Posted July 02, 2012
Russ Pitts (formerly of the Escapist) is kicking off what seems to be an ambitious five-part series covering the current state of AAA game development. I'm still going through it myself but I found this interesting:
Industry sales data posted last month by Variety points to modest gains in the last fiscal year by all three of the major third-party publishers, Activision, EA and Ubisoft. Although in each case the gains were posted largely in the fourth quarter, bolstered by online sales and non-AAA revenue.
Ubisoft is the winner of the door prize, posting $48 million in profits versus a $67 million loss the previous year. Virtually all of that growth, however, came from its virtual game sales, which rose 111%, and games for the Wii, which comprise a third of their total revenue.
Also worth noting is that $48 million is the profit off of total revenues of $1.4 billion. That's a 3% profit margin, for those keeping score at home. Which is not great.
EA did slightly better for the year, posting total fiscal year profits of $76 million, versus a $276 million loss last year. But before we get all happy weepy over the turnaround, let's consider that $56 million of that profit came in the fourth quarter, and that EA’s money-maker for that period was Mass Effect 3. That game's budget has been estimated at around $40 million, and it has sold over 3.5 million copies to date.
A 3% Profit Margin? Hmm.
Industry sales data posted last month by Variety points to modest gains in the last fiscal year by all three of the major third-party publishers, Activision, EA and Ubisoft. Although in each case the gains were posted largely in the fourth quarter, bolstered by online sales and non-AAA revenue.
Ubisoft is the winner of the door prize, posting $48 million in profits versus a $67 million loss the previous year. Virtually all of that growth, however, came from its virtual game sales, which rose 111%, and games for the Wii, which comprise a third of their total revenue.
Also worth noting is that $48 million is the profit off of total revenues of $1.4 billion. That's a 3% profit margin, for those keeping score at home. Which is not great.
EA did slightly better for the year, posting total fiscal year profits of $76 million, versus a $276 million loss last year. But before we get all happy weepy over the turnaround, let's consider that $56 million of that profit came in the fourth quarter, and that EA’s money-maker for that period was Mass Effect 3. That game's budget has been estimated at around $40 million, and it has sold over 3.5 million copies to date.
