Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart sold over 4 million units/made profit for Sony on a $81m budget [Up: June 2023]
- Thread starter MBS
- Start date
Yeah, considering the polish and presentation of the game (not to mention the ground breaking tech), I think $80 mill is absolutely a rational number for what it would cost to make Rift Apart.
It's certainly not in league with a Halo Infinite ($500 million) or whatever.
There is a slide from an Insomniac presentation that the next Ratchet and Clank development started this year. The team is scheduled to double mid-2024 and then that same team size is working on Ratched and Clank until it's release five years later.
I really think that this team is rather tech-savvy and is upgrading the engine for PS6 gen, and using R&C to test.
It was a launch game that showed off the power of the ps5. People still think ps5 is 'faster' because of it. I don't think it can be considered a loss.
Tbh, like I said in the other thread, i neevr expected this to not meet at least the spent money on the budget. I know they will continue doing more of it but this may scare ND to even try discussing reviving J&D.
I wish the platformer era didn't die with past gens.
I wish the platformer era didn't die with past gens.
We now have more recent numbers which puts the game at 2.340 million sell through, 2.7+ sell in, almost two years ago so I guess it wasn't as bad as this thread implied. That was before the PS5 became readily available too. The game has continued selling and will continue selling in the future too. It's a popular game.
Not sure what the mods here are doing tbh.
Not sure what the mods here are doing tbh.
Sales numbers for every PS4 and PS5 era PlayStation first party games have been leaked
Finally, a number greater than Bloodborne's official 1m sold lol
www.resetera.com
Judging by this the numbers seem a bit outdated and these seem to be from Feb 2022.
I like R&C well enough but we're on something like the 14th entry at this point. And it's never really been a massive seller. Would love to see Insomniac do another new IP or reboot Resistance or something alongside the Marvel pipeline and let R&C come back for PS6.
Coping as a little bit, with 2.2 mil numbers and 8mil needed to get it even, in theory a game sale that profits 30 dollars would require 266k more units, and I even checked by inflation (8 mil in 21 is 9 mil in 23), needs to clear 300k more sales.
The new information clarifying sales at 2.7mil are promising. Also, we are not quite yet at half way point so the game has time to sell even more.
How much money does Sony even make from singular 1st party game sale? Because not only did it reach 2.7 mil fast, it seems Rift Apart is profitable now, and its assets can be used in future too.
EDIT: And it seems its net sales are 145mil vs 80 mil budget as well.
The new information clarifying sales at 2.7mil are promising. Also, we are not quite yet at half way point so the game has time to sell even more.
How much money does Sony even make from singular 1st party game sale? Because not only did it reach 2.7 mil fast, it seems Rift Apart is profitable now, and its assets can be used in future too.
EDIT: And it seems its net sales are 145mil vs 80 mil budget as well.
sure it didn't make its budget back but its the perfect kind of game to have on ps plus for people to try when they get it. looks wonderful and shows off what the console can do and is family friendly. you're not gonna get much better games like that for their service.
There are no new numbers "clarifying" 2.7 million. The sell-in was 2.7 million before the PS5 was even readily available on the market, almost two years ago. It's practically impossible to deduce anything from that tbh. It could be at 4 or 5 million for all we know. Or still at 2.7. The only thing that has been proven is that the premise of this thread was incorrect.
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2.7mil was from Feb 22? Damn, that honestly makes it look even more promising. I read the news about 2.2mil earlier but that Feb 22 - 2.7mil seems very important info. There is incredibly high chance if not practically confirmed the game did just fine.
Sales numbers for every PS4 and PS5 era PlayStation first party games have been leaked
Finally, a number greater than Bloodborne's official 1m sold lol
Judging by this the numbers seem a bit outdated and these seem to be from Feb 2022.
Wow, so the basis of the thread is wrong.
Cool
Wow, that game was a BANGER. I'll be double dipping on it for PC in due time, just spending too much money right now.
whopping?
that budget is pretty on average-to-low end of what AAA costs these days.
I guess you'd be surprised!
I enjoy Rift Apart, but I didn't find it especially wow-ing.
The visuals and characters were fun, but the gameplay was pretty run of the mill, straight forward. you had a lot of tools, but what you did with them wasn't particularly novel and over time they felt kinda samey.
I should say that it's my first R&C game
OP's information is incomplete and old. Rift Apart did quite well.
I didn't see this thread; but, posted my thoughts over in the big leak thread.
Obviously, if Insomniac can't turn a profit with their own IP, then it's going to be hard for any good developers to take the same risks.
This industry is seriously unhealthy at the moment when it comes to development. This shit has become too complex and time intensive for anyone to gamble on their own ideas.
The model in place is if you are a small studio to hopefully make a big enough splash on your own with your first project to land a contract to crank out an IP franchise the next time up to bat.
At some point, the consumer (us) is going to have to accept either every game is a 5+ yr IP AAA title or some indie studio. There is no middle ground anymore it seems.
The loss is quantity of titles overall with drastically fewer new experiences being exchanged for familiar worlds that the IP beings.
Sad times all round for everyone.
I really feel for everyone at Insomniac and everyone that is now being confronted with the harsh reality that is the current state of play with console games.
The danger of people springing to make threads about every piece of news that comes out of a massive leak when most of it is just out of context internal presentation slides with no dates. At one point Rift Apart had sold 2.2M units this is true.
When that was? No fucking clue.
When that was? No fucking clue.
AAA gaming industry is on its knees. They've been trying to include GAAS elements to prop it up, but that's too contentious. I think AI is where the relief will really come from, which is also incredibly and understandably contentious, but also easier to hide.
There's a good example that looks aren't enough to sell the game. I got sucked in too when i was considering getting a PS5. It looked and was marketed as something amazing
I finished it a few months ago and the core gameplay was something out of 2015. Lets not pretend they re-invented the wheel with RnC. It was an okay game that looked pretty.
The sales reflected that.
I finished it a few months ago and the core gameplay was something out of 2015. Lets not pretend they re-invented the wheel with RnC. It was an okay game that looked pretty.
The sales reflected that.
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I would not say selling more than 2m when the system still had a low userbase is a failure. The development costs are perhaps a bit higher due to the it being the first Ps5-only game.
That said, I thought the game looked extremely pretty, but gameplay wise it didn't really do anything special.
I think some executives agree with you, but maybe just the ones that own platforms though. Hence why they were planning another one.
I think it would make sense if this chart was made when Spider-Man 2 crossed 10.5 million in sales. I think thats why the sales numbers for it dont match what youd expect.
I mean that schedule has it years down the line so it's possible they're still observing the tail sales to see if it can have legs and the sequel could easily still be canceled. It's on a schedule, but schedules are changed all the time in the industry and a game that's not even in preproduction yet getting canceled would hardly be surprising
Calling it a bomb or a flop is very malicious.
It wasn't a big earner but it most likely will turn a healthy profit at the end including late sales and % of PS+ however Sony accounts for that.
To me it was exactly the kind of game that made sense as an early exclusive.
It wasn't a big earner but it most likely will turn a healthy profit at the end including late sales and % of PS+ however Sony accounts for that.
To me it was exactly the kind of game that made sense as an early exclusive.
Well the numbers have been updated, and it very clearly did not flop.
OP
OP
The first initial slide was mentioning 2.2m. Probably physical only?
Made profit.
(Feb 2022)
W
Give me a sequel as soon as possible please.
Give me more open world-like regions with space travel and combat.
If a decent chunk of that $81m budget was spent with the intention of (a) this is R&D for our engine improvements going into PS5, and (b) we're giving Insomniac this much as the project is meant to be marketing for the PS5's capabilities, then it's hard to attribute it as a flop even if it didn't ROI on paper (although turns out it did). Considering when the next greenlit Ratchet is supposed to come out, sounds like it could be a repeat for the PS6.
Like, the ROI for a tech demo is, on paper, -inf%.
*reads update*
Thank christ, I'll take it. And that was an early PS5 title too. They're total wizards for pulling off what they did on just 80 million, to this day it's a showcase title for the console.
Thank christ, I'll take it. And that was an early PS5 title too. They're total wizards for pulling off what they did on just 80 million, to this day it's a showcase title for the console.
Well put. If it wasn't Ratchet eating the cost for the devtools and R&D they put together for a new console, it would have been something else. These things don't often take account systems they can build future games with.
Exactly demons souls, returnal and this are both impressive looking "high quality" games on a more mid sized budget they work as padding for the bigger apparently 300mill budget games to release to a larger player base.
In the cas of the ratchet the sequal it having the longest lead time of any of the insomniac fillow ups likely means it's also a ps6 exclusive in the same vein and a tech experimentation.
Thank god for the update lol. I wish it was a bigger seller, as it's one of my favorite series (been playing since Christmas 2002), but at least it's enough to keep making more.
I appreciate that Insomniac has enough love for R&C to keep it going all this time. The snippets about the next game seem amazing, even though it's so far away.
I appreciate that Insomniac has enough love for R&C to keep it going all this time. The snippets about the next game seem amazing, even though it's so far away.
I tried explaining this earlier in the thread and got called delusional.