Ontario to subsidize game company w/263M$

[Cliche]

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssC...27495720090706

* Ontario gov't to invest C$262 million in Ubisoft

Various news articles indicate that Ubisoft itself will also invest 500M$ into a new studio that will open in Toronto. (Watch out for that killer unpaid overtime/crunch time for the testers and coders)

What is all this cash doing? Producing games such as the included clip.


Estimation is of 800 jobs over 10 years.

I have the Rabbids game for Wii! It's awesome!

[BlackArcher101]

So if you invest $500 mil into a new studio, where exactly does all that investment money go? I have no knowledge of the industry... are signing bonuses that high where it takes millions and millions just to staff it? Does the building itself cost $350 million?

[Cliche]

Production costs of ps3/xbox 360 games are supposed to run anywhere from 30-50M$ to make for a AAA title. Then there's the cost of programmers, artists, level designers, QA, marketing and office managers. And on top of that, you have to pay them all for 2-3 years before you are able to ship something out. 30-50 staff not including QA.

[mykalberta]

I wonder if Ubi might just move the Montreal shop to Toronoto?

Doesnt make a whole lot of sense investing in a new shop unless they think they can hire people away from shops already in Toronto.

[3 Justin 3]

Originally Posted by Cliche

Production costs of ps3/xbox 360 games are supposed to run anywhere from 30-50M$ to make for a AAA title. Then there's the cost of programmers, artists, level designers, QA, marketing and office managers. And on top of that, you have to pay them all for 2-3 years before you are able to ship something out. 30-50 staff not including QA.

If I am not mistaken the salaries, everything is included in the $30M when they say that is how much it costs. What else would the money go to? Programs? Alienware computers? Not $30,000,000 worth. It is almost all salaries. Well and marketing.

I don't know why they need $500 million invested though, that would be an enormous studio. The building itself shouldn't cost that much, but say they hired 1200 employees and each made an average of $65,000 a year. With $500,000,000 that would last them 6 years and 5 months. So I am sure they could produce a TON games in that time.

[Byrns]

So what is that like $300k per job? Good deal!

[BlackArcher101]

Ya, like I said... something's fishy here. Sounds like a military contract, where they buy $10 bic pens. Someones fleecing someone here and I can guess who that party is.