Lost Planet cost $40 million
If you bought Lost Planet, did you get the most out of your money? Capcom sure hope so, after it was revealed that the game, by the time the marketing campaign has come to a close, cost a whopping $40 million in total. That’s almost blockbuster.
Divided up, the game cost $20 million for the development, and $20 million for the (admittedly awful) advertising campaign. Perhaps, if they had shown some proper in-game footage rather than pre-rendered video, it may have cost a little less to advertise the game.
As for the development, the two Xbox Live demos were a big toll, since the first demo released during E3 was very advanced, considering the studio hadn’t been developing the game for very long. This demo proved to be very polished demo and influenced people a lot. Couple that with the multiplayer demo released not long before Christmas, which required a lot of effort server-side, and you can slowly imagine the bills running up.
You can see why then that more and more developers and publishers are choosing to go multi-platform with their games. With costs like this, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will all soon need to offer mega-bucks to keep a game exclusive, because as it stands now, it just isn’t a viable option to hit one console and pray it sells.
The advertising budget of $20 million also paid for the game’s community development.
Capcom started a contest for fans to create dedicated Lost Planet Web sites. Capcom would select the three best sites and post links to them on the official Lost Planet Web site. Winning sites were also printed in the game’s manual. One of the winners, lostplanet.us, features character breakdowns, storyline explanations and visitor polls. Thousands of sites representing tens of thousands of programming hours and a spiderweb of Lost Planet links vied for Capcom’s endorsement.
It’s a nice way to generate interest in the game and get a solid community for Lost Planet, but when the total comes up at $20 million, you realise that is a hell of a lot of money.
It is fortunate then that the game sold well over a million copies after just a couple of days. You would imagine that this helped considerably to re-coup some of the expenditure. We won’t find out for a while though as to the extent of the damage done by such a huge production, if any. It will be interesting to see Capcom publish their quarterly results with the Lost Planet sales included. The demos also managed to get themselves on one million different machines, meaning the idea definitely paid off.
Was the game worth the money then? I hated the demo, so didn’t buy the game, but what did you think?
Thanks Lotus 111s for submitting.
I would have given them $75 had I known the multi play was this fun…
Wow. You would think after spending the 40 million they would have made a decent game. I have never seen such a disgusting waste of money in my life.
IS THIS GAME THAT GOOD….OR IS IT CRAP…i played the first demo on 360 and it wasnt any special..a normal game…butt now E B is woow what A game
I finished it last night, and really, really enjoyed this game. I hope they release a sequel
I thought the game was fun but there was a great deal that could have been improved. $40mill for a somewhat mediocre title is insane. They should have instead focused on Dead Rising which imo was one of the best titles on the 360 back in 2006.
Lost Planet hasn’t done too well on reviews sites, and I even game it a low score in mine because a lot more work could have been done.
Considering the game has sold well over 1 million @60 a pop that ain’t chump change. I would imagine it will hit over 2, been on the #1 spot in Europe a couple of times now. Personally, I loved the game and hope Capcom continues to bring the heat.
Its a nicely done game. Thumbs up from me. Now, if only i had the time to play it over gears XD
I bought it on the strength of MP demo which was fun.Was impressed by the game itself, though I wouldn’t of guessed it cost that much.
Surely they have made that back now though?
Lost Planet? More like Shite Planet.
Game sucks.
yes mate you suck balls this game is awesome, its arcadey and fun there are some major glitche in MP but seeing your post i bet u didn’t even gave this game a chance, so go play some meanningless repetitive FPS you fool
I dunno, he made me laugh.
Completed it mon ami.
If this was Capcoms efforts to rival Halo then I reckon someone needs booted out of Capcom Towers.
A 2nd rate Ps2 game at its best.
“Woooo jump around and shoot the Aliens orangy bits!!!”
The game itself cost a mere $20million
thats alot of doe!! I wonder how much it costs to make a good game then???
wow…a lot of money
I personally enjoyed this game more than gears of war. And you know they spent a crap load on that.
Most fun I’ve had on Live in awhile.
I agree, the only reason i play gears more is because my friends play that and don’t have lost planet. I love the online
The multiplayer isn’t spectacular, but the singleplayer is nothing short of amazing. And I’m only to the boss of Chapter 9
Of course, I’m referring to enemies, environments, and gameplay, not story. The story’s about the U.S.S.R., right?
The game was well worth a buy to me.
Lost Planet has sold solidly enough to pay its way. Capcom will make a lot more money off a sequel if they stick to the same gameplay etc. Less development time and a much clearer idea of the overall game mechanic will reduce production costs by a significant factor. Less marketing will be required since the main target for the sequel will be purchasers of Lost Planet.
They’ll also recoup substantial money through DLC if they utilise the marketplace properly.
Awsome SP and the most fun MP to date.
Is the SP short? Yeah, Just Like GOW.
Is the SP killer? Yeah, Just like GOW.
Is the MP great? Yeah, Well, Better than GOW.
(just the way I see it)
I disagree and challenge you to GoW to decide.
Nothing special I’ll borrow it later… maybe.
A lot of you are talking trash about the only 360’s 1080p game, I think gears is a better game, and i do think lost planet will reach 3m copies,and a 1M copies sound like a 60M to me.