To everyone complaining about Monetization

Games Halo Infinite
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Let’s just think of the numbers, shall we?
I’m going to assume that this game lasts 5 years.
Let’s say a USD $1500/year server can host 12 copies of a game server.
Steam Stats: steampowered dot com/stats says there are about 40000 people playing Halo Infinite right now, with the peak being 93,878. I’ll say average of an extra 2 players per game because of BTB, so just make it ten players a game, that’s peak 9387, now 4000 copies that need hosting. 12 copies per machine, that’s about 782 for peak, and 333 for during the day servers. At $1500/yr, that’s $1,173,000 per year for peak, and $499,500 for now. Plus any fees (usually several hundred each) for renting a new server.

Then we need to ask ourselves, how many people work for 343i?
Google says it’s 750 in 2020.
For the sake of argument, I’ll aim for the lower end of the average pay given to game developers in Washington.
3 different ranges, and they are:
Glassdoor $40-$130k Average is 85k
Ziprecruiter $52-$170k Average is 111k
Salary $56-90k Average is 73k
Average of $85k + $111k + $73k = $89,667 per year.
750 employees x $89,667 = $67,250,250 annually in payroll. This wouldn’t include any bonuses, or extras they spend. Before you say it, yes I am aware that not all employees are developers, some are artists, some are secretaries, etc. Just going off of a general number so you can understand the complexities.

This doesn’t include the cost of the game either to have been made either. What was the budget? 500 million for all of the extras, and the 6 year development. Let’s add all of that together, and see how much money this game has to make, in order to just break even. Remember, this is a BUSINESS.
$500,000,000 + ($67,250,250 x 5 years) + ($1,173,000 peak x 5 years) = $842,116,250, all the while remaining in a deficit.
So, if they only sold the multiplayer and campaign together at $60 and for the sake of the argument let’s not bring in any amount that the retailers would make, and just say they got the entirety of the amount.
$842,116,250/60= 14,035,271 copies would need to be sold. With the entirety of the series selling 81 million copies since 2001.

Does anyone actually see this and go ‘I still want all the stuff for free’? And if so, you’re a commie.

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You missed one of the biggest costs: third party contractors.

These aren’t reported under ‘employees’, and usually cost more (per head) than employees.

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Oh crap! You’re right! But even then, I bet people still say 'but it makes money, so they are making too much!" while these same people complain about the minimum wage being too low and people not making enough, not that the minimum wage is for jobs when you just enter the workforce… but that’s a whole other conversation.

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Unless you’ve got facts, you’ve pulled these numbers out of thin air. For one, active Steam users are not the entire playerbase. Most will be gamepass or at least Xbox as campaign cones with gamepass, and another, what’s with the commie comment? Not everything is “The Red Menace”. Not only that, if these numbers were the case, wouldn’t most paid games not be profitable?

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I don’t think that everything should be free, but an armor set shouldn’t cost more than $5, the Battle Pass should have more armor pieces and shouldn’t be as padded, challenge swaps should be free, and colors shouldn’t cost anything or need to be unlocked.

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no, you shill. I don’t care about your math.

Every single triple A game before MTX was paid for without them. If a game can’t be profitable without exploitative economics, it doesn’t deserve to exist.

Do you think that Halo 3 just didn’t exist because they couldn’t monetize it? No, the monetization came from the sale of the game.

Stop it.

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Original Post: Click at your own discretion

Summary

Look up on google:
Halo Infinite Budget = 500 mil
average pay for game developer in washington state = my numbers used for salary
343i Industries = number of workers
average Cost of game server = cost of game server.

Jesus Christ, use the internet.

Also, I obviously found a commie.

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lol when your parent company is Microsoft you dont have to worry about server costs, missed me with that

Imagine worrying about 50mill a year when you have hundreds of billions of dollars

This post is a waste of time

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Did you Google how many contractors they had. How many servers per game. How many users on Xbox. There’s a lot more than you need. Also the i in 343i is industries.

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…You still have to pay for these things? What the hell? There is still a cost to everything, just because your parent company owns servers, doesn’t mean those servers don’t need electricity, maintenance, repair, and the cost of ‘renting’ it out to a different vendor. You obviously don’t own a business.

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These servers won’t just be running Halo but multiple things. Servers pay for themselves, especially when other people higher them out.

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So are you just saying they overspent and are now scrambling to make it back?

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I’m aware, I mistyped, thank you for the pointing out.

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No, this is what AAA developers spend on these games normally. They GAVE AWAY the multiplayer, for free. Meaning a lot of people won’t actually buy the campaign. They are counting on the customization to pay for it, to allow people to play for free.

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I just don’t want legacy content locked behind a pay wall.

Other than that, the store and battlepass don’t bother me, it’s to be expected from a f2p game.

Plus the campaign is on game pass.

I will add, however, that more people would be likely to buy from the shop if prices were more reasonable. I can’t justify a 20 dollar bundle.

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Look here’s the gist:
We as players want the game to have the same level of customization as previous Halos, specifically Reach.
We want it without being charged the same money which can buy us 5 - 10 AAA games and be given subpar customization at the same time.

If you are gonna charge us 20 bucks per armor set and can’t let us mix and match or choose our colours, then no deal.

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You obviously don’t own a server either. Lol

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Nobody wants free stuff. Err, at least the people complaining about the monetization aren’t saying they want free stuff.

Knock it off with that weak -Yoink!- strawman, shill. And I never asked you for proof because the proof is meaningless.

Halo: 3 made $600 Million without MTX. Your argument is invalid.

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A parent company that’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars worrying about the electricity running the building? Oh no microsoft is going to go broke on air conditioning and paying their employees a fraction of their worth lol

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No this is not the average AAA development cost. There are people claiming it’s the highest budget ever(it’s not), but it is definitely among the highest.

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