Status Update - 16th May 2019

[Zycho]

Are there people here who know about game development? I would be interested to know how expensive the development (without marketing) of the hunter classic was? It looks as if everything was purchased from external service providers, because no one in the team is able to fix bugs or anything else complicated. So what's the cost to do it here?

[Tod1d]

Are there people here who know about game development? I would be interested to know how expensive the development (without marketing) of the hunter classic was? It looks as if everything was purchased from external service providers, because no one in the team is able to fix bugs or anything else complicated. So what's the cost to do it here?

It's hard to say with a continuous development. The team has fluctuated in size over the years. I'm no expert, but have done some game development, and I work for a software company.
I would guess the initial development was probably around $3 million, and overall for it's life cycle probably $10-15 million. (really rough guess, but likely in the ballpark).

[ronMctube]

i dont get how people can just throw figures up in the air and say roughly. no one knows and realistically the figure wont ever be known. some of us know the innitial funding and how it started. but other than that no one knows .

[Tod1d]

i dont get how people can just throw figures up in the air and say roughly. no one knows and realistically the figure wont ever be known. some of us know the innitial funding and how it started. but other than that no one knows .

They take their previous experience & knowledge and apply that to what they know about the current situation.
Have you never asked for, or been asked for an estimate or quote for a job, service or product? A home or car repair, or any other kind of service?

They have worked on the game for X years, with a crew of Y people, making an average of Z $/hr, with an overhead of Q%. Do the math.

[ronMctube]

yes but you dont know the x, y and the avg z per hr or any of the details. the only details anyone really knows outside the company is the innitial lone given to start of classic. which was by a wealthy american. which was i believe 1-1.5 million dollars. that wasnt enough though to keep it working out with emote i believe some of the oldtimers will know. thats when i believe avalanche stepped in saved the game.18 February 2010 when expansive worlds got formed.

[caledonianblues]

i dont get how people can just throw figures up in the air and say roughly. no one knows and realistically the figure wont ever be known. some of us know the innitial funding and how it started. but other than that no one knows .

It's public knowledge. If someone cared enough they could check the annual accounts for each year. Of course they might offset some costs to Avalanche Studios so it won't be spot on but it would be an adequate answer to the question.

I would guess around the $15m mark too, based on my experience and knowledge of salaries in Stockholm (and infrastructure costs).

[Tod1d]

yes but you dont know the x, y and the avg z per hr or any of the details. the only details anyone really knows outside the company is the innitial lone given to start of classic. which was by a wealthy american. which was i believe 1-1.5 million dollars. that wasnt enough though to keep it working out with emote i believe some of the oldtimers will know. thats when i believe avalanche stepped in saved the game.18 February 2010 when expansive worlds got formed.

I didn't even know the initial investment. But I think even you could come up with rational numbers for x, y & z and make an estimate that's at least within the right level of magnitude.
A little research on salaries, number of employees & positions, overhead costs for a tech business in Stockholm, and you could get even closer.

[DHRifleman]

Emote had 2 loans, the first was 1.1 million and the second was .7 million. They took over 2 years from the date of the first note to get the game to market and it tanked in revenue and the notes were not getting paid. Emote tried to get an influx with the pioneer memberships at $200 per and it was too little too late.
They were going to go bankrupt but the government stopped it and the game went into receivership because they had sold time and it was still owed. (those are numbers taken from business publications at the time)
Avalanche was also on the hook from Emote and was allowed to take over the game to keep it online.
Avalanche had just recovered from a big layoff of 160 people and were on the rise again because of just cause. Avalanche formed EW to partially protect themselves, and the staff were kept very small (7 people) for quite a long time to minimize cost. The game first showed a profit over cost for the month of October 2011,(this was straight from the EW CEO at the time) and steadily climbed from that point on. Enough so that they could grow the team, that never really helped Classic, and create Primal, and then CotW. About a year ago Nordisk bought Avalanche and has put some large funding into their latest ventures. Classic apparently is not one of them.

[Zycho]

Are there people here who know about game development? I would be interested to know how expensive the development (without marketing) of the hunter classic was? It looks as if everything was purchased from external service providers, because no one in the team is able to fix bugs or anything else complicated. So what's the cost to do it here?

It's hard to say with a continuous development. The team has fluctuated in size over the years. I'm no expert, but have done some game development, and I work for a software company.
I would guess the initial development was probably around $3 million, and overall for it's life cycle probably $10-15 million. (really rough guess, but likely in the ballpark).

Ok thanks!

[outrider]

This was hatched over b'fore. And yeah, I too would love to see it on disc, even if they made twelve of them for each reserve. I think there were some major issues regarding that tho'. There is a thread on this forum somewhere, where we all discussed this idea. It might have been around the time frame when WRR was released. Back then it was doom and gloom for theHunter then too, but, here we are a few years later. I'm still shootin' critters. So, if this game does end, EW would make a killing I think if they were to release it on disc, each reserve on a separate disc, would suit me jus' fine. I'm all for that, if it was at all possible. Peace.

BCKidd.

yes, like a lot of other subjects, it has been mentioned many, many times over the years and years...again falling on deaf ears....but, no matters how many times some things have been mentioned, most of the time it doesn't change things that i like or for that matter, for what i hate..too.............