Games' budgets and costs to create a video game (now also talking about sales)

Antimatter

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Well-well-well, we have a new champion.



According to Endymion (a YT blogger), Ubisoft has spent an astonishing $650 to $850 million on Skull and Bones during its more than a decade of development, a figure significantly higher than the previously reported $200 million. Reportedly, the game went through several completely different versions over the years, leading to the exorbitant costs, which are said to be the primary reason for Ubisoft's current struggles – not Outlaws and Shadows as many assume.

"Skull and Bones failed so badly for Ubisoft, it was the actual reason why they're dying the way that they are. It's not actually Outlaws and Shadows if you can believe it. So they sunk a legendary amount of resources into that game and it clearly did not work out for them at all," the YouTuber said.

As is always the case with "anonymous insider reports," there's no way to fully confirm or deny the claims, so take everything with a grain of salt. However, given how long Ubisoft has spent developing the game, and the fact that the studio still had successful franchises like Far Cry and Assassin's Creed to support its financials, it's easy to believe that they have indeed invested far more than $200 million into Skull and Bones – a sum they are very unlikely to ever recoup through sales.
 

Antimatter

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Decided to put this here. These are all approximate and very rough estimations, but we haven't had much evidence before. How much do games also available in Game Pass or its alternatives actually sell, and how can we approximately calculate it?



According to SteamDB, Oblivion Remastered got around 210k CCU users this weekend.

So, about 4 mln players (not sales) for ~200k+ CCU on Steam.



According to SteamDB, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had around 120k CCU users this weekend.

So, about 1 mln sales for ~100k+ CCU on Steam.

If we roughly compare the 2 stats, let's conclude that Oblivion Remastered had around 2 mln sales and around 2 mln players who got the game via Game Pass. So, 50%-50%.

Now, let's look at the other numbers we have.


It had around 90k CCU on Steam.

The math is mathing. EA Play is not as popular as Game Pass. So the game must have had a bit less than 1 mln sales (as neither BioWare nor EA ever posted about 1 mln sales), and around 600k-700k users from EA Play.

Avowed peaked at 1 mln daily average users (DAU).


On Steam, it reached just ~20k CCU.

It must mean Avowed sold ~500k copies or less (if we use the 50%-50% rate of Oblivion Remastered).

Note that all this is very rough, and sales include not only Steam sales, but all sales. Unfortunately, without any direct data, this is all approximate, but still, it should more or less explain how numbers should be read.
 

Antimatter

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My 50%-50% theory got another confirmation.


"Expedition 33 has now sold over a million copies across Steam and PlayStation alone, with over 785K on Steam and over 350K on PlayStation consoles.

Over 1.3 million people have played the game on Xbox, owing to its inclusion on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Expedition 33’s success is even more impressive, as it’s a new IP made by a small core team in France (but still looks very AAA)."

So it's 1.135 mln via sales vs 1.3 mln via Game Pass -> comparable.



The game also has now 2 mln copies sold, so it's fair to assume it has at least another 2 mln players via Game Pass.
 
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