What’s interesting to me is of course how cheaply Bioshock got made compared to today’s blockbuster hits. Somewhere, we took the wrong turn in regards to modern game development, truly.
Too many managers to pay and as a result too high personel costs, I would assume. :<
Marketing is a big money drain for a lot of games too. Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V are two games with marketing budgets big enough to finance a dozen other games. I guess a new title like cyberpunk would need more marketing (still not $142 million worth of marketing) but GTA was already a well established franchise that probably didn’t need as much marketing as it had.
Even games like call of duty and assassins creed which have a core fan base that can expect a new game on a regular basis don’t need to market as much as they do.