Cpl Steiner Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 I found this snippet allegedly from a Washington Post article on another forum today (madminutegames - makers of the Take Command series of games). "A highly detailed World War II tactical combat game that combines the realism of a grognard game with the 3-D graphics of a mainstream video game, the game has sold well over one hundred thousand copies, according to Battlefront. That provides enough revenue to fund a six-person development team and at least $2 million in costs for the modern warfare version of Combat Mission." I've often wondered how many copies of CM where sold and what sort of budget BFC work to. Interesting figures if these figures are true. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salkin Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 "Well over one hundres thousand copies...." Hmm...I hope that's alot. I guess it's all about the expenses that Battlefront has. From what it seems, they didn't use that many resouces for the early Combat Mission games. Well I hope Steve and everyone have been getting enough money over too justify the extreme time sacrifice they have made to their families... //Salkin [ June 23, 2007, 05:56 AM: Message edited by: Salkin ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panzermartin Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 2 million bucks for CMSF?? I always thought it to be significantly lower. That music composer is damn expensive 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klavan Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Originally posted by Cpl Steiner: That provides enough revenue to fund a six-person development team and at least $2 million in costs for the modern warfare version of Combat Mission." I'm happy for BFC. It's hard today to make enough money with this kind of games, I know at least one other famous independent amazing-games-develop company who is on the edge of bankrupt. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt Joch Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 100,000 is good for a wargame, especially for CMBO, CMBB, CMAK which only appealed to the niche wargamer market since they were mostly only marketed online and did not have flashy graphics, parts of it, I presume the impressive flamethrower graphics, were based on DX 5! :eek: At an average of $ 40 a pop, that would be $ 4 million, so the $ 2 million is not out of line and includes, I presume, salaries for the BFC team who still had to pay for rent, groceries (and Steve's camo uniform fetish ) over the past 4 years. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Let's hope word gets out to the wider world when the much prettier realtime-play CMSF arrives. This could definitely be their break-out game. Heck, how many copies could they sell just to soldier/ex-soldiers of Stryker Bigades?! Hope it sells like gang-busters. Charles definitely needs a new gold-plated Cadillac. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixxkiller Posted June 23, 2007 Share Posted June 23, 2007 Also remember guys the length of development time for CM games. Then Paradox will get a portion, the Gov-ment, the bling they must give thier wives for thier continued absence at bedtime, the new gadgets they must get to capture animations, Matts Rhinoplasty (He likes em big), Beer money, cost of the Servers and bandwith, Steve's obsession with depleted Pez-ranium dispensers, elicense fees, the packaging, payments to the Bush administration to actually start a war in Syria in 2008 and you have dwindled down that $4 mil. Plus this will do far better than 100k in sales. And if they have $4 mil after this, I am hoping they port it to the consoles so that can make 30 times what they will in PC's. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt. Toleran Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 Yes, I'm thinking maybe some govt training budgets might help cover that $2MM cost. Military academy licensing, foreign govts. (a la Tac Ops and Canada), they must have something figured out, as yes, 100k users does seem pretty high for such a niche title. Also, maybe a big chunk of that 2 mil covers future titles, since multiple titles can now be developed on the CMx2 platform. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartleby Posted June 24, 2007 Share Posted June 24, 2007 To be honest, $2 million isn't that much these days. A company like id or Bioware could easily spend over $50 million on a single title and then discard the engine. Admittedly, they would make a lot by licensing the technology as well. Also remember that BF is going to be able to use this for a fairly long time - it's going to cost less to develop expansions and new titles with the same engine. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dook Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Allegedly is the right word for the "article" cited above. I searched for such an article in the Washington Post going back 5 years and found nothing. That doesn't mean the figures are wrong, but I don't know where they came from. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartleby Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Originally posted by Dook: Allegedly is the right word for the "article" cited above. I searched for such an article in the Washington Post going back 5 years and found nothing. That doesn't mean the figures are wrong, but I don't know where they came from. Ah, google turned up this for the source. Not sure where he got his figures, but eh. http://www.armchairgeneral.com/articles.php?page=1&p=2958&page=2 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Well, we didn't come up with that cost figure Our biggest expense for CM:SF is general hours consumed by us over 3 years. Figure 3 people full time for the whole time, several people full time for part of the time. We also had a larger than normal number of contractors on the game since it was too big and complex for us to handle ourselves. Music, animations, artwork, box art, etc. all add up. Then you have to consider the fact that there is the risk:reward equation and that Charles and I are not only the game makers but the company owners. And of course there is the cost of the physical product, advertising, marketing, fees for sales, website stuff, etc. What does this all add up to? I haven't a clue. Is it a rather large number? Yup. Is it surprising to us, even, how much it costs to make a game even for dedicated independents like us? YUP! No wonder other titles are costing upwards of $20,000,000 a pop! BTW, the 100,000 units sold thing is quite low if all CMx1 games are factored in together. Remember we've had large amounts of retail coverage pretty much world wide since 2000. I'd guess the total numbers to be in the 300,000 range. Shame we don't get $45 a pop for the retail sales However, you should be thankful. Because if we did, there would be no CMx2 because I'd be retired already Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Alright guys, HOLD YOUR HORSES! Don't buy CMSF, or Steve retires and then we won't get a new WW2 game! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flammenwerfer Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Steve's wifey, wont let him retire 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salkin Posted June 26, 2007 Share Posted June 26, 2007 Glad to hear you guys are selling a copy here and there . //Salkin 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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