Comment Why Game Developers should unionize or revolt! (Score 3, Insightful) 35
Here is some math, using only Horizon Forbidden West as an example, showing only one thing...
The employees who build these games getting royally screwed while executives are lining their pockets (because I'll bet you my next 10 year's salary that if the game developers for these companies either unionized or created their own company through an exodus...they could continue developing games (doing something they love) while getting paid dramatically more for their time (valued).
Total Units Sold to Date = 8,400,000
Per Unit Price (MSRP) = $69.99
Gross Sales = $587,916,000.00 (does not include sales tax)
[According to (conflicting information, see NOTE BELOW) data available on https://www.salary.com/researc... ]
# Employees = 300
# Years to Build = 5
Avg. Salary per Employee at Guerilla Games ~= $125,000.00 (used tabular data to calculate average, excluding executives, not prose/copy at beginning...it is incorrect)
Total Estimated Game Development Cost ~= (5 years * 300 staff * $125,000 per year on average) = $187,500,000
Net Revenue ~= $400,416,000.00
Sales Margin ~= 68.11%
Assuming Sony makes 20% of (Gross Sales) as part of agreement to distribute ~== $117,583,200
Assuming marketing costs an additional 50% of build cost ~== $93,750,000
Assuming operational (server ) setup costs are ~== $2,500,000
Assuming 1st year operating costs of $5,000,000
NOT INCLUDING EXECUTIVE PAY, DIVIDENDS, DEPRECIATION, and INTEREST INTENTIONALLY FOR SIMPLICITY
TOTAL EST. 1st Year NON-DEVELOPMENT COST ~== $218,833,200
TOTAL EST. 1st YEAR COSTS !== $406,333,200 (DEV COST + NON-DEV COST)
EST. 1st YEAR TAXABLE INCOME ~== $181,582,800 (GROSS REVENUE - TOTAL 1st YEAR COSTS)
EST. 1st YEAR TAX ~== $38,132,388
1st YEAR NET PROFIT ~== $143,450,412
Est. NET PROFIT for just this one title ~== $143,450,412 (almost enough to fund 100% cost for development of a net-new title, or fund an ACTUAL PENSION for these people to incentivize them to stay on and be loyal to the company until they retire)!!!
Of course, we all know, that net profit is NOT benefitting the people who built the game, but rather...it is going into executive pay, bonuses to executives, kickbacks to board members and where applicable dividends to investors.
Wouldn't the world be a better place for everyone, if instead, that net profit was divided equally across the game development staff??
FOR EXAMPLE: If, for just this one title, Guerilla Games gave that net profit to the people that built the game, that would be ~== $478,168 (per employee), an amount that has the potential to dramatically change the lives of each of those three hundred (300) people forever for the positive!!!