14 DAY TRIAL // It's nice to see the Chief Executive Officer of a major videogame company talk frankly about costs and revenue. And it's especially nice to see someone show how small development teams, with rather limited budgets and a good feel of their potential audience, can create videogames that are successful both in terms of critical appreciation and sales and revenue.
Brad Wardell, the leader of Stardock, has talked about Galactic Civilizations II and Sins of a Solar Empire, two of the best games of 2008. Galactic Civilizations II is turn-based and a 4X game set in space; it has two expansions, bringing in a lot of new content, and cost 1.2 million dollars to be made. The marketing budget for the title was a further 500,000 dollars, while the same amount was spent as part of the distribution budget to get shelf space with major brick and mortar retailers. The title has so far brought in revenue of 10 million for Stardock.
Similarly, Sins of a Solar Empire, a real time strategy title that has just received its first mini expansion, Entrenchment, had a development budget of 1 million dollars, complemented by 600,000 dollars for marketing and 800,000 for distribution purposes. The game has so far brought in more than 8 million dollars and developers Ironclad and publisher Stardock plan on creating two more mini expansions for the title, expanding its life expectancy.
Brad Wardell believes that the fact that his company knows its audience is crucial to the success of its games. He described the typical players of Stardock games as being 25 or older, 90% or more male, technically capable (which generates lower support costs) and more inclined to mod the games they have. The typical Stardock customer is also not interested in pirating titles and emphasizes the single player aspect of the games that he/she owns.