Grand Theft Auto VI

Rajaah said:

Yeah, these games are getting so advanced that I don't see how AAA games continue to move forward without becoming prohibitively expensive.

Imagine an open world Elden Ring scale game on the PS6 built ground-up in whatever the latest version of UE5 is by then. Sure it'll sell gangbusters, but it'll cost so much to make that a lot of dev studios are going to either fall by the wayside or go all-in with the "retro" market and making games that look like NES games.

At the rate AI is going, though, it might be the saving grace for AAA development. If they get it to where AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting, maybe things continue progressing and we don't end up in a nightmarish hellscape of NES-style beat 'em ups and a couple actual advanced AAA Ubisoft games.

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Keep in mind GTA is now a basically GAS game that lasts a decade or more. Is monetized with cash shops and DLC and they keep releasing content and freshening up the game. and im sure the monetization of GT6 will be cranked up to 11 this time around. This is not really a single player game anymore as the earlier iterations of GTA were. So in reality they are spending the $2bil upfront but they have ways of getting people to shell out money long term. supposedly this game has the biggest open world in a game of its kind as well. It will definitely set standards as far as content goes. I think this is not really setting a precedent on cost of game, but more like is one of a kind franchise. BG3 cost like $100 million and look at what we got.

There isnt too many of these types of GAS games on the market but ones like Warframe, Destiny 2, make hundreds of millions of dollars each year. And they have no where near the unit sales that GTA5 had which is like almost 200 million units sold since 2013.

GTA V is the second best-selling video game of all time with over 185 million copies shipped across different platforms. Additionally, with about $8 billion in worldwide revenue, it is one of the most financially successful products of all time.

So it just seems like they are cranking shit up to 11 with everything about GTA6. Including their revenue projections. IF this 2 billion dollars to make is even true. I would like to hear this from the source rather than rumors and innuendos because it is a figure that is orders of magnitude greater than anything before it and kind of hard to believe. If it holds true the dev costs per year over the span of development from 2014 to 2025 is something like $165 million per year, which is crazy. Its like making a AAA title game every year.

Kirun said:

Have a link of all the info? I know about the "hack" and the leaked images, possible female protagonist, etc. But I didn't know it included info that GTA 6 has an op ex cost of 2 bil. Considering that even Star Citizen has only spent 400m, I find that really hard to believe. But if you have the deetz, link 'em.

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A bit later some folks stated (and the hacker too) that the 2 billion was the total budget earmarked. So going back to that this would include everything. Development, DLC, online seasons, marketing, print, distribution, music licensing, etc for the duration of the life of GTA6. Total of 2 Billion.

The "budget" could just be a forecast of it's life cycle costs since they're going to be maintaining an online portion of the game with regular content updates for several years after the initial release.

DickTrickle said:

I love how the actual evidence for shitting on Kirun about the budget is not actual financial documents but the analysis and integrity of a hacker saying the budget is $2 billion dollars -- which even then doesn't mean that 2 billion has been spent or will be spent and includes no timeframe or breakdown.

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Well, in previous posts I mentioned it came from the data leak. Later folks analyzed the dollars budgeted (Assuming it was high level) and saw that it correlated across the entire project scope from where it was initially thought to be development for just the launch. Which the hacker later admitted was read wrong. So it's been toned down to $2 billion total project scope budget for the entire life of GTA 6. So that will include Pre-Production, Ramp, Development, Mainlining, Launch, Marketing, licensing, localization, etc. From there Development/launch of the online component in conjunction with PC (usually 3rd party). Then seasonal content and live teams for the GaaS component, development teams for both seasonal and DLC, and then all the buckets of costs listed in launch all over again - on what was initially from 2014 to 2025; an 11 year launch cycle combined with massive inflation we have seen and a rather unique labor market currently. Over a 10 year budget lifecycle that really isn't too hard to imagine. Meaning this budget spans 21 years.

On the flip side, it was a slack hack, however be it able to access source code. So since he accessed source code, accessing budgetary data for a game being developed (Along with all the clips we saw) is easily done. But I do say slack hack because he could have just seen some low level designer talk about budget in a space message, an IM, or high level executive chatter. From what he pulled was a graphical. Maybe a combination of the two.

Either way, no one should be shocked that with economic factors, labor factors, and inflation and GaaS mainstream that projects have much longer budgets planned. Couple the fact that $265 million is $340 million today in just a short ten years, it makes sense depending on the output which we haven't seen yet.

And that key critical component - this is (More than likely but speculation at this point) a 21 year budget.

Chris said:

The outrage seems to be a viseral reaction to them accurately portraying what Florida and the US are like. Brown and proud.

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Aint no one wanting to see shawkneeqwas twerk as a marquee advertisement.

Chris said:

But you don't know if it's satire making fun of it or wokeness celebrating it.

It's placement amoungst Florida man memes suggests the former, though it's American made media so I see why you assume the worst.

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Either way, I expect to be able to shoot the bitch in the ass and steal her $40.

DickTrickle said:

I love how the actual evidence for shitting on Kirun about the budget is not actual financial documents but the analysis and integrity of a hacker saying the budget is $2 billion dollars -- which even then doesn't mean that 2 billion has been spent or will be spent and includes no timeframe or breakdown.

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I read it on the internet and it confirms my ego invested opinion, so therefore it must be true. Also, 17 year old hackers are notoriously 100% correct. And if you want hard facts, you're straight trolling dawg.

2 billion is over half of Take-Two's 2022 fiscal revenue, almost 5x their operating cash on-hand, and roughly 7.5% of the company's entire market cap.

Even if the 2 bil has been walked back(probably because people realized it's total bullshit and doesn't line up financially, so they moved the goalposts to be "right")as a "lifetime" expense, I still find that amount tough to believe.

Chris said:

But you don't know if it's satire making fun of it or wokeness celebrating it.

It's placement amoungst Florida man memes suggests the former, though it's American made media so I see why you assume the worst.

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Theres absolutely nothing that gives me faith this incarnation will be remotely "even handed".

Kirun said:

I read it on the internet and it confirms my ego invested opinion, so therefore it must be true. Also, 17 year old hackers are notoriously 100% correct. And if you want hard facts, you're straight trolling dawg.

2 billion is over half of Take-Two's 2022 fiscal revenue, almost 5x their operating cash on-hand, and roughly 7.5% of the company's entire market cap.

Even if the 2 bil has been walked back(probably because people realized it's total bullshit and doesn't line up financially, so they moved the goalposts to be "right")as a "lifetime" expense, I still find that amount tough to believe.

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You should probably be looking at this:


Specifically tied to loss of operations. Page 3.

Also liquid cash and equivalent is over 700 million so not sure where you are getting 5x the discussed 21 year budget.