons of games rolling in dough this generation.

Publishers don't make full MSRP on each sale -- a lot of other places get a percentage of that price. From estimates I've seen, the publisher gets about $30 for that.

So with a $44 million budget alone, they'd need nearly 1.5 million copies sold to make that up. That isn't factoring in marketing costs.

good point. i forgot that MW2 and possibly GOW3 advertise in high profile locations such as the NBA playoffs. which while probably cheaper than the super bowl is still in the millions of dollars. its funny to me that something as big as either game needs that much exposure. but i guess there's more ppl that dont know its coming out than there are of us who keep up with release dates.

Want an even more extreme example? Halo 3 reportedly cost 45-55 million to make. Microsoft spent a ridiculous 200+ million in marketing costs...

its not bad . grand theft auto cost an estimated 100m

So I take it Shenmue's cost (~$70mil) would have been average if it was a current generation game.

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God of War 3 'right within budget' -- a $44 million budget

God of War 3

Reader Comments (58)

Posted: Mar 9th 2010 11:10AM SDHusker said

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