that might explain why EA's stocks are taking a nose dive.    They still haven't recovered the initial investment of making the game and this is hurting their stocks.   They have to pay licensing fees to both Lucas Arts and Simutronics, which I am sure is a huge chunk of change.   Anyway, if it is true that SWTOR cost near 500 million to make...that might explain why EA's stocks are still nose diving.

EA stocks  <<< clicky

As SWTOR subs go...so does EA's stocks it seems.   If you look at the 6 month cycle, you can see that the stocks peeked jsut before the release of the game.  Since then...it's been in a nose dive. 

No MMO ever  cost 500 Million Dollars to make  , I think you have an extra 0 .. I read the budget was 50-60 Million which Is what you would expect for a Major MMO

50 million legitimately spent, 450 million embezzled.

Uh...SW:TOR didn't cost anywhere NEAR 500 million LMAO. The rumored budget years ago was rumored to have been between 150-250 Mil, but according to BioWare/EA it wasnt anywhere near that much either. It was probably somewhere around 50-65 million tops. Where you got 500 mil is beyond me, maybe your imagination?

Bioware defense force assemble.

Originally posted by Lukain

No MMO ever  cost 500 Million Dollars to make  , I think you have an extra 0 .. I read the budget was 50-60 Million which Is what you would expect for a Major MMO

 

 

 

No...I think you are wrong when you consider the cost of voice acting and the amount of it that is in SWTOR.  That adds up very quickly.  Plus, look at how much was spent ona game like Kingdom of Amalur.  It cost like 175 mil to produce.   That is according to the documents that were made public by the state of Rhode Island.   So if a game like that cost 175mil, is it easy to say that a game like SWTOR may have cost near 500 mil.

I think she got it from

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/analyst-believes-star-wars-the-old-republic-had-a-500-million/6

But if you google you get reports  from 60 Million to 500 Million , No developer would risk 500 Million on a Game . Not even James Cameron could ask & get 500 Million :)

http://tor.zam.com/story.html?story=28811

"According to the LA Times, 800 people across 4 countries spent nearly $200 million dollars creating Star Wars: The Old Republic. With 1,600 hours of story and 1,000 voice actors for 4,000 characters in 3 different languages,"

Originally posted by Lukain

I think she got it from

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/analyst-believes-star-wars-the-old-republic-had-a-500-million/6

 

But if you google you get reports  from 60 Million to 500 Million

Fixed that for you.

Numbers I've heard ranged from 100 to 300.  Keep in mind not all of "budget" is development.  There's licensing of the IP (I'm sure Lucas Arts was not cheap) and promotional budget in there as well.

The cost of voice acting is nowhere NEAR that expensive, for any voice over project. I know this from personal experience when a voice over film project can cost anywhere from 14 million to a very unusual high of 100 million (very, very, very rare) and that includes major voice over talent and what it costs to get them on the project. A video game, with moderately known voice actors is not going to be that much.

The 500 million number borders on impossible.

I had heard 150 million was the current expendature a year before launch. These guys saying 50 million tops have no idea what goes into developing a game.

You might have 50 million tied up in paying the designers and coders, but there is alot of voice acting that was paid for.

There is also all the advertising the game did at launch, all the work done to hype the game on their end,

George Lucus won't let someone use his universe for free.

500 million may be a stretch, but I imagine it is closer than 50 million

Originally posted by Valentina

The cost of voice acting is nowhere NEAR that expensive, for any voice over project. I know this from personal experience when a voice over film project can cost anywhere from 14 million to a very unusual high of 100 million (very, very, very rare) and that includes major voice over talent and what it costs to get them on the project. A video game, with moderately known voice actors is not going to be that much.

The 500 million number borders on impossible.

No, I do not think so when you consider that they hired 800 voice actors from 4 countries.   

Originally posted by Morgaren

I had heard 150 million was the current expendature a year before launch. These guys saying 50 million tops have no idea what goes into developing a game.

 

You might have 50 million tied up in paying the designers and coders, but there is alot of voice acting that was paid for.

There is also all the advertising the game did at launch, all the work done to hype the game on their end,

George Lucus won't let someone use his universe for free.

500 million may be a stretch, but I imagine it is closer than 50 million

voice over talent is not THAT expensive, and especially not for the voice overs they use in these games. The most expensive voice actor they have hired in any of their games is probably Martin Sheen for Mass Effect, followed by Yvonne Strovosky and that's top notch. You could hire an entire cast of academy award winners and your voice over budget wouldn't exceed 100 million alone.

Man you guys just keep making this stuff up as you go along don't you?

---

Originally posted by Lukain
I think she got it from

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/01/17/analyst-believes-star-wars-the-old-republic-had-a-500-million/6

 

But if you google you get reports  from 60 Million to 500 Million , No developer would risk 500 Million on a Game . Not even James Cameron could ask & get 500 Million :)

 

 

---

And because the 500 million supports the point she is looking to make. You'll notice a little further down in the article it also mentions that another "analyst" suggested that it cost 80 million.

I think most reasonable folks realize it probably did fall into the 100-300 million range when you consider not just development but advertisement as well. In any case, it's definitely a hit for the stock, but hey, why pass up the chance to have an epic thread? I mean who doesnt appreciate the drama?

Originally posted by Teala

Originally posted by Valentina

The cost of voice acting is nowhere NEAR that expensive, for any voice over project. I know this from personal experience when a voice over film project can cost anywhere from 14 million to a very unusual high of 100 million (very, very, very rare) and that includes major voice over talent and what it costs to get them on the project. A video game, with moderately known voice actors is not going to be that much.

The 500 million number borders on impossible.

No, I do not think so when you consider that they hired 800 voice actors from 4 countries.   

The most expensive ones would be the moderately well known voice actors, which would either mostly come from the US or the UK, and there are not many of them in SW:TOR. Employing over 800 voice actors would include voice jobs for random NPC/ambiance rabble. The pay for each one of those is laughably small, you're trying to make it sound like they paid top dollar for hundreds of high profile voice over talent when they didn't. Had they done that, it still wouldn't exceed 100-150 million for voice overs alone and that number is still really reaching.

A voice over job in most countries outside of the U.S. and the UK is significantly cheaper.

Originally posted by ktanner3

Man you guys just keep making this stuff up as you go along don't you?

I took what was said by others in articles and said, "If it is true..."   I didn't say - "it was true"...I said "if".   If it is true, that might explain why EA's stocks are tanking.