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Game News The Witcher - an announcement announced

dragonfk

Erudite
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
2,487
Ausir said:
I think that developers said that creating the game costed them 20,000,000 złotych ~ 5,600,000 euro.

In Poland the game is selled for 100 złotych ~ 28 euro, so
income costs
16,800,000 <-> 5,600,000

They are definitly even :lol: and taking into account that in countries other than Poland The Witcher cost more than 28 euro, they've earned even more.
Click to expand...

Not all of that money goes to them. It also goes to stores, to foreign publishers, etc.
Click to expand...

You're right but I think we can safely assume that 1/3 of the income goes to them (its even more possible that more than 1/3 of sum goes to them) so they definitly should be even.
 

sheek

Arbiter
Joined
Feb 17, 2006
Messages
8,659
Location
Cydonia
Ausir said:
I think that developers said that creating the game costed them 20,000,000 złotych ~ 5,600,000 euro.

In Poland the game is selled for 100 złotych ~ 28 euro, so
income costs
16,800,000 <-> 5,600,000

They are definitly even :lol: and taking into account that in countries other than Poland The Witcher cost more than 28 euro, they've earned even more.
Click to expand...

Not all of that money goes to them. It also goes to stores, to foreign publishers, etc.
Click to expand...
Yeah I think a developer gets more like 30%, though CDR published themselves in Poland in which case it might be 60-70%.

However 5 million euros seems incredibly cheap for a mainstream game with voice acting and all that fancy graphics stuff and buying the base engine from Bioware. Do you have the source?
 

Ausir

Arcane
Joined
Oct 21, 2002
Messages
2,388
Location
Poland
E.g. the "Polityka" magazine (one of the major Polish weekly magazines) confirms the number. Development in Poland is generally cheaper than in the US. And 5-6 million euro (depending on the price of euro) is still more than the budget of most Polish movies - only one Polish movie was ever more expensive than that.
 

aries202

Erudite
Joined
Mar 5, 2005
Messages
1,066
Location
Denmark, Europe
As far as the cost is concerned, I think that while may have broke even, they still need to pay Atari for their distribution and Bioware for licensing the Aurora enigine (unless this is included in the 20 mill. zlotych=5,6 mill Euros=40 mill. Danish Crowns or so.

All in all they have earned 16,8 mio Euros-5,6 mio. Euros=about 11 mill. Euros. But I do think that maybe only 1/3 of this (or maybe half of this) actually goes to the development team or rather to CD RED Project.

And then it's time to time pay bills and time to pay the developers a bonus or pay their wages etc.

I don't consider The Witcher a mainstream game (as of yet). Yes, it uses Bioware's Aurora Engine which the guys at CD RED Project did give a fantastic overhaul. Yes, the game has some nice visual designs. But the game isn't dumbed down at all. It has a fairly complex combat system, at least to me, and it has the choice & consequence options that we like so much here at the codex. Anyway, I think that the whole 'the wicther is so good that even the codex likes it' actually made some more people buy this game. Maybe people of a certain age that longed for the games of their youths :?:
(sorry for the icon, but I felt it was appropriate here...).

And for my money, there's nothing wrong with that..at all...
 
denizsi

denizsi

Arcane
Joined
Nov 24, 2005
Messages
9,927
Location
bosphorus
I'd say the announcement will be for console ports and episodic content, to adapt Sapkowski's short stories into the game so people won't have to read the books.

As far as the cost is concerned, I think that while may have broke even, they still need to pay Atari for their distribution and Bioware for licensing the Aurora enigine (unless this is included in the 20 mill. zlotych=5,6 mill Euros=40 mill. Danish Crowns or so.
Click to expand...

And we know that they haven't paid for Aurora yet, because..? Studios don't usually license their technology for nothing. That's why almost everyone is relying on publishers and letting them oversee and intervene development.

I also wonder if the "broken" and "cut" translation deal violated any contract between them. They may get some compensation for that. They should, at least.
 

fastpunk

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Messages
1,798
Location
under the sun
They got 70 people now? Good stuff! I'm willing to bet that they're working on a console port, probably Xbox 360. I haven't played The Witcher yet but its control scheme looks 'portable' (please correct me if I'm wrong). The other project will probably be an expansion. I'm glad things are working out for these guys.
 
WhiskeyWolf

WhiskeyWolf

RPG Codex Polish Car Thief
Staff Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
14,796
I also wonder if the "broken" and "cut" translation deal violated any contract between them. They may get some compensation for that. They should, at least.
Click to expand...
From Atari? They are flat broke...
 

Herbert West

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
1,293
Good, good! 600k in 3 months is much better than I expected. If it goes like this they may end up with a modest stash of cash, useful in their next project.

Considering the announcement about something "big" so soon, I'd say it may be an expansion or console port [x360]. Both possibilities are good- bringing this game to xbox may earn them some cash and actually educate console gamers about merrits of RPG games. Who knows? But I hope that PC stays their platform of choice :)
 

doctor_kaz

Scholar
Joined
May 26, 2006
Messages
517
Location
Ohio, USA
I'm guessing console port won't be the only thing announced. I'm thinking expansion pack or sequel has to be in there somewhere. The tone of this announcement is that it's going to excite the current player base and only another game will do that.

I hope that they go the sequel route and adopt a new engine. That old Bioware engine sucks ass.
 
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