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Forspoken reportedly cost $100 million to make

M1987

Member
P
A 4K PS3 game.
giphy.gif
Parts of it looks like a switch game
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Goes to show you that my estimate of 200M dev cost or more is probably accurate for GoW

SlimySnake SlimySnake
This game has been in development since 2016. Took over 6 years. GOW took 4.5 years.

Both teams are roughly the same size. Japan vs LA costs difference is likely large enough so we can write off the extra 1.5 years dev time of this game. They are likely both $100 million games.
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
This is why the industry is fucked. A AAA new IP costs too much and doesn't recoup costs, then publishers want to rely on 'safe bet' sequels and remakes/ remasters.

Also, how about make it multiplatform?

It is multiplatform. And I would bet Sony spent more on it than the game would’ve made on Xbox.

Financial failures are part of any industry. A lot of movies don’t make money.

But this project was clearly ill conceived and there wasn’t a hook or a look that managed to grab the attention of its target audience.
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Not sure how that thing cost $100 million to make. Over bloated and bad financial management is my guess.
Was it developed in Japan? That country along Korea is a prime example of useless manhours and endless pointless processes at all levels in the organisation.
 

Moochi

Member
When you hire a ton of untalented people based on their identity politics, you waste more than money. Each additional hire is a monkey wrench into the machine. You try to fix it by adding more hires throwing more money at it, but you make the problem worse. There's no way to manage teams bigger than 50 people. Contracting work that only requires clearly defined deliverables is different. You have to make sure everyone loves what they're doing and they're motivated and they're on the same page and anything else is poison.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
It is multiplatform. And I would bet Sony spent more on it than the game would’ve made on Xbox.

Financial failures are part of any industry. A lot of movies don’t make money.

But this project was clearly ill conceived and there wasn’t a hook or a look that managed to grab the attention of its target audience.
On Xbox in a year or two....that doesn't count. If it was on both at launch it might have made it's money back. Fuck Square and their timed exclusivity. Bet they didn't get enough money from Sony for that exclusivity to cover that loss.
 
This game has been in development since 2016. Took over 6 years. GOW took 4.5 years.

Both teams are roughly the same size. Japan vs LA costs difference is likely large enough so we can write off the extra 1.5 years dev time of this game. They are likely both $100 million games.

Both teams are not the same size. And they did a ton of patches to FFXV, so it did not start immediately in 2016
 

Thirty7ven

Banned
On Xbox in a year or two....that doesn't count. If it was on both at launch it might have made it's money back. Fuck Square and their timed exclusivity. Bet they didn't get enough money from Sony for that exclusivity to cover that loss.

You’re just making a theory to support your idea, but it’s not based on any facts. You seem to be under the impression that games are selling like gangbusters on Xbox, and that somehow Xbox would’ve turned this game’s fate.

PC and PS5 = multiplatform.
 
On Xbox in a year or two....that doesn't count. If it was on both at launch it might have made it's money back. Fuck Square and their timed exclusivity. Bet they didn't get enough money from Sony for that exclusivity to cover that loss.
Doesn't matter what platform the game is on, exclusive , part time exclusive or whatever. The bottom line is that this game is doo doo from head to toe.
 
Square Enix keeps making stupid decisions. Now we get to wait for NFT games. Great. And FF16 won't perform as well as square thinks. I don't feel any hype from that game.
 

Aaron Olive

Member
100 million....for that garbage heap?
How? Where did the money go to? The tech is mid-last gen standard, there are no expensive celebritiy faces or anything....how do you burn 100 million on something like this?
50 million development
50 million marketing/manufacturing.
 

Kvally

Banned
Of all the people on here calling Forspoken a dumpster fire, what percentage of those players actually played it?
 
Of all the people on here calling Forspoken a dumpster fire, what percentage of those players actually played it?
There was a demo dude, it was enough for people try out and see it being a poop. Even when the game had its first actual gameplay video demo and screenshots many were already skeptical about it from the start. Red flags were there from the start.

I wanted to like the game when it was revealed initially at PS5 Showcase back when it was "Project Athia" because I believed that overtime it would improve the optimization and the engine smoothness overtime. However, that was clearly, not the case. The game looks like high end PS3 title and is being sold as PS5 next gen/current gen only. No thanks. I'd understand, if it was crossgen, but it wasn't even that.
 
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Gaiff

Member
Goes to show you that my estimate of 200M dev cost or more is probably accurate for GoW

SlimySnake SlimySnake
But it's the exact opposite? That's another AAA game in the $100M range so 200M sounds even more improbable now.

Both teams are not the same size. And they did a ton of patches to FFXV, so it did not start immediately in 2016

The whole team doesn't work on patches. Some members are moved to pre-production on the next project before others. A writer for instance wouldn't be involved in patches at all.
 
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Aaron Olive

Member
They could’ve saved face by delaying it to August, port the game to unreal 5, fix the fade to black cutscenes, re-record some of the dialogue instead of FUCK, FUCKING, FUCKER, FUCK with my mind and made her empathetic towards children.

All for the price of $59.99 & $69.99 Deluxe.
 
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D23

Member
i thought it was a solid 8 and love the combat with all the special powers at your disposal. everyone hating on this thread, how many of y'all actually play it?
 
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Doesn't bode well that a game with AA PS3/PS4 feel about it costs $100m. Even with 2-3 years of the current cost rises/pandemic I'm struggling to see how so much could be spent. I hope it was a lavish misjudgment and they somehow got forced into paying a premium and more for the work.

I'd have more faith in AI doing a better job, I think that's where we're headed. $100m is terrifying.
 

Aaron Olive

Member
i thought it was a solid 8 and love the combat with all the special powers at your disposal. everyone hating on this thread, how many of y'all actually play it?
The powers might be cool and particles but that’s it

1. controls awful
2. Story awful
3. Graphic’s… what graphics?
4. Dialogue…. Fuck!!!
5. Level design….awful red sky here with canyons, green sky there.
6. Character designs awful
 

Denton

Member
Square lost around 100 million on Avengers and now probably around 70 or so on Forspoken. How is this company even in business still.
 

Gaiff

Member
These weren’t minor patches
Doesn't matter. The entire team doesn't work on patches. Once the game is finished and even before, a large chunk of the team is moved to other projects. You don't need voice actors, artists, and whatnot for patches. This is mostly the work of the engineering team and other software devs.
 
Doesn't matter. The entire team doesn't work on patches. Once the game is finished and even before, a large chunk of the team is moved to other projects. You don't need voice actors, artists, and whatnot for patches. This is mostly the work of the engineering team and other software devs.

Agreed, entire team doesn’t

But unlike GoW2018, a much larger portion of the team was

Iirc, ffxv had new cutscenes and stuff added in these patches

I doubt forespoen really started dev until 2018 in earnest
 
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adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Square lost around 100 million on Avengers and now probably around 70 or so on Forspoken. How is this company even in business still.

Marketing deals and co-development on big exclusives like FF16 and FFVIIR-2.
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
Square lost around 100 million on Avengers and now probably around 70 or so on Forspoken. How is this company even in business still.
Never underestimate any large company ability to absolutely suck and yet carry on. The world is filled with these, the number of business inefficiencies in every possible area of activity is staggering and will forever be so.
 

fermcr

Member
Why so many people surprised? Most AAA games nowadays cost $100+ million to make.

A game developer's average wage year is $100k. Luminous Productions (Forspoken developer) has 150 employees (or more)... 5-6 years development...
100k x 150 x 5 = $75 million + extra costs like hired actors, motion capture, external freelance work, etc... --> $100+ million.
 
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Chukhopops

Member
Sony’s plans to make Square Enix flop with exclusive projects is 4D chess. They’ll buy S-E when they’re on their knees 😂
Well that worked with Housemarque, I’m starting to see a pattern here.

I guess it’s either Square Enix or the teenage dinosaur dating game developer.
 

A.Romero

Member
I haven't played it and I have almost zero desire to do so. Even if it was on gamepass I'd think twice about compromising disk space for it.

They messed up and I'm sorry they wasted so much money in such a thing. I have 0 problem with the character being a woman or the dialogs she seems to have. It's just not an enticing game from any perspective. Every time I have seen a video or gif of the game instead of wanting to play it I just get an Infamous itch. That's it.

This is coming from a huge of single player story oriented games. This should be my jam. For some reason it is not.
 
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