Support NeoGAF

[AmuroChan]

It was insane actually, he doubled the dev costs of this is true

Well, he didn't double it. He reported what his source at Firewalk told him. Colin's original estimate before the reporting was that Concord costs in the low $100m.

 

[ManaByte]

It was insane actually, he doubled the dev costs of this is true

$200M dev cost + $200M studio acquisition = $400M

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

$200M dev cost + $200M studio acquisition = $400M

His $400M figure did not include acquisition cost. It was dev cost.

Why would they cost $200M to acquire with no IP value?

 

[Thebonehead]

That's almost half a Star Citizen

Or 4040404 $99 gamecubes

 

[DeepEnigma]

His $400M figure did not include acquisition cost. It was dev cost.

Why would they cost $200M to acquire with no IP value?

Considering that Insomniac was purchased with IP value for $229m.

Something doesn't jive.

 

[Zacfoldor]

$200M dev cost + $200M studio acquisition = $400M

I can't remember but I think maybe Colin said something like the aquisition costs wasn't included in the 400m. Can't be sure though.

That said, I think this is the big cost here over the 200m: "game's delayed launch"

Just remembering what he reported, I think it was something like the game had a delayed launch and was not in a good state due to like, technical inexperience or something and they had to spend a lot on outsourcing to get it up to par. How long was the delay I wonder, and what outsourcing costs were caused by the delay.

I think one thing is clear, this wasn't a cheap loss for Sony. The just closed down the damn studio.

No shade to my man Sawyer, I respect all opinions.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

They sure do. The guys was spot on and many complain because they 'want to Jason to confirm that' bs.

The guy derseves the credit.

He was 200 million dollars off.

"All the credit goes to Colin Moriarty".

 

[Edder1]

They really had a breakout success with HD2 and flushed all that money and more down the shitter, for a game that was obviously going to flop.

ANYBODY could look at this and say “nobody is gonna wanna buy skins for that.”

Remember, Sony leadership approved this and actually believed it was gonna be successful, lol. Devs will do whatever they want with money given, it's the job of the guys on top to keep them in check, but obviously those guys also drank the kool aid.

 

[Fake]

400m is insane.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

Jim Ryan’s tenure single handedly set back Sony five years. Not like I have a faith in Hurst either. But at least now they hopefully with put larger focus on a more traditional games. The only way they are going to out fornite or gta is to put the money down to do so. I guess they tried that with Bungie, but somehow missed all the tea leaves pointing to them being managed by clown town.

Time to go back to basics, put out more less complex games focusing on fun. Astrobot is the blueprint, bring back Jaks, Twisted Metal, etc. don’t focus on overly complex action game with fifteen sub menus and cutting edge graphics for every game. Well thought out base mechanics will go far.

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

Fits perfectly with what Collin said. Initially 200 million, another 200 million to finish up everything + marketing + other media. (TV show, CGI cutscenes)

Pure insanity, all down the drain. And before you smugly say, heh, tax write-off, Sony doesn't care! I don't think you people understand how they work at all. If you lose money, you lose money, you just don't pay taxes on the loss, or you can use the loss to pay less taxes on profit if you have any. You still lose the money. At best you just offset some percentage of the losses as less taxes paid on profit if you have profit.

Colin claimed it was 400M BEFORE those costs

No he didn't. He said it didn't include studio acquisition, but did include everything else, specifically to finish up the product and all side media and marketing. No idea why you keep coping and lying so hard about this, but hey, go on.

 

[adamsapple]

So 400 million

Development + Marketing would get to that figure, or close to it.

 

[proandrad]

He was 200 million dollars off.

"All the credit goes to Colin Moriarty".

How do we know, article only mentions the budget was set at 200million in 2018. That doesn’t count delays or how much over budget the game went to.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

No he didn't. He said it didn't include studio acquisition, but did include everything else, specifically to finish up the product

So a few months of a delay and almost no marketing is supposed to equal $200 extra million?

In adamsapple ’s wildest dreams

 

[DeepEnigma]

So a few months of a delay and almost no marketing is supposed to equal $200 extra million?

In adamsapple ’s wildest dreams

Kotaku, hard hitting trusted journalist sources in this instance. Not the rest though.

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

So a few months of a delay and almost no marketing is supposed to equal $200 extra million?

In adamsapple ’s wildest dreams

Nowhere did he or this article say it was 200 million until few months pre release. That's another invention of yours. This is getting sad.
What's next on your list, keep them coming.

 

[Fabieter]

How the hell you buying a studio and give it 200 million, without seeing any game and the quality studio management ? Yes, i'm talking to you Hermen.

He was the wrong guy for any leadership at Sony.

 

[pasterpl]

How the hell you buying a studio and give it 200 million, without seeing any game and the quality studio management ? Yes, i'm talking to you Hermen.

Great salesman will sell sand while in the desert. /s

 

[Unknown Soldier]

So probably $300-400M with marketing and all the logistics.

Should have invested in Gaf. Gaf Studios would have made a better game and it would have sold at least 15K.

They never finished that Dudebro game oh well

 

[proandrad]

So a few months of a delay and almost no marketing is supposed to equal $200 extra million?

In adamsapple ’s wildest dreams

That assumes their cost projections in 2018 were correct, and COVID probably threw off those projections.

 

[adamsapple]

Hope the devs are able to land on their feet but holy shit this project will go down in history as the E.T of this era.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Development + Marketing would get to that figure, or close to it.

Oh its easily 400 million now

I think I kept repeating some in my circle were sure it was closer to 250 but no way, its North of 400 no doubt in my mind

Hope the devs are able to land on their feet but holy shit this project will go down in history as the E.T of this era.

Some of those Devs need to land on their feet alright, flipping burgers at McDonalds

 

[Roman Empire]

Firewalk went out with a fart. Not missing anything tbh.

 

[Calverz]

Yes. I suspect many of those games actually cost more to develop (even if they had higher sales), to see what was the greater failure you’d need to net out that amount.

We’ll never get concrete numbers but they’re all massive bombs.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Fits perfectly with what Collin said. Initially 200 million, another 200 million to finish up everything + marketing + other media. (TV show, CGI cutscenes)

No it doesn’t, unless you have a source that shows it cost an extra $200M

The article does not mention at all any costs beyond that

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Looks like $400M was about right after all.

But it was $200M dev costs, plus all the other stuff added on top of it.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

That assumes their cost projections in 2018 were correct, and COVID probably threw off those projections.

The game did not enter production until 2022, if they earmarked $200M, it was projected to be spent until completion. It may have ran over, but if so and to what extent is unknown.

Its hard to get anywhere close to $400M on dev costs alone

Looks like $400 was about right after all.

But it was $200M dev costs, plus all the other stuff added on top of it.

What other stuff? The primary cost is dev. They hardly marketed the game

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

No it doesn’t, unless you have a source that shows it cost an extra $200M

The article does not mention at all any costs beyond that

It absolutely fit perfectly with what Collin said, which is what I said. You're claiming it doesn't. Facts are to follow.
Collin said Concord budget was 200 million initially, which wasn't enough, Sony bankrolled the rest. These sources say Concord budget was 200 million initially, which wasn't enough, Sony bankrolled the rest. Note how this is also just the game development, and wasn't enough. This heavily points Collin being correct, firstly the initial number is corroborated and repeated as is it not being enough and that being only the game development budget.

Since these sources align in their narratives, and further development, marketing, CGI and TV show budget was not included in the 200 million, this heavily corroborates Collin's statements.

Keep. Coping.

 

[plip.plop]

I feel bad that the studio was closed. Hopefully Sony can put the workers (NO LEADERSHIP) into other studios.

This piece of crap was the biggest problem for that game.

 

[NickFire]

The amount of money that has been lost or left on the table because of a cult-like mentality is insane. Absolute bananas.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Looks like $400 was about right after all.

But it was $200M dev costs, plus all the other stuff added on top of it.

What other stuff? The primary cost is dev. They hardly marketed the game

It absolutely does. Collin said Concord budget was 200 million initially, which wasn't enough, Sony bankrolled the rest. These sources say Concord budget was 200 million initially, which wasn't enough, Sony bankrolled the rest. Note how this is also just the game development, and wasn't enough. This heavily points Collin being correct, firstly the initial number is corroborated as is it not being enough and that being only the game development budget.

Since these sources align in their narratives, and further development, marketing, CGI and TV show budget was not included in the 200 million, this heavily corroborates Collin's statements.

Keep. Coping.

Keep coping yourself, this entire post boils down to “I trust Colin”

The new Kotaku article adds no evidence to get to $400M

 

[midnightAI]

$200M dev cost + $200M studio acquisition = $400M

Not if, for example, the studio had already pumped 100 million into the game.

Then it's 200 million studio and game acquisition, 100 million extra on the game dev. So it's not as simple as that. Still the biggest game flop of all time though (wouldn't say the biggest gaming loss though, that's probably something hardware related like Sega or something)

 

[IAmAnAgnostic]

Keep coping yourself, this entire post boils down to “I trust Colin”

The new Kotaku article adds no evidence to get to $400M

You literally ignored every word I wrote and are shitting up the thread with low effort troll posts.

Replying last doesn't win the argument. Worthless to ever engage, adding to ignore list.

 

[Investor9872]

How is Hermen Hulst still the Playstation co-CEO right now at losing more than $400 million for Sony???

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

You literally ignored every word I wrote and are shitting up the thread with low effort troll posts.

Replying last doesn't win the argument. Adding to ignore list.

I didn’t ignore it, you keep ignoring the fact that the kotaku article only says $200M initially + other costs not included. You are extrapolating those other costs to be another $200M so that Colin’s math works out.

It doesn’t, I’m sorry, this is just a horrible jump to conclusions to fit the narrative analysis

 

[Fake]

 

[Panajev2001a]

How is Hermen Hulst still the Playstation co-CEO right now at losing more than $400 million for Sony???

He went to the Phil Spencer School Of Management.

$400 Million?

 

[Fake]

How is Hermen Hulst still the Playstation co-CEO right now at losing more than $400 million for Sony???

More Horizon remasters incoming.

 

[StueyDuck]

You were told by Colin Moriarty is was over 400 million.

And he was basically right .

The article itself says 200mil before any other ancillary costs.

But we know what it definitely wasn't..

A quick cheapy couple of mil game

 

[hinch7]

And people were doubting Colin Moriarty. What a clusterfuck, waste of time and money. Herman has some explaining to do, no doubt.

 

[Fbh]

What a massive failure. I'm surprised we haven't seen more heads roll because of it.
More than anything I find it crazy people who are so clueless about the gaming market could get into high positions of power at Playstation. It's one thing making a second party deal that doesn't turn out great, it's something different to see Concord behind the scenes and somehow come to the conclusion that it's going to be such a massive hit that you need to secure the studio and IP.

Also, lol, I like how the defense force has shifted the goalpost from: "This was a small scale project that was cheap to make, probably didn't even cost $100 mill and isn't even considered AAA at Sony" to "b...but C...Colin said $400 mill without marketing and it was likely $400 mill including marketing!!!"

 

[kyussman]

Uh,guys.......remember Helldivers II did well so this isn't really an issue.Not really thread worthy tbh.

 

[phant0m]

That's still an insane #. GTA IV had a $100M budget when it came out and was the most expensive piece of entertainment ever at the time.

I get inflation and all 15 years later but jesus christ how do you spend on that on a fucking hero shooter?

Also, general statement, but isn't all the super cool tech from the last decade and a half supposed to make work easier/faster? Everything is APIs, middleware and out of the box engines now. Studios used to have to write their own engines on top of the damn games and shit still came out faster, more complete and less buggy.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

And he was basically right .

The article itself says 200mil before any other ancillary costs.

But we know what it definitely wasn't..

A quick cheapy couple of mil game

He wasn't. You know it. I know it. We all know it.

 

[PSlayer]

APOLOGISE

APOLOGISE RIGHT NOW GAF

 

[Umbral]

There is a reason everyone in blockbuster Hollywood movies is hot. Nobody wants to look at an eyesore. I’m not even saying you need to make a coomer bait game like The Last Descendant to sell your GaaS. Even Blizzard walks the tightrope really well with Overwatch. Nobody wants to play with aggressively ugly characters. It really boggles my mind that this game made it all the way to the finish line and nobody stepped in like “what the fuck are you guys doing”.

The chilling effect on speech is real. I’m sure there were internal critics but they didn’t want to lose their jobs to the HR types for saying something looked bad.

 

[ResilientBanana]

How the hell you buying a studio and give it 200 million, without seeing any game and the quality studio management ? Yes, i'm talking to you Hermen.

CEO’s are visionaries and don’t typically oversee day to day. CEO’s trust their presidents and mangers to make good decisions.

 

[StereoVsn]

Sony has too much "fuck you" money to throw around, clearly.

What an insane and reckless investment.

I hope whoever thought this was the right direction for Playstation is fired as soon as possible. Get all these clowns away from there immediately.

One of the clowns is co-CEO of SIE unfortunately.

 

[StueyDuck]

He wasn't. You know it. I know it. We all know it.

whats the rule of thumb with marketing

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

whats the rule of thumb with marketing

The rule of thumb for marketing is Concord had a 300 million dollar marketing budget because that game was everywhere right before launch. One of the most opulent marketing campaigns in human history.