Both TLOU2 and Horizon: Forbidden West's development budgets were accidentally revealed in court. The former had a budget of $220 million and the latter had a budget of $212 million.
I think it brings serious question on whether TLOU2 was actually profitable. Yes, it sold 10 million copies, but it took 2 years and a huge discounts (often times to $9.99) to achieve that milestone. Not to mention, some of that money goes to Sony and retailers, and the number doesn't factor in the marketing budget.
The former had a budget of $220 million and the latter had a budget of $212 million.
For TLOU2, I can at least see where some of the money went with all of the animators going through the painstaking task of trying to make TLOU2 look as realistic as possible (though it probably would have behooved them to license or even R&D their own proprietary procedural interpolation software to remove a lot of the hand-required touch-up work). It's still an overly bloated budget where the gameplay isn't representative of that budget at all, and games like Death Stranding run massive circles around it mechanically, especially in terms of efficiency, gameplay, and actual fun.
But Forbidden West makes absolutely zero sense to me. If that was the budget for the first game -- overhauling the engine, creating a brand new pipeline that wasn't Killzone, and having to hire a bunch of artists and scale up the studio to deliver new assets and workflows -- I would understand. But gaming typically has smaller budgets for sequels because you can reuse a lot of assets and your workflow pipeline is already established.
That leaves me to question where on Earth did the $212 million go in Forbidden West? Their robosaur workflow was already established in the first game. The art direction was already established in the first game. The Decima engine's core features were already built out. They didn't even add any new gameplay that would warrant massive R&D, and there was nothing standout about the game in any way. I just don't understand where all the money went?
Money laundering trick one, make it complex enough no one really wants to follow the money. Then say there is a profit, even if there is no way it is possible. Make sure sales numbers look good and never answer anything about it except accuse the accusers.
Both TLOU2 and Horizon: Forbidden West's development budgets were accidentally revealed in court. The former had a budget of $220 million and the latter had a budget of $212 million.
I think it brings serious question on whether TLOU2 was actually profitable. Yes, it sold 10 million copies, but it took 2 years and a huge discounts (often times to $9.99) to achieve that milestone. Not to mention, some of that money goes to Sony and retailers, and the number doesn't factor in the marketing budget.
For TLOU2, I can at least see where some of the money went with all of the animators going through the painstaking task of trying to make TLOU2 look as realistic as possible (though it probably would have behooved them to license or even R&D their own proprietary procedural interpolation software to remove a lot of the hand-required touch-up work). It's still an overly bloated budget where the gameplay isn't representative of that budget at all, and games like Death Stranding run massive circles around it mechanically, especially in terms of efficiency, gameplay, and actual fun.
But Forbidden West makes absolutely zero sense to me. If that was the budget for the first game -- overhauling the engine, creating a brand new pipeline that wasn't Killzone, and having to hire a bunch of artists and scale up the studio to deliver new assets and workflows -- I would understand. But gaming typically has smaller budgets for sequels because you can reuse a lot of assets and your workflow pipeline is already established.
That leaves me to question where on Earth did the $212 million go in Forbidden West? Their robosaur workflow was already established in the first game. The art direction was already established in the first game. The Decima engine's core features were already built out. They didn't even add any new gameplay that would warrant massive R&D, and there was nothing standout about the game in any way. I just don't understand where all the money went?
Money laundering trick one, make it complex enough no one really wants to follow the money. Then say there is a profit, even if there is no way it is possible. Make sure sales numbers look good and never answer anything about it except accuse the accusers.