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Games

How To Make More Cash From One Game Than 10 James Bond Films (bloomberg.com) 79

"Red Dead Redemption 2" broke records in its first three days on sale, pulling in more than $725 million in worldwide retail sales and achieving the biggest opening weekend in the history of entertainment, developer Rockstar Games announced. Here's a story from Bloomberg Businessweek that goes behind the scenes: In a compensation deal unique to the video-gaming industry, Sam and Dan Houser, the brothers responsible for Grand Theft Auto, will get the bulk of an expected $538 million in royalties Take-Two Interactive Software will pay to all employees for this year, according to an analyst. That's thanks in large part to their latest title, Red Dead Redemption II, due Friday. The British-born brothers and a few key insiders share half the profits of Rockstar Games, the Take-Two subsidiary that makes both titles, according to a lawsuit filed by a former employee. Last year, Take-Two distributed $383 million in what it called internal royalties. More than 2,000 Rockstar employees receive bonuses, a company spokesman said. Take-Two said its compensation programs allow employees to join in the success of software they help develop. The company declined to say how much of it went to the Housers. Gerrick Johnson of BMO Capital Markets estimated the brothers received the bulk.

"As long as Grand Theft Auto is chugging along, no one seems to care," Johnson said. The Housers' haul shows just how far video games have come since the days of Pong and Space Invaders. The industry is expected to bring in $138 billion this year, according to market researcher Newzoo. Red Dead II will sell at least 15 million copies by the end of the year, analysts said, at a retail price starting at $60 for the base package.

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How To Make More Cash From One Game Than 10 James Bond Films

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  • Pfffff (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bobrick ( 5220289 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @03:55PM (#57564223)
    That's nothing, Star Citizen made about 200 million so far without releasing an actual game, beat that Rockstar!
  • by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @04:10PM (#57564309) Journal

    Once in a while, game developers put together a "perfect storm". In this case, from the demos I saw, you've got a title that ticks a whole lot of boxes for people. First off, you're going with the Country Western theme; a genre that's stood the test of time, yet is underserved in the world of video games. (And look how often a game in this genre was little more than a fixed shooting gallery type offering, vs. an open world you could explore.)

    Second, the graphics for this one looked excellent. Again, I think we've all seen our share of games that do a good job imagining space travel with various types of craft, or auto racing games. But there's something that still gets people's attention when you do a good job simulating animals like horses, running around the open land. (The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, did a pretty respectable job of this and I'm convinced it's one of things that made people "ooh" and "ah" over the title, propelling sales.)

    It has pedigree too, coming from Rockstar Games. They've done so much with the GTA franchise over the years that you feel like you won't be let down by such things as poor quality acting/dialog, or a lack of interesting things to see and do in the virtual world they created for you.

    As I've gotten older, I've gotten really selective about which games I'll buy or spend any time playing. I only have so much free time to waste on computer games, for starters. But I've also just gotten jaded, as a gamer from back in the 1980's through the present. So many games come out and just remind me of something else I played before, so I take a pass on them. I'd have to say this is one I'd put on my short list to consider buying, along with Fallout 76.

    • I'd have to say this is one I'd put on my short list to consider buying, along with Fallout 76.

      This game wasn't really on my radar, but maybe I'll check it out. After I get through the pile of other games that I have yet to play.

      However, I'm not touching Fallout 76. They pretty much stripped out everything that I enjoy in a Fallout game to make an online shooter. I'm guessing that they were aiming for something like Destiny (which I haven't played, but am aware of) instead of a traditional Fallout game. Then again, Bethesda isn't very good at those and Fallout 4 was utter crap compared to New Vega

      • Yep, same here. Fallout 76 will be the first Fallout game I won't buy.

      • Not to be a Debbie Downer... but Obsidian is on Microsoft's radar for acquisition to be an XBox exclusive studio; so that may not be a viable future plan for Bethesda. One Source [variety.com] of many.
    • Those above, and the fact the first RDR was a beloved game by those who played it.

      Bit off topic, but why aren't they releasing this on PC. I could see if it was on the 360 and PS3 as well, but it ain't
      • by EvilSS ( 557649 )

        Those above, and the fact the first RDR was a beloved game by those who played it. Bit off topic, but why aren't they releasing this on PC. I could see if it was on the 360 and PS3 as well, but it ain't

        If I were a betting man I'd say you will see the PC version in Spring 2019.

        • Don't bet on it. The first game was never released on PC. All you can do is stream it, and that arrived years later.
      • Modern games have drunk the koolaid and they all have "exclusives" now designed to sell consoles rather than sell the game itself.

      • > but why aren't they releasing this on PC.

        To (artificially) prop up sales on consoles. i.e. Pay if you wanna play.

        It will probably come to PC a year later, much like GTA V.

        • by Gabest ( 852807 )
          It said it broke the record in only three days. Games don't get cracked that fast.
          • by Cederic ( 9623 )

            Nothing to do with piracy. They want people to buy on console and not on PC.

            In a year a surprisingly large number of those console purchasers will buy a second copy on PC so that they can enjoy a superior gaming performance. Other PC gamers will buy the game and enjoy it for the first time.

            Less cynically, there are enough differences between the platforms that there's sense in focussing the delivery team on the console releases and only after that turning their attention to the PC version. That lets them pa

        • "To (artificially) prop up sales on consoles."

          There are enough valid and compelling reasons to develop for console and not PC that I doubt that thought was even on the radar.

          The first one that comes to mind would be that game development and testing is significantly faster, easier, and cheaper for consoles. The company only has to make it work well, make it look good, optimize it, and test it for one platform. They can bring the game to market faster at a lower cost, and if it's successful enough on console

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I wonder how overworked the development team was, and for how long.

      And how much of that 7 million THEY are gonna get.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Than 10 video games. Pick 10 video games that made less than your movie to compare to.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @04:13PM (#57564329)

    No they were not. Typical American bullshit history revisionism. Grand Theft Auto was conceived by Mike Dailly and the team at DMA Design, it had nothing to do with Rockstar Games back then, and just because they _currently_ own the franchise and the last inception of it, it does not mean two money-counters are "responsible" for it.

    • by ChoGGi ( 522069 )

      Considering GTA came out in 97 and that bloomberg article says the brothers were hired by t2 in 98, probably just the reporter being lazy.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      The first two games barely count. The wins started with GTA III. I don't know if Mike Dailly did that or not, but, if not, that's the person. Maybe it's Don and Ben Houser

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      No they were not. Typical American bullshit history revisionism. Grand Theft Auto was conceived by Mike Dailly and the team at DMA Design, it had nothing to do with Rockstar Games back then, and just because they _currently_ own the franchise and the last inception of it, it does not mean two money-counters are "responsible" for it.

      Yep, I remember the original top down GTA which was quite good for its day (95 IIRC) and it was released by DMA. Rockstar bought them up later and they still produce GTA from their Scotland offices (as Rockstar North).

      DMA also made Lemmings.

  • If you think about how long you could be playing this, you'd also get more pure hours of entertainment out of this game (and lots of other large scale games) than two James Bond films.

    I didn't play the first Red Dead and probably will not play this one but it looks like they did a pretty impressive job. I wonder if they did riding as well as Horizon Zero Dawn did... I do like from videos I saw how you can fall off the horse.

    • by Cederic ( 9623 )

      Two? Try 10.

      Many players will get over 40 hours of entertainment from these games. Some will get several hundred.

  • Just imagine... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    How much they would have made if they didn't leave us PC users out in the cold.

    • by tepples ( 727027 )

      It might even be less, as infringing copies of the PC version would have substituted among some people for lawfully made copies of one of the console versions.

  • was this part:

    In a compensation deal unique to the video-gaming industry, Sam and Dan Houser ... will get the bulk of an expected $538 million in royalties Take-Two Interactive Software will pay to all employees for this year

    Video game makers need to unionize.

    • They need to admit there's some sort of problem first.

      After a couple of years of promises to deal with the work-life balance issue I decided to quit the industry. All my colleagues seemed okay with the unpaid overtime though.
  • by Calydor ( 739835 ) on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @05:02PM (#57564613)

    Okay, be honest. How many people read those names as Sam and Dean?

  • Movies always run negative so they don't have to pay actors royalties.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 30, 2018 @05:45PM (#57564899)

    725 million, split among 2000 employees, assuming the game took 4 years to make, is only 90k per employee. This barely covers salaries.

  • ... make everybody happy *and* obscene amounts of cash on top of that.

    Gee Wizz, who would've thunk that?

    Extra bonus karma points for Rockstar execs who kick some EA officials in the balls at the next E3.

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