14 DAY TRIAL // The creation of the upcoming Max Payne 3 might have cost Rockstar, its developer and publisher, around $105 million, at least according to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who believes that the game needs to sell at least 4 million copies to break even.
Max Payne 3 has been in development for quite some time, and the subsequent delays, coupled with the high production values of Rockstar titles means a lot of money was spent on it up until now.
According to Arvind Bhatia, that figure might be around the whopping $105 million mark.
He bases his assumption on some basic math, considering the studio had a 200-man team, with $100,000 spent on each developer per year, working on the project for around 5.2 years. As such, after this much time in development, not to mention a big delay from its initial release date in 2009, around $105 million have been spent on the title.
Bhatia believes that Rockstar may be able to break even after selling four million units, which, considering it's a popular series, a multiplatform release and the marketing strength of Rockstar, won't be that hard.
"Life-to-date, the Max Payne franchise has sold through 7M units between the two prior versions -- Max Payne and Max Payne 2. We think the latest iteration, Max Payne 3, has greater potential for success than either of the two prior versions," said the analyst, via Industry Gamers.
"Although the break-even unit level for Max Payne 3 is likely high -- probably in the 4M units range -- due to its long development time, we think the title is highly anticipated and has potential for upside surprise."
Max Payne 3 is set to be released in March 2012, while Max Payne HD, a re-release of the original for mobile platforms, is also scheduled to appear from Rockstar.