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Where Does Your $60 Go?


Games today come with that almost unsettling $60 price tag. Most of you probably wonder — where does that $60 go? Steve Perlman, the founder of OnLive, recently spoke at the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain Summit and gave everyone a look at how that $60 gets broken down.

This is where your money goes

As you can see, that $60 gets split up several different ways and in the end the publisher only ends up with a little less than half of what the retail price is. This should also help you understand why GameStop loves to sell used games. They are much more profitable.

Anatomy of a $60 video game [LA Times]

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11 Comments
  • kingmartini kingmartini
    February 26, 2010
    Reply #1

    where is the tax part

    Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

  • Boobman Boobman
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #2

    I don’t think this bad at all. This makes sense for me. I can see why it’s split up in certain places..

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  • Radar38 Radar38
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #3

    This is interesting. More than half go to people other than the publisher. It’s a nice find.

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  • Popo popotatocakes
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #4

    How does rentals play into this (GameFly)?

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  • cynicalbrit cynicalbrit
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #5

    That seems about right to me. Honestly that’ a reasonable payback for the publisher to get per copy. I imagine it doesn’t cost them $27 or anything close to it, for each copy of the game.

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  • .:Ra:. .:Ra:.
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #6

    Very interesting stats. I never knew the costs were divided up like this.

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  • CiviCity MrTastyDDR
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #7

    i thought publishers get 50/50…guess i was wrong :P

    Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

  • KR3W619 KR3W619
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #8

    Wow that’s actually way less than i thought publishers and retailers made from a game.

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  • McLovin jake1214
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #9

    Very Interesting Kreyg. O never gave much thought as to where my money went, but it’s good information to know.

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  • Craig G. Craig G.
    February 24, 2010
    Reply #10

    It’s kinda sad when you realize how little of the money actually goes back to the developers. Especially when the publishers are taking so much, despite doing nothing but packaging/marketing…

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    • bob bob gray
      February 24, 2010
      Reply #11

      This fact saddens the hell out of me too. The developers are the ones who put all the work into the awesome games we play and hardly get any credit or compensation equal to their dedication.

      Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0


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