Irrational Games RIP

[dataDave]

Bollockshock Infinite?

No. I'd just pay Martin Hollis $99m to make me a spiritual successor to Perfect Dark whilst back-pocketing $1m for myself.

[fishbowlhead]

No. I'd just pay Martin Hollis $99m to make me a spiritual successor to Perfect Dark whilst back-pocketing $1m for myself.

Im in, ill need 2m though, for research and development purposes of course .

On another note im pretty sure 100m would tide even a fair size team over for a decade of development. No way that was spent on Infinite.

[Asura]

Im in, ill need 2m though, for research and development purposes of course .

On another note im pretty sure 100m would tide even a fair size team over for a decade of development. No way that was spent on Infinite.

Nah, not if that includes marketing. A single TV ad spot on US TV, in a prime-time slot, can cost $300k. Bioshock Infinite was pretty heavily advertised; I saw it on TV a lot, in addition to places like YouTube.

[dataDave]

Which is why I allocated $50m for marketing on the previous page.

That still secures an average salary for a 250 member team for a whole five years.

[Guts]

The publisher gets about $27 from a newly bought $60 video game on consoles. If we count that all 4 million copies of BioShock Infinite were sold at $60 (which they most certainly were not) then that would mean that Take-Two has made $108 million from the game (less because not all copies were sold at $60).

If the game was in the $100-200 million budget range as reported (it certainly couldn't have been cheap) then it's quite clear that it was at least a financial disappointment for Take-Two, if not a downright financial flop.

[Team Andromeda]

Well if I'm honest I've generally found the Bioshock series overrated so perhaps not such a bad thing. Very for the people whom have lost their jobs, hopefully they'll be swiftly back on their feet.

Yep found all the games overrarted and boring . Also didn't mos of the key staff leave before Infinite was even completed ?

[importaku]

The publisher gets about $27 from a newly bought $60 video game on consoles. If we count that all 4 million copies of BioShock Infinite were sold at $60 (which they most certainly were not) then that would mean that Take-Two has made $108 million from the game (less because not all copies were sold at $60).

If the game was in the $100-200 million budget range as reported (it certainly couldn't have been cheap) then it's quite clear that it was at least a financial disappointment for Take-Two, if not a downright financial flop.

Maybe they would have got more success if retailers didn't slash the price mere weeks after release. Modern games are worthless, gamers nowdays place no worth on games they just buy them for a pittance then finish & sell them on as disposable pleasures.

[Sketcz]

I don't like her articles, but apparently she had the inside scoop on the closure years ago but never told anyone:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/211139/Irrational_Games_journalism_and_airing_dirty_laundry.php

Writing was on the wall all along, and again it shows Levine to be a jerk to work for.

[MisterBubbles]

Well you know what it was publishers that drove this AAA, 100 million budget, sell 5 million or we are shuttering you, and they can damn well get us out of it, or they go bust or we have another crash.

[Asura]

Maybe they would have got more success if retailers didn't slash the price mere weeks after release. Modern games are worthless, gamers nowdays place no worth on games they just buy them for a pittance then finish & sell them on as disposable pleasures.

It's all part of a greater social problem, which might be to do with the ease of indexing digital media all over. Entertainment is simply seen as worthless to some people. I was sat next to some people down the pub a few weeks ago, one of whom was loudly proclaiming that he "doesn't pay for anything", movies, music, games, you name it. He said "well if I can get it for free, it musn't cost anything"

Even I admit that I've bought much less on DVD since I got Netflix, and when it comes down to it, the paltry sum I pay their service can't possibly cover all the stuff I watch, to the point where that'd be good revenue for the content creators.

iOS is a perfect example of this. It's completely warped people's perception, to the point where at times, people complain about games being ?2.99. I paid ?63 for Sonic 3 in the 90s, and people have the nerve to bitch about something being 69p instead of free?

Well you know what it was publishers that drove this AAA, 100 million budget, sell 5 million or we are shuttering you, and they can damn well get us out of it, or they go bust or we have another crash.

Nah. Publishers go where they think the money is. Whilst it's true that publishers are somewhat at fault, it's also about the consumer going for spectacle. People always want "bigger and better", well now we've reached the "biggest and best" that we can get if publishers can only make ?15-20 off each consumer.

That's one of the reasons they like freemium, because, in theory, the amount they make is based proportionally on the amount of content they produce. Like for example League of Legends; if Riot make champions and perpetuate the service, people will keep spending money. There's no "end"; you could in theory spend thousands.