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[rhodesianshepard]

Why would you critique something about a situation you know nothing about.

Elder Scroll 6 in 2030 is very likely. What's wrong with that? Games take time to develop, it's not the 360 era anymore.
No way TES6 is releasing on PS5 and Xbox Series X (or just Series X). Bethesda likes to release their games when the install base is already there, usually mid gen.

Do you see Rockstar releasing a lot of games these days?

I have no problem with long development times as long as the game lives up to the hype. Rockstar Games have yet to disappoint. For that matter, neither has Bethesda, but the high expectations are more than fair for Starfield, just as they were for Cyberpunk2077 or TOTK

 

[kiphalfton]

Wow, that kind of money could buy me a ton of boxed lunches.

If by boxed lunches you mean high profile escorts, then totally.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Just buy an Xbox, or play it on the bad-ass gaming rig every Pony claims to own.

Nobody cares about the FUD, and GAF is going to be a little dead tomorrow as we're all going to be playing the game.

 

[yurinka]

This information comes from a LinkedIn post by David Reitman, a well-reputed industry insider, and a former Accenture employee. David, while speaking to his followers, creates awareness of the enormity of Starfield and what type of a blockbuster project we have on the cards right now. Starfield is Bethesda’s latest, most ambitious project to date, so it’s no wonder that the studio would spend exorbitantly on it to realize its vision.

To put things into perspective, Red Dead Redemption 2, easily one of Rockstar Games’ best works up until now, has been developed with a budget that falls within the range of $170 million. And we all know the scale at which Red Dead 2 operates—the level of immersion exhibited by the Western action-adventure shooter is simply second to none, being the sequel to the first Red Dead Redemption.

It’s unclear as of yet how much Starfield will cost in total with all other parameters combined, but speculation says that the final figure should be somewhere around $300-400 million, considering the stature of the title at hand and the amount of time it’s been under development. Moreover, if the 500-member development team part is correct, costs are certain to be quite higher than $200 million.

Starfield Reportedly Had A Budget Of $200 Million And A 500-Member Dev Team

As per a credible industry person, Starfield had a budget of over $200 million, and a development team spanning 500 members.

exputer.com

This random guy who calls himsellf a 'Games Industry Leader" has no idea about the game budget. He mentions 500 people worked in the game, which doesn't make sense at all because the AAA games of that size normally has over 2000 or 3000 people listed in the game credits.

This guy, lilke many people in this thread doesn't know that the devs in the lead studio of a AAA game normally are only around 10% of the total amount of people who works on a game, being the majority from support/oursourcing studios.

Also, to estimate a $170M budget for RDR2 is a bad joke. It must have cost over twice than this.

 

[MMaRsu]

This random guy who calls himsellf a 'Games Industry Leader" has no idea about the game budget. He mentions 500 people worked in the game, which doesn't make sense at all because the AAA games of that size normally has over 2000 or 3000 people listed in the game credits.

This guy, lilke many people in this thread doesn't know that the devs in the lead studio of a AAA game normally are only around 10% of the total amount of people who works on a game, being the majority from support/oursourcing studios.

BGS has a small team compared to other major developers.

Here are the credits for Fallout 4:

https://www.igdb.com/games/fallout-4/credits

A lot of them have worked within the company since Oblivion and Morrowind. Which is why their team is still quite small scaled, they have a steady team of people who know how to make a BGS game.

 

[Ulysses 31]

Don't be surprised if they'll break even within the week.

 

[KrazyKrelian]

Just buy an Xbox, or play it on the bad-ass gaming rig every Pony claims to own.

Nobody cares about the FUD, and GAF is going to be a little dead tomorrow as we're all going to be playing the game.

Everyone already knows the most prolific posters on GAF hardly ever actually play games

 

[yurinka]

BGS has a small team compared to other major developers.

Here are the credits for Fallout 4:

https://www.igdb.com/games/fallout-4/credits

A lot of them have worked within the company since Oblivion and Morrowind. Which is why their team is still quite small scaled, they have a steady team of people who know how to make a BGS game.

Fallout 4 had 1,407 people listed in the game credits, which is huge for a game released in 2015. Fallout 76 had 1,776 people listed in the credits. No, they are not a small team compared to other major developers.

And no, Starfield wasn't made by a third of the amount of people who worked on Fallout 4. The opposite, there will be way more people working on Starfield than it did in Fallout 4.

I suggest you to use mobygames.com to check out the credits of the games, they mention there the amount of people listed for every game.

 

[MMaRsu]

Fallout 4 had 1,407 people listed in the game credits, which is huge for a game released in 2015. Fallout 76 had 1,776 people listed in the credits. No, they are not a small team compared to other major developers.

And no, Starfield wasn't made by a third of the amount of people who worked on Fallout 4. The opposite, there will be way more people working on Starfield than it did in Fallout 4.

I suggest you to use mobygames.com to check out the credits of the games, they mention there the amount of people listed for every game.

I mean are we taking into calculation pr people and qa as well or just devs?

Either way, 2000 is a small number compared to what other studios like Ubisoft are doing

 

[salva]

Hope my $1 Gold to GamePass Ultimate upgrade helps them recover

 

[adamsapple]

If by boxed lunches you mean high profile escorts, then totally.

Yes, boxed lunch

 

[Destruction-1002]

Why would you critique something about a situation you know nothing about.

Elder Scroll 6 in 2030 is very likely. What's wrong with that? Games take time to develop, it's not the 360 era anymore.
No way TES6 is releasing on PS5 and Xbox Series X (or just Series X). Bethesda likes to release their games when the install base is already there, usually mid gen.

Do you see Rockstar releasing a lot of games these days?

Rockstar only cares about their GTA Online

GTA 6 rumoured for a 2017 release

GTA 5 was released on September 17, 2013 GTA 6 in 2017 According to rumours, the sixth installment of the Grand Theft Auto series will release i .

www.sportskeeda.com

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/04/16/grand-theft-auto-6-release-date-2020/

There were rumors about GTA 6 releasing in 2017, then in 2020 which happen to be fake.

Its been 10 years since GTA 5 came out and still played like if came out 3 years ago

 

[DeepEnigma]

Baldurs Gate 3 just came out. Don't tell me you actually think AAA games are made in months? Starfield was already playable from start to finish last year.

 

[yurinka]

I mean are we taking into calculation pr people and qa as well or just devs?

They are people who work in these development studios and games, I don't see why we shouldn't count them.

Either way, 2000 is a small number compared to what other studios like Ubisoft are doing

It depends on the game and depends on the year. You did use a 2015 game as example. These are some of the games released by Ubisoft that year:

AC Syndicate 3,746 people
R6 Siege 2,586 people
Might & Magic Heroes VII 1,017 people
Just Dance 2016 901 people
AC Chronicles China 674 people
Anno 2205 658 people
Grow Home 25 people

Also, Ubisoft is a rare case where they list in their credits absolutely everyone who worked in the game, including all the people from external outsourcing studios, localization companies etc.

Something that many other studios don't do since ofthen they only credit maybe only the name of these externall companies or a handful bosses of these companies.

 

[MMaRsu]

Rockstar only cares about their GTA Online

GTA 6 rumoured for a 2017 release

GTA 5 was released on September 17, 2013 GTA 6 in 2017 According to rumours, the sixth installment of the Grand Theft Auto series will release i .

www.sportskeeda.com

https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/04/16/grand-theft-auto-6-release-date-2020/

There were rumors about GTA 6 releasing in 2017, then in 2020 which happen to be fake.

Its been 10 years since GTA 5 came out and still played like if came out 3 years ago

Rockstar had been developing RDR2 all hands on. Gta dev was started after that.

People really need to stop crying about gta online.

 

[Reallink]

It was made up by Xbox Dynasty and denied by @Stinkles from 343i.

750+ employees + Redmond Washington + 6-7 years of earnest active development = wasn't anything made up. Infinite cost an absolute fortune. It's ultimately immaterial whether it was $400 million, $450 million, or $500 million.

This random guy who calls himsellf a 'Games Industry Leader" has no idea about the game budget. He mentions 500 people worked in the game, which doesn't make sense at all because the AAA games of that size normally has over 2000 or 3000 people listed in the game credits.

This guy, lilke many people in this thread doesn't know that the devs in the lead studio of a AAA game normally are only around 10% of the total amount of people who works on a game, being the majority from support/oursourcing studios.

Also, to estimate a $170M budget for RDR2 is a bad joke. It must have cost over twice than this.

90% of the names in AAA credits are from Chinese and Korean asset farms, who earn a penny for every dollar the studio proper pays their coastal US employees. In other words, 90% of the cost is in the "500 employees", not the 3000 names in the credits. The averaged cost per head in a coastal US city after employer taxes, benefits, and other compensation is at least $150,000.

 

[Destruction-1002]

Rockstar had been developing RDR2 all hands on. Gta dev was started after that.

People really need to stop crying about gta online.

You must be delusional if you think GTA Online had nothing to do about it

GTA V Downloadable Content (GTA Online DLC)

Rockstar's commitment to free DLC has been key to GTA Online's longevity.

www.gtaboom.com

 

[Grildon Tundy]

Fallout 76 had 1,776 people listed in the credits.

1776: the year America was born, and it ties into Fallout 76's theming.

Having that exact number of people in the credits makes me hope they saw the opportunity and hired or fired people just to make it happen.

 

[lh032]

these AAA budget are ballooning like crazy, ngl im quite worry about AAA games in the future.


AAA games development is almost impossible by independent studio without backing from the publisher.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

Fallout 4 had 1,407 people listed in the game credits, which is huge for a game released in 2015. Fallout 76 had 1,776 people listed in the credits. No, they are not a small team compared to other major developers.

And no, Starfield wasn't made by a third of the amount of people who worked on Fallout 4. The opposite, there will be way more people working on Starfield than it did in Fallout 4.

I suggest you to use mobygames.com to check out the credits of the games, they mention there the amount of people listed for every game.

Fallout 4 only had 100 developers from Bethesda. "Much of the talk was a victory lap for Fallout 4, which had a team of 100 people and was in the works for four years, following the debut of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim role-playing game in 2011".

500 Bethesda employees working on Starfield is quite high. Very few studios have that many developers working on 1 game. 100-250 is pretty typical for most AAA releases. Starfield is similar in developer count to Cyberpunk2077

https://venturebeat.com/games/after-fallout-4-bethesda-is-working-on-3-new-games/#:~:text=Holmes asked Howard again.,role-playing game in 2011.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

I honestly don’t see how they can make profit off of Starfield if it really cost that much to develop, especially with Gamepass around which I feel many people will use that to play it.

 

[ManaByte]

I honestly don’t see how they can make profit off of Starfield if it really cost that much to develop, especially with Gamepass around which I feel many people will use that to play it.

It’s the #1 seller on Steam

 

[StereoVsn]

Why would you critique something about a situation you know nothing about.

Elder Scroll 6 in 2030 is very likely. What's wrong with that? Games take time to develop, it's not the 360 era anymore.
No way TES6 is releasing on PS5 and Xbox Series X (or just Series X). Bethesda likes to release their games when the install base is already there, usually mid gen.

Do you see Rockstar releasing a lot of games these days?

Best time to release would be around late '27 or early to mid '28, basically right before next gen hardware releases.

Then you produce next gen "remaster" for full price in a year or two for both console and PC!

 

[Arsic]

If this isn’t a commercial success holy shit for Xbox future lol.

That kind of investment needs to net universal praise and have a giant attach ratio.

 

[lh032]

It’s the #1 seller on Steam

so the majority of sales only comes from 1 platform.

 

[MarkMe2525]

I quit reading at "Speculation suggest that.....". To be fair, that was pretty far in

 

[German Hops]

If by boxed lunches you mean high profile escorts, then totally.

I like your style.

 

[AJUMP23]

Should be good with that money. Or at least look good.

 

[Perrott]

Red Dead Redemption 2, easily one of Rockstar Games’ best works up until now, has been developed with a budget that falls within the range of $170 million.

This is far from accurate. For reference, only the development costs for both The Last Of Us Part II and Horizon: Forbidden West amount to slightly than 200M dollars, with likely 100 to 150M worth of marketing on top of that.

Red Dead Redemption 2's development and marketing spending was in the 600 to 800M dollars range.

 

[Flabagast]

I can’t imagine that someone can be stupid enough to sincerely believe Starlfield had a higher budget that RDR2 lmao.

 

[ByWatterson]

Steam sales alone will cover the budget for game development.

Okay, so.....they DO need actual game sales to make AAA budgets doable? Which means game subs and AAA are basically incompatible the moment subs become the dominant form of consumption?

 

[Kakax11]

Chris Roberts just entered the chat with his yacht

 

[adamsapple]

Okay, so.....they DO need actual game sales to make AAA budgets doable? Which means game subs and AAA are basically incompatible the moment subs become the dominant form of consumption?

Don't think that was O Ozriel 's point, if I assumed it correctly. They meant that this budget will be covered just by the sheer steam sales alone. Anything else like Xbox sales or recurring game pass fees will be on top of that.

 

[twilo99]

Hope my $1 Gold to GamePass Ultimate upgrade helps them recover

MS rewards points are the best way to thank the team

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Everyone already knows the most prolific posters on GAF hardly ever actually play games

Who has time to play games, when you can't think straight because of the "concerns" you have for the future of a multi billion corporation?

 

[twilo99]

They had trans people thought. Cost more.

Never thought about that.. also, what if you ID as 3 humans, do you get 3 salaries?

 

[TonyK]

$170 millions for Red Dead 2?? That would have been a miracle. It cost way more.

 

[vkbest]

I guess they spent that much to try to keep up with the unrealistic expectations that Baldur's Gate 3 inflicted on the RPG industry.

Sure they spent $200M extra in those two months from BG3 between was an early access game to the success its now.

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Cor blimey. Star Citizen must be right round the corner.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Seems low at 200 million when last of us 2 was more than that.

 

[Mobilemofo]

What was the face budget? £200 quid?

 

[Negotiator101]

It better be good then.
Final 24.

It will be glorious.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Obviously the scale of this game is what makes it impressive and the scope is what the money went on.

I just find it a shame that other areas such as facial animation, Ai etc (based on what others have said) just feel off now compared to other games.

I wonder if we’ll ever get a game of a similar scale that invests that time and money into making the interactions feel better.

 

[MMaRsu]

You must be delusional if you think GTA Online had nothing to do about it

GTA V Downloadable Content (GTA Online DLC)

Rockstar's commitment to free DLC has been key to GTA Online's longevity.

www.gtaboom.com

I honestly don't care though so... Rockstar is free to do whatever they want.
If people stopped playing, maybe we would have seen a new GTA quicker.

But people keep playing, so.... blame them I suppose?

 

[Negotiator101]

Fallout 4 had 1,407 people listed in the game credits, which is huge for a game released in 2015. Fallout 76 had 1,776 people listed in the credits. No, they are not a small team compared to other major developers.

And no, Starfield wasn't made by a third of the amount of people who worked on Fallout 4. The opposite, there will be way more people working on Starfield than it did in Fallout 4.

I suggest you to use mobygames.com to check out the credits of the games, they mention there the amount of people listed for every game.

What's the actual studio size though?

 

[Montauk]

It's been in full production for 8 years. It would be such a let down if this game isn't revolutionary

AAA games are hard and complicated to make. In the AAA category they take a long time to make. That’s even if the development goes smoothly - if it doesn’t then it can take much longer.

Their development time scales have been getting longer or they have been requiring much bigger teams to cut down the dev time needed.

It’s a classic mistake in gaming to assume or worse demand that a game be utterly extraordinary or “revolutionary” because it has been in development for a long time.

Sadly, you don’t just get more revolutionary the longer you spend in development. Just hope you get a good game with scale/production values that line up with the budget.

Anything beyond that will be a blessing.

 

[SF Kosmo]

What the article says is not what the thread title says. The article is simply estimating the budget at $200-400 million based on the available data. It's making no claims about what Bethesda's "original" budget was.

 

[rhodesianshepard]

AAA games are hard and complicated to make. In the AAA category they take a long time to make. That’s even if the development goes smoothly - if it doesn’t then it can take much longer.

Their development time scales have been getting longer or they have been requiring much bigger teams to cut down the dev time needed.

It’s a classic mistake in gaming to assume or worse demand that a game be utterly extraordinary or “revolutionary” because it has been in development for a long time.

Sadly, you don’t just get more revolutionary the longer you spend in development. Just hope you get a good game with scale/production values that line up with the budget.

Anything beyond that will be a blessing.

The term revolutionary probably sets unfair expectations, but man, Bethesda created its own hype machine for 5+ years with Starfield. Outside of GTA 6 and Cyberpunk, I don't think there has been a more hyped game in the past decade, and a lot of that was the studios doing

Also, I don't think there has ever been word that Starfield development went through rough patches or delays. I don't blame fans for expecting something really special after 8 years of development from a studio that is as beloved as Bethesda

 

[Montauk]

The term revolutionary probably sets unfair expectations, but man, Bethesda created its own hype machine for 5+ years with Starfield. Outside of GTA 6 and Cyberpunk, I don't think there has been a more hyped game in the past decade, and a lot of that was the studios doing

Also, I don't think there has ever been word that Starfield development went through rough patches or delays. I don't blame fans for expecting something really special after 8 years of development from a studio that is as beloved as Bethesda

I didn’t say it did have development troubles, I was speaking generally about the AAA picture these days.

Fans can expect away to their hearts content, it doesn’t change the fact that a long development cycle means anything towards the quality of the final game, I’m afraid.

In fact it’s very unfair for gamers to adopt an unfounded attitude that says that for every year of development the game must be X% more ‘special’. M

That’s not it how it has ever worked and it places unreasonable expectations and pressures on studios.

I see this kind of thinking pop up a lot around the prospect of Half Life Episode 3.

I’ve repeatedly seen people say that it needs to be some sort of totally revolutionary, ultra amazing game because of how long it will have taken by release. Sometimes they also say this inevitably means that it will be a disappointment and then even that maybe you shouldn’t wish for it because of that.

Whereas I’m just like, well, I would just like to play a good game. If they made a good game and finished the story, I’d be fine with that.

Would it be nice if it was a really, really great game or even something legendary? Of course it would. Does it have to be to justify its development, simply because it has a long time since it was announced? No.

 

[Flutta]

Don't be surprised if they'll break even within the week.

Yes totally, i mean those 1$ subs will def bring in the big bag

/s