7 ms·

I'd be fascinated to see what they spent 260 million dollars on producing this. I'm sure their graphics engine is pretty amazing, but it's not like they revolu

by gph 13y ago

I'd be fascinated to see what they spent 260 million dollars on producing this. I'm sure their graphics engine is pretty amazing, but it's not like they revolutionized anything that I'm aware of. Where did that money go?

ErrantX 13y ago
Okay, so a LOT went into marketing. But there is a significant development budget too... I was astounded as well, until I played it. The graphics are, as you say, very good. But what the money has clearly gone into is the production value. Cut scenes, animation, map, all of it is very high quality. That's pretty revolutionary attention to detail - especially over such a large map.
jamesaguilar 13y ago
The development costs went mostly to content. (Like most games, GTA5 is not unique in this.) There was also a lot of advertising.
- ender7 13y ago
  Advertising is not usually included in development costs; the total expense was probably higher.
  - jamesaguilar 13y ago
    Well, in this case, it's been published that the 250 million included the advertising, as you can read from several other comments in this thread.
stinky613 13y ago
I was under the impression that a third of that figure was spent on marketing
ape4 13y ago
We all know software is something that doesn't necessary get better the more people you throw at it.
- acgourley 13y ago
  RIght but as jamesaguilar above said, content does. I imagine it's linear, as the increasing marginal communication cost of a large team is probably canceled out by increasing efficiency of toolchain and reuse of sub-components.
  - klausa 13y ago
    See, this comment is exactly what I think is wrong with programmers in general. We all spend much of our time learning all the nooks and crannies of software engineering and then we think we've reached some kind of enlightenment and that we all are unique snowflakes. Seeing programming, which often is named as 'creative work' described as something that's harder to distribute among many people than crating an entire fucking island from scratch is just downright ridiculous. Yes, programming is hard. Crating entire fucking worlds from scratch is even harder.
    - acgourley 13y ago
      It's not a matter of "hardness" it's a matter of system interconnectedness. 10 programmers working for 10 hours creates far less value than 1 programmer working for 100, because the whole system is interconnected and they need to spend a lot of time making sure their parts line up with the rest. 10 artist working for 10 hours might be worth close to 1 artist working for 100 hours If the work is "make an area with trees, roads, and wildlife" There are bits on the island that need to connect, like the literal roads. Conceptually the mission content needs to line up with the graphical content. But it's not as interconnected as a chunk of software is, and the marginal returns don't decrease as fast.
      - wonnage 13y ago
        Pretty sure you're just making shit up at this point.
ethana 13y ago
Actually, 115M was spent on development. 155M+ was spent on marketing. link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-auto-v-is-the-most-expensive-game-ever-and-it-s-almost-obsolete http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-...
- Keyframe 13y ago
  Sounds about right. 200+ people for 4-5 years, pretty much all highly specialized + all other expenses.
qqg3 13y ago
That includes a massive marketing budget.
ollyculverhouse 13y ago
As others have mentioned, 50% of it is marketing. I am curious though, have you played it? The reason I ask is if you have, it may be fairly obvious where the money has been spent.
jlgreco 13y ago
Besides a massive marketing budget (which obviously paid off), I have to imagine it took a small army of modellers and artists to actually make that game world. From what I have seen it blows other 'large world' games out of the water. Much smaller than Just Cause 2's for instance, but in another fucking solar system in terms of detail and limited repetition.
- gnarbarian 13y ago
  Not only that. Many cars have unique customizations like roof racks, nerf bars, bumpers etc.
sliverstorm 13y ago
Perhaps they needed to do some "applied research" to make the game more realistic? You know, like method acting except for developers?
rorrr2 13y ago
* Programming (all kinds - from model behavior to game logic to AI to net code, backend, etc) * 3D Modeling * Texturing * Art * Scripts (as in narrative) * Music and sound effects * Voice recording by professional actors * Motion capture of actors * QA * Sys admins * Product and project managers * All kinds of executives got paid a shit ton for making decisions * Equipment for all of the above * Software licenses * Advertising * Packaging
- awwstn 13y ago
  $115m to develop the game, $150 million to market it. [1] [1]http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-auto-v-is-the-most-expensive-game-ever-and-it-s-almost-obsolete http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-...
  - eliben 13y ago
    This makes me sad.
    - canttestthis 13y ago
      It shouldn't. Clearly their strategy works.
      - eliben 13y ago
        It makes me sad as a developer, because it implies that marketing is more important than the development effort. It's where the money is, right?
        KaoruAoiShiho 13y ago
        To me this says systems for quantizing game quality needs to catch up to marketing. There will be more money flowing into top quality developers if the quality of development can be measured as ROI. It seems like a hard problem to me.
habosa 13y ago
I have the game and the complexity is amazing. It's really like a dozen video games in one. The cars and driving alone could be a $60 title. Add a world-class third-person shooter, the biggest map ever, hundreds of characters, thousands (millions?) of items, and you can see where the cost starts to build up. Then consider that each mini game, while built on the same graphics engine, requires a ton of custom logic and visual work. There's tennis, biking, stock trading, you name it. Then of course you have a sizeable marketing budget ... suddenly $260M seems OK.
SwellJoe 13y ago
Flip flops: http://i.minus.com/iMwZko1Cpcro4.gif http://i.minus.com/iMwZko1Cpcro4.gif

by gph 13y ago

ErrantX 13y ago

Okay, so a LOT went into marketing. But there is a significant development budget too... I was astounded as well, until I played it. The graphics are, as you say, very good. But what the money has clearly gone into is the production value. Cut scenes, animation, map, all of it is very high quality. That's pretty revolutionary attention to detail - especially over such a large map.

jamesaguilar 13y ago

The development costs went mostly to content. (Like most games, GTA5 is not unique in this.) There was also a lot of advertising.

ender7 13y ago
Advertising is not usually included in development costs; the total expense was probably higher.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  Well, in this case, it's been published that the 250 million included the advertising, as you can read from several other comments in this thread.

stinky613 13y ago

I was under the impression that a third of that figure was spent on marketing

ape4 13y ago

We all know software is something that doesn't necessary get better the more people you throw at it.

acgourley 13y ago
RIght but as jamesaguilar above said, content does. I imagine it's linear, as the increasing marginal communication cost of a large team is probably canceled out by increasing efficiency of toolchain and reuse of sub-components.
- klausa 13y ago
  See, this comment is exactly what I think is wrong with programmers in general. We all spend much of our time learning all the nooks and crannies of software engineering and then we think we've reached some kind of enlightenment and that we all are unique snowflakes. Seeing programming, which often is named as 'creative work' described as something that's harder to distribute among many people than crating an entire fucking island from scratch is just downright ridiculous. Yes, programming is hard. Crating entire fucking worlds from scratch is even harder.
  - acgourley 13y ago
    It's not a matter of "hardness" it's a matter of system interconnectedness. 10 programmers working for 10 hours creates far less value than 1 programmer working for 100, because the whole system is interconnected and they need to spend a lot of time making sure their parts line up with the rest. 10 artist working for 10 hours might be worth close to 1 artist working for 100 hours If the work is "make an area with trees, roads, and wildlife" There are bits on the island that need to connect, like the literal roads. Conceptually the mission content needs to line up with the graphical content. But it's not as interconnected as a chunk of software is, and the marginal returns don't decrease as fast.
    - wonnage 13y ago
      Pretty sure you're just making shit up at this point.

ethana 13y ago

Actually, 115M was spent on development. 155M+ was spent on marketing. link: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-auto-v-is-the-most-expensive-game-ever-and-it-s-almost-obsolete http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-...

Keyframe 13y ago
Sounds about right. 200+ people for 4-5 years, pretty much all highly specialized + all other expenses.

qqg3 13y ago

That includes a massive marketing budget.

ollyculverhouse 13y ago

As others have mentioned, 50% of it is marketing. I am curious though, have you played it? The reason I ask is if you have, it may be fairly obvious where the money has been spent.

jlgreco 13y ago

Besides a massive marketing budget (which obviously paid off), I have to imagine it took a small army of modellers and artists to actually make that game world. From what I have seen it blows other 'large world' games out of the water. Much smaller than Just Cause 2's for instance, but in another fucking solar system in terms of detail and limited repetition.

gnarbarian 13y ago
Not only that. Many cars have unique customizations like roof racks, nerf bars, bumpers etc.

sliverstorm 13y ago

Perhaps they needed to do some "applied research" to make the game more realistic? You know, like method acting except for developers?

rorrr2 13y ago

* Programming (all kinds - from model behavior to game logic to AI to net code, backend, etc) * 3D Modeling * Texturing * Art * Scripts (as in narrative) * Music and sound effects * Voice recording by professional actors * Motion capture of actors * QA * Sys admins * Product and project managers * All kinds of executives got paid a shit ton for making decisions * Equipment for all of the above * Software licenses * Advertising * Packaging

awwstn 13y ago
$115m to develop the game, $150 million to market it. [1] [1]http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-auto-v-is-the-most-expensive-game-ever-and-it-s-almost-obsolete http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-18/grand-theft-...
- eliben 13y ago
  This makes me sad.
  - canttestthis 13y ago
    It shouldn't. Clearly their strategy works.
    - eliben 13y ago
      It makes me sad as a developer, because it implies that marketing is more important than the development effort. It's where the money is, right?
      - KaoruAoiShiho 13y ago
        To me this says systems for quantizing game quality needs to catch up to marketing. There will be more money flowing into top quality developers if the quality of development can be measured as ROI. It seems like a hard problem to me.

habosa 13y ago

I have the game and the complexity is amazing. It's really like a dozen video games in one. The cars and driving alone could be a $60 title. Add a world-class third-person shooter, the biggest map ever, hundreds of characters, thousands (millions?) of items, and you can see where the cost starts to build up. Then consider that each mini game, while built on the same graphics engine, requires a ton of custom logic and visual work. There's tennis, biking, stock trading, you name it. Then of course you have a sizeable marketing budget ... suddenly $260M seems OK.

SwellJoe 13y ago

Flip flops: http://i.minus.com/iMwZko1Cpcro4.gif http://i.minus.com/iMwZko1Cpcro4.gif