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[BattleScar]

Where are these magic numbers coming from?
Do we just trust any number that comes from anyone's mouth these days?

Are we really moving on the "This random baseless factoid suits my agenda, therefore I will treat it as truth" bandwagon?

Where is the critical thinking?

Ubisoft's annual revenue is like $2.5 billion, and they somehow spent 25% of that on one game? What are we doing? We know they're shit, we don't need to make shit up though.

 

[BlueLyria]

How much of that money was taken from Singapore?

 

[Mercador]

$budget = "A" * 200M;

 

[PandaOk]

Where are these magic numbers coming from?
Do we just trust any number that comes from anyone's mouth these days?

Are we really moving on the "This random baseless factoid suits my agenda, therefore I will treat it as truth" bandwagon?

Where is the critical thinking?

Ubisoft's annual revenue is like $2.5 billion, and they somehow spent 25% of that on one game? What are we doing? We know they're shit, we don't need to make shit up though.

25% of annual revenue for a single year when development took a decade isn’t insane I’d think? But I’m not saying the figure is correct.

 

[ManaByte]

Where are these magic numbers coming from?

 

[chokotoureiki]

Holy crap were they expecting this game to be the next GTA or something?

 

[sachos]

There is no way bro... wtf

EDIT: Oh, so the source is the ragebait youtube guy.

 

[wolffy66]

I think these games are just way more expensive than we realized

 

[Klayzer]

There is no way bro... wtf

EDIT: Oh, so the source is the ragebait youtube guy.

Yeah, need another source than a rage-farmer from YouTube.

 

[EverydayBeast]

You know why people don’t talk about game budgets on successful games? Because they’re made for sincere experiences not by people in their wallets and focused on money.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

im sorry I don’t believe in these numbers.
400 million concord, 600 million for this. Sounds like someone is trying to up their tax write off.

 

[neocycle]

Wait until you hear about Beyond Good And Evil 2's cost.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

How much of that money was taken from Singapore?

yeah...

 

[Roni]

The real news here is that whoever was responsible for these projects being in development hell ended up getting promoted and taking over the company.

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

What a waste of time and money.

 

[LordBlodgett]

 

[StreetsofBeige]

650-800 sounds way too much.

Whatever that amount is, make note that the Singapore government gave them subsidies over the years. Who knows how much that is.

Regardless, I dont think the agreement would call for the gov completely covering it.

But what a sinkhole S&B was over 10 years. Thats video game companies for ya. Crazy budgets like money is unlimited. They often seem to enjoy riding a bad decision to rock bottom. Like buying stocks. There comes a time to cut losses. A game company will ride it down to a dime. All in.

 

[Nikodemos]

The numbers seem suspect, but, if it had already cost Ubi ~$125 million by 2021 (as per that TheGamer article), and they built a completely new studio from the ground up, in a region with high property and labor costs, I suspect the final sum, including marketing, might be north of $300 million, possibly closer to $350 million.
Admittedly, not all of this might be out of Ubi's pocket, given the subsidy deal with the Singapore government. However, that deal is an ongoing ball & chain in their budgeting, since they have to adhere by the terms, else return the funds (unlikely to do, in their current financially weakened state).

 

[Damageinc103]

Not even sure what to say to this…….

 

[hyperbertha]

To this day I haven't seen a single skull and bones gameplay video. I am not sure if this game released or is about to release. Where was the marketing for this game? I can't recall anybody talking about this either.

 

[PonyStation4]

I think the problem is that the game didn't have enough DEI policy.

 

[MMaRsu]

Where are these magic numbers coming from?
Do we just trust any number that comes from anyone's mouth these days?

Are we really moving on the "This random baseless factoid suits my agenda, therefore I will treat it as truth" bandwagon?

Where is the critical thinking?

Ubisoft's annual revenue is like $2.5 billion, and they somehow spent 25% of that on one game? What are we doing? We know they're shit, we don't need to make shit up though.

The game was in full development for around 11 years.

So make of that what you will.

 

[BattleScar]

The game was in full development for around 11 years.

So make of that what you will.

Spending ~$85 million per year on a single game is still insanity.

 

[PatientGamer]

Ubisoft will either be acquired or file for bankruptcy before the end of this decade.

 

[RPCGamer]

Spending ~$85 million per year on a single game is still insanity.

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Video Game?

How much does a blockbuster game cost to make? Of all the opaque video game industry questions, this is perhaps the most opaque. Many in the industry...

www.techspot.com

"Four years ago, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot estimated that the average production budget for the generation of games following Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would be $60 million. In an 2012 investor report, Take-Two admitted some of its "top titles" cost in excess of $60 million for development alone."

We're now on the PS5 and it usually goes up significantly each gen.

 

[StueyDuck]

sheeeit thems be star citizen numbers.

and the game has literally 0 ambition or anything new or interesting, pushes 0 tech.

wow that is one serious money sink, but they fucked themselves by signing the deal with Singapore. No doubt the game would have been shitcanned very early if they hadn't

 

[StreetsofBeige]

To this day I haven't seen a single skull and bones gameplay video. I am not sure if this game released or is about to release. Where was the marketing for this game? I can't recall anybody talking about this either.

I remember seeing some and it didnt seem bad at all. Graphics seemed fine.

A bunch of ships get within view and each one launches cannon shots until someone sinks. Then when it's calm times, you got to steer your ship to coastlines and grind for wood. So the game looks one part resource management. You land at port cities and roam around for supplies and quests or whatever.

That's kind if it from I remember. The videos dont show any swashbuckling pirate fights because reviewers said there arent any. It's basically one part exploring and one part big cannonball fights.

 

[Spooky Scary Skeleton]

No, they didn't spend 6-7x the budget of GTA V. This is a fake news and the only source is from some attention whore youtuber.

 

[BattleScar]

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Video Game?

How much does a blockbuster game cost to make? Of all the opaque video game industry questions, this is perhaps the most opaque. Many in the industry...

www.techspot.com

"Four years ago, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot estimated that the average production budget for the generation of games following Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would be $60 million. In an 2012 investor report, Take-Two admitted some of its "top titles" cost in excess of $60 million for development alone."

We're now on the PS5 and it usually goes up significantly each gen.

Yes a whole game. But for a single game, for 11 consecutive years with no output? Come on. That would need to be fraud/embezzlement levels of incompetence to just funnel an entire game's worth of budget at a single title for over a decade. Especially for a company of Ubisoft's size.

 

[Kamina]

Even 100 Million is too much for that game

 

[poppabk]

Do people just not have critical thinking skills anymore, and believe anything they read no matter how preposterous?
Because I haven't even heard of a game called Skull and Bones and if they spent that much money on it, it should be really close to releasing.
/s

 

[digital_ghost]

Ubisoft overpaid. I can dig up a grave and get skull and bones for $0.

Both options stink like hell.

 

[Holammer]

I don't play the game nor care that much, but I do watch Lazerpig's stuff. He posted a humorous video on the subject yesterday. Goes into the development hell, funding issues and other stuff.

 

[{insert code here}]

Where are these magic numbers coming from?
Do we just trust any number that comes from anyone's mouth these days?

Are we really moving on the "This random baseless factoid suits my agenda, therefore I will treat it as truth" bandwagon?

Where is the critical thinking?

Ubisoft's annual revenue is like $2.5 billion, and they somehow spent 25% of that on one game? What are we doing? We know they're shit, we don't need to make shit up though.

The game started development in 2013.
600-850M / 11 years == 55-75M per year.

Is 55-75M per year really that far-fetched? IIRC it originally began development as an expansion for Black Flag before becoming it's own game so that figure probably includes those costs.

 

[BattleScar]

The game started development in 2013.
600-850M / 11 years == 55-75M per year.

Is 55-75M per year really that far-fetched? IIRC it originally began development as an expansion for Black Flag before becoming it's own game so that figure probably includes those costs.

Considering that entire game development budgets topped out at 50-80M over 3-4 year dev cycles back in 2013, yeah it does surprise me that they'd spend that much per year on a single game for 11 years.

 

[chromhound]

Hold up, they released the game ?

 

[digdug2]

This game was in the oven for far too long and it caused the budget to balloon. I could be crazy, but it seems like they're not great at allocating money and sticking to a budget ceiling (I'm basing this on Skull and Bones, The Prince of Persia SoT remake that they scrapped midway thru and started from scratch, and Beyond Good and Evil 2).

Sorry Ubisoft monetization Director guy, but it's not our fault that you spent too much time and money on this AAAA game and ultimately released a mediocre product.

 

[lefty1117]

It's this game that will have killed Ubi when all is said and done.