EA Games: ads costs 3 times more than development

G3ckoG33k writes: According to Electronic Arts officer Rich Hilleman, "[...]the price of producing console games has rocketed, with marketing costing up to three times more than the development of a title." Wow, so that gave me yet another excuse to not feel sorry for game producers porting between platforms anymore. The burn-rate comes from the marketing guys. Are these guys really needed? Can't good titles sell on their own anymore?