Author | Lightnews

Reposted by midiphony

Nick (derogatory) ✨ @slothropsmap.bsky.social · May 23

I've received 100+ replies like this, claiming game revenue goes directly to executives & shareholders. So I checked & made this chart.

This is what happens when you buy a $69.99 game from EA, the company with the WORST reputation in the industry.

0.8% goes to c-suite. 53% goes to devs & workers.

A detailed table explains how a $69.99 purchase of a AAA video game is allocated across different cost categories. It has four columns: “Bucket,” “What it pays for,” “% of your payment,” and the dollar value out of $69.99. Eight spending categories are listed:

Labor costs for individual contributors and middle management – 53.2% or $37.23: salaries, bonuses, and benefits for ~13,400 engineers, artists, QA, producers, sales, and support staff.

C-suite compensation – 0.8% or $0.56: salary, bonus, equity awards, and benefits for the CEO and five other named executive officers.

Storefront & platform fees / hosting & payment costs – 7.0% or $4.90: fees to distributors like Steam, Sony, and Microsoft; data-center and bandwidth costs; manufacturing for physical units.

External dev tools & outsourcing – 10.0% or $7.00: engine and middleware licenses, motion-capture studios, co-development and localization contracts.

Paid advertising & promotions – 4.0% or $2.80: media buys, influencer deals, trailer production, and esports sponsorships.

Other overhead (non-labor) – 3.0% or $2.10: office leases, insurance, legal and audit fees, depreciation.

Taxes & interest – 5.0% or $3.50: corporate income tax and financing costs.

Net profit – 17.0% or $11.90: after-tax earnings either reinvested in business or returned to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

The percentages total 100%, accounting for the full $69.99 retail price.

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 1d

Or we could think the other way around, that big games are too expensive to make, and that studios should be prepared for the absolute gamble that these games represent

But yes, theoretically, the prices of games should have at least followed inflation

Reposted by midiphony

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 1d

this hasn't really broken through to most people but the state of the games industry is *dire* right now.

Cat Manning @catacalypto.bsky.social · 1d

I don’t talk about it much because the situation doesn’t really change but it’s still insane to me what an enormous amount of really talented game developers are out of work. just whole studios worth of incredible people, often people who worked on beloved games, unemployed.

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Charles Boury @charlesboury.fr · 1d

Do you like 3D?
Do you like devlogs?
Do you like custom tools?

What about a commented modeling timelapse created with a custom tool to cleanly record the whole 3D process of a game? And this for several hours, with crispy dev details!!?
#gamedev

Lucas Pope @dukope.bsky.social · 3d

"Return of the Obra Dinn" is seven years old this week.

For this not-particularly-special anniversary, here's a re-cammed and narrated timelapse of (nearly) all character creation, object modeling, scene posing, and general 3D work for Obra Dinn from 2015 to 2018:

youtu.be/90vqCKEEj3s

Return of the Obra Dinn - Narrated Modeling Mega Timelapse

YouTube video by Lucas Pope

youtu.be

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 2d

This couldn't do the job ?
github.com/KhronosGroup...

GitHub - KhronosGroup/glTF-CSharp-Loader: C# Reference Loader for glTF

C# Reference Loader for glTF. Contribute to KhronosGroup/glTF-CSharp-Loader development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

1

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Vlambeer @vlambeer.com · 2d

Happy 15th birthday to Super Crate Box! Ask your grandparents what it was like when the game first came out. supercratebox.com

a screenshot of super crate box, a chicken using a katana on some green monsters in a construction yard.

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Reposted by midiphony

lou-ellen @louceph.com · 3d

please watch movies and read books and play games and look at art, please view it with your own eyes through a lens you made yourself and not just through video essayists and ending explained videos please im begging you

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Tele-Piper @roodypatooti.bsky.social · 5d

@adikrunch
mario galaxy games will have the most beautiful transcendent piece of music you've ever heard in your life and it'll be called Bouncy Bastard Galaxy

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Kenney @kenney.nl · 6d

I recently came across this pack of 1,200+ fonts, loved it, got in contact with the creators and I can now offer a 90% off (!) coupon for all Kenney friends!✨

itch.io/s/160768/fri...

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Reposted by midiphony

Robin-Yann Storm @rystorm.com · 3d

For example, let’s say you have an internally built game engine. You suddenly realize the narrative pipeline is too slow, and need to hire a tech designer to build more dialogues and quests.

You hire someone, and it takes them about a year to get comfortable with your custom code base and pipeline.

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 3d

Pas mal, mais je préfère quand même
youtu.be/GGz3yRFCqUY

Kaaris x Evangelion - Bouchon de liège (remix)

YouTube video by Veridis Project

youtu.be

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 4d

There's a new Double Fine game ???

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 4d

I think I'm traumatized by Teams search capabilities 😅

Reposted by midiphony

Julien Paniac @julienpaniac.bsky.social · 4d

Parfois, sur Google Maps, des endroits passent brusquement d'une photo satellite à une autre.
maps.app.goo.gl/asoRZZNdJu8j...

maps.app.goo.gl

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 4d

Omg need

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 4d

Drowning in mails is a separate (nevertheless really important) issue

- Need some async convo : Slack/Teams chat or thread
- One-time announcement : mail
- (bonus) Should still be known months from now : pleeeeaaaase document this anywhere (some Confluence ideally)

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 4d

The scene inheritance workflow seems so broken and dangerous 🫤

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 5d

Ouah le PTSD
(merci!)

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 5d

Le TD ?

1

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ExServ @exserv.bsky.social · 8d

C'est bien je repoussais le moment de passer à Linux mais va falloir s'y mettre si c'est ça l'avenir

Tom Warren @tomwarren.co.uk · 8d

This is the future of Windows. Microsoft wants to rewrite Windows to turn computers into AI PCs that you talk to. It's now bringing AI features to all Windows 11 PCs today, in a bid to convince you to talk to your PC and let AI control it. Full details 👇 www.theverge.com/news/799768/...

Microsoft wants you to talk to your PC and let AI control it

Copilot Voice and Vision are now rolling out.

www.theverge.com

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Reposted by midiphony

Adriaan @adriaan.games · 8d

Thread on what it took to port Rift Riff, made in Godot, to iOS and Android. 🧵👇

#godotengine #gamedev

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 12d

It's the opposite lol
KH2 doesn't make sense without playing the GBA and the DS game

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midiphony @midiphony.bsky.social · 12d

And you're lucky if you still can find info on a forum post, because otherwise it's hidden inside some obscure Discord servers (which are not at all indexed by Google)

Reposted by midiphony

Wario64 @wario64.bsky.social · 15d

Heart Machine making layoffs and ending development on Hyper Light Breaker www.gamedeveloper.com/business/hea...

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Chris Plante @plante.bsky.social · 14d

"I think the video game industry, as we know it today, might not be around for much longer [...] but I think video games as an art form and as a product are stronger than they've ever been and will only continue to be."
@jasonschreier.bsky.social

www.patreon.com/posts/140869...

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