Full post: Exact budgets of video-game productions can be tough to corroborate (more transparency from publishers would be nice!) but the numbers I've heard floating around AAA game dev these days are $300 million or more — sometimes much more! — which I think helps explain the current state of the industry

To address some frequently asked questions:

  • These are US and Canada productions. If you're wondering why game X cost so much less, it was probably made elsewhere
  • These budgets are almost entirely dev salaries + overheard and have nothing to do with executive compensation (which is mostly stock)
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[–] 0 points 7 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

    I'm not a tax expert, but I think the taxes are applied after gross. Taxes on money coming in, not going out. So that ~$120k is what the company spends, but it's not what the employee sees.

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  • [–] 6 points 7 months ago (1 child)

    Sorry that I was not more clear. The company is paying the employee 120k gross, yes, but then also paying other things behind the scenes like other taxes and unemployment insurance, etc.

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