Namco-Bandai may be in trouble -- needs 500k games sold
by Nick Doerr 
{ Nov 30th 2006 at 3:45PM }
Sony isn't the only one rolling the dice on this generation of gaming -- third party developers are feeling the sting as well. Notably, Namco-Bandai claims to need sales of 500,000 units per game before they turn a profit on PS3 titles. These titles include the well-reviewed Ridge Racer 7 and the pile of... well... you know that is Mobile Suit Gundam. What trash. According to an article over at Bloomberg, graphics alone for high-def games cost about $8.6 million dollars -- around one billion yen. For graphics. One billion. Shoot me... that's insane. Don't actually shoot me, please.A major concern for third party developers not meeting their profit margin is the fact that the number of units may not be what Sony intended -- in fact, the numbers of units is far, far less. We know that Sony is concentrating more on first-party titles for now and with this in mind, we've got a decent hypothesis. What if Sony knows they have too few units out right now for third parties to reel in profits, so they're keeping third parties at bay for now? It would explain why they're releasing mostly first party games -- it only "hurts" Sony. Not others. Yeah, it's pretty far-fetched, but it would be the "right" thing to do.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jay @ Nov 30th 2006 4:35PM
Well considering they came out with the new Dragonball Z game on Playstation 2. I'll be buying Ridge Racer 7 to protect my investment. They make great games (minus Mobile Suit Gundam) and should be supported.
Shake my head at them making that old Mobile Suit Game instead of a Gundam Seed game with a story.
John @ Nov 30th 2006 5:07PM
Game makers may hesitate to make games for a console if its shipment is being delayedю
Microdot @ Nov 30th 2006 5:11PM
man... this isnt a difficult situation. it takes two brain cells to figure out.
in order to sell in next gen, it needs to look good (on top of being a decent game)
in order to make it look good, they have to spend a lot
solution: find a cheaper way to create the desired graphics.... lower the costs. people in the movie industry do it all the time. when lucas arts was piecing together (cant remember which one it was) an ep of star wars (movie, not the game), software and hardware used in rendering advanced effects were skyrocketing out of control. so... they sat down, wrote a script or 50, and created a load balanced farm running nix to push the processing power through the roof. mission accomplished past their wildest dreams, and at a fraction of the original cost.
this is a game company... they should be able to find creative solutions.
dje7878 @ Nov 30th 2006 6:05PM
tekken 6 and soul calibur 4. that should easily break the 500k mark.
VerticalEvent @ Dec 1st 2006 5:50AM
Here's an interesting question: how mnay PS2 games did a company have to make in order to run a profit during the launch of the PS2?