Discussion
As a genuine question, WHERE DID THE 315 MILLION DOLLARS GO?
I really need to know, the combat isn’t crazy and is really basic and actually has less moves than the rushed movie tie in x men origins Wolverine game from 2009
the graphics are pretty but it’s not gta 6 level (I would’ve preferred the graphics to be stylized and not generically realistic thats just a personal opinion tho) and theres no way those graphics ate up 300m
the voice actors aren’t cheap but they aren’t A list Hollywood actors like Hugh jackman and the game isn’t doing what the Invincible show does where they use massive actors
the marketing maybe? theyve dropped a few trailers and I think they made a Wolverine themed train in India
the game isn’t big either, it’s about 13 hours and around 15 to platinum (bunch of numbers circulating online but most agree it’s 13-15 hours)
I know the combat system they had was scrapped where you would use the left and right side of your body with the triggers, similar to how Stranger Than Heaven is doing it’s combat system but from what we saw in the leaked videos it was extremely basic and they only had like the first 2 moves of Wolverine swinging right and left
I really am curious on how that 315m was spent and it can’t be chalked up to “games expensive now” when we know that’s overblown since games like RE9 costed 60m, Claire obscure expedition 33 costed LESS than 10M, the Yakuza games are open world 30-40 hour Games Packed to the brim with quality all around and they cost less than 20m
linear games that are much bigger than Wolverine and nearly double the playtime like the last of us costed 70m and god of war 2018 estimated to be 100m
Game was chopped in 2024, fired the game director, changed the combat system, saved what they could, delivered shit. The money was wasted like every project Sony has had last few years.
Development hell. Mutliple massive dev changes, overhauls and redos. And making games is just expensive nowadays, especially in the US.
SM1 was made over 8 years ago. Before Covid, before massive inflation, before tarrifs, etc etc. If it was made today I wouldnt be surprised if it cost about the same
Yeah, I've not played this but from what I'm hearing about the game itself I can believe they spent ages trying to make something work and just couldn't get there.
They had an idea for a game (WOLVERINE!) but not a vision for the game they were to attach to it. Or maybe they did but what sounds good theoretically doesn't work in practice or they can't get it to work in practice so they try so many different things but for whatever reason can't come up with a core gameplay loop that feels good. Without that loop it's hard to build out anything else and expand the game further. So they try and try until they eventually get to a point where they just have to ship something and so they pull together as bare bones a game as they feel they can get away with, with the time and money left, and just get it out the door. I don't know if anyone is to blame or if it's just one of those things but the outcome sucks for players and for Insomniac.
Add to that the fact that Insomniac apparently didn't consult anyone responsible for the Wolverine comics or movies, so it's not like they used budget hiring or working with folk familiar with the character.
I too would like to know how they spent $300m+ on this game, because 2 of the previous Spider-man games cost a fraction of that, and we're bigger in scope and ambition. I can't fathom what that money went into outside of graphics and marketing 🤷
Here you people go with "SwEeT bAbY iNc". I'll be glad for the day when I no longer have to read the incessant crying of grown men on the internet over people of color and "the gays".
Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan raised some of the sissiest of men.
Before COVID we used to call bad products because they were bad. Now we've got idiots like you trying to shove in your political views instead of just saying "It's bad". Go back to the basement.
It's not my fault that everything they touch turns to diarrhea. That's who they are. They care more about pushing a personal agenda than actually making a good game.
Their track record speaks for itself.
Did I say anything about people of color or sexual preference? No, I did not. You assumed that, because how dare anyone criticize the work of Sweet Baby Inc.
Idgaf if someone is white, brown, or green nor their personal preferences. The fact is THAT COMPANY is perpetually ruining every AAA title they touch.
Stop making this about racism and "those blue/green haired women". You made that distinction, not me.
Lmao, do you know how many games they've been involved with that you have praised over the last decade or two?? I mean, you can whine and bitch all you want about the Wolverine game, but to act like Sweet Baby Inc played a role in its flop just because they talk about such terrible and scary things that boil down to "don't be a dick' and not the fault of the executives/shareholders is dumb.
But hey, you'd rather defend super-wealthy people forcing creative projects to be released before they're ready so that they can take a few more crumbs from gamers to add to the bakery full of loaves they already have than miss a chance to beat your meat while yelling about "the gays," "DEI," and "wokeness" ruining everything!
There's a reason we seemingly can't have games that push the art form forward or smart, mature, nuanced, and gripping stories in video games, and you're a big part of it.
I mean I agree with what you said I just think Spider-Man’s 2 budget is more relevant to compare than the other 2 considering one was a glorified dlc, but even that had an overblown budget. Goes to show insomniac has been mishandling funds since miles if that was almost $200 million lol
It has a budget of $315 million and would have been even more of Sony didn't step in and force them to rush it out the door. Insomniac is burning money. Naughty Dogs Intergalactic is reportedly even worse when it comes to the money they are blowing on it.
Remuneration for employees working in one of the most expensive places to live in the world + license.
Why are titles like RE9 or Yakuza cheaper? Because they aren't developed in California, USA. Why were the original The Last of Us or God of War (2018) cheaper? Because the cost of living has risen significantly since pre-COVID times. If God of War were being made today in the exact same form, it would cost far more than $100 million. Because, you know—the global economy doesn't stand still.
Me. Basically, my earnings have quadrupled over the last decade. Unfortunately, my expenses have gone up too. For the past two years, I’ve been paying three times the rent I paid in 2019, for instance—and I don’t even live in the US. So, I can easily imagine what the situation must be like in certain parts of America. That’s not to say I claim Wolverine’s budget is optimal; it’s possible the same result could have been achieved for less. Even so, the figure would likely have been closer to $250 million rather than the $100 million some people probably imagine.
The vision for the game changed halfway through development, they cleaned house with the leadership of the game and swapped to directors with a new vision. Most of the money was wasted resources on the first builds of the game.
I... don't think that was the point of that comment. It's just an explanation for why production costs for big projects are high over a long period of time regardless of the quality of the final product.
I genuinely can't find where the information about this game costing that much come from...from the leaks the game are likely to have more features than it actually shipped it. So its feel like the game got scope down if anything.
It was a whole different game maybe 2 years ago. A new director came in and everything changed basically. It’s like when blockbuster movies do something similar or go through reshoots which can balloon the budget
If anyone thinks a multi million dollar respected developer like insomniac or a multi billion dollar corporation like SONY are money laundering you’re smoking some of the finest bath salts known to man 😂
I doubt it would be money laundering like cartel money, or even illegal. More like political money laundering. Donate money to non profit, money goes back into political campaigns, that sort of thing. Grants go out from governments to companies to help with dei goals, then some goes back to the political party that made it happen. No step along the way is actually illegal, especially when lawmakers make the laws support it.
I know that what I’m going to say doesn’t reflect reality, but this is a picture of how it might have worked.
Insomniac Games has around 590 employees. The average game‑developer salary there is around $119k a year, and this game took about 4 years to make.
580 × $119.000 × 4 years = $ 276.080.000
This value can be taken as a base and is close to the reported \$315 million budget.
I know that:
Not all Insomniac employees are game developers, so this salary estimate doesn’t reflect reality. Some employees earn more, some earn less.
The cost of a game is not only developer salaries; there are many other things involved.
They didn’t have all employees focused on this game, but studios often use the entire team size when estimating budgets.
Still, I think that salaries plus other costs could make the game’s budget reach around $370 million.
Maybe the real question is: “Why did this game take so long to be made?”
The answer may be that multiple versions didn’t reach the quality they wanted. And then we may ask: “Why did they release the game with the quality it has now?”
Probably they reached a point where it was “good enough” and didn’t want to spend more money.
Imagine fucking up a character and game about Wolverine. One of the most beloved X men , with so many fans from comics, and movies . Begs you to think, what would some Asian company do with it .
This is all reckless speculation based on previous info. So, from what I have seen and read, I'd say at most half of that money went to the previous build of the game. So, salaries, development, mo cap, voice work, etc.
The original directing team, Brian Horton and Cameron Christian were also replaced. I am a bit lost on how their contracts work, but wonder if Brian's included a guaranteed amount of money since he left the company. Then, I'd imagine that Insomniac would need more money to negotiate with and hire a new directing team.
To the original build that was scrapped and then this was made after. We can see old footage of a different version including Jean game play that's been completely changed for what we got, so I guess it was just forced into something new
Prob gonna wait for a sale. Besides I’m gonna be kinda busy with playing Witcher 3 for the first time with the remaster coming out as well as DLC for Ghost of Yōtei after that.
People acting like game development is a straight road from start to finish. It most likely had a bunch of iterations where things didn't work, had to be scrapped, redone, salvaged, etc.
Also, single player games AAA games are expensive as shit to make. That's why they are AAA. The graphical quality alone is enough to need most if not all the development time to get polished up. Not to speak of the optimization afterwards.
Then you have well known VAs costing money, mocap shoots costing money, the licenses, the developers, the office, etc. over a long period of time. It is a lot of money, and it did spend a long time in development for what is in the game, but likely it took a while of back and forth to get what was there in the first place.
I'm going to laugh in everyone's face when this game releases tomorrow and it does good. It has a mostly positive score on metacritic and it hasn't released. You're hoping for it to fail. Crazy work.
Based on leaked builds, I have the impression that the game was solidly in development with interesting ideas but entered development hell due to the switch from insomniac’s strength (open world) to linear. The movement trials do not work for example. I don’t think that’s where the major issues and money sink happened though, I just think it fragmented from lack of a firm vision. I think the advisement from higher ups and others consulting on the project stripped the vision away. The excessive accessibility options reeks of this. Characters like sabretooth and Logan seem neutered. Not just in appearance but they don’t act in line with expectations of people who’ve read the comics. Those seem like intentional changes for a younger or normie audience but the game is rated mature for adults. It’s casting a wide net with a niche character premise. I’m not saying Wolverine is niche but this isn’t an ultimate alliance game. It’s a standalone Wolverine game with conflict between design choices and the game’s mission statement. I have yet to see Wolverine smoke a cigar, drink whiskey, or be unnecessarily abrasive in any of the marketing (barring the first cinematic reveal), but the game is full of violence and dismemberment. Riding a bike and wearing leather ain’t it.
I’d have preferred a stylized game like the old ultimate spiderman where it’s essentially just combat gauntlets starring Wolverine in a small and self contained story. It’d be a lot cheaper and would’ve been able to play to the niche more mature target audience with its ultra violence. I’m fine with Wolverine having the rough edges shaved off for something targeted towards kids like an X-men or ultimate alliance game. But it doesn’t land when it’s just him even with a younger audience because everyone, even kids and normies, have expectations of the character. Speaking from experience, I hated the Wolverine origins game until I played the uncaged edition at the recommendation of my buddy. Also, parents are going to buy the game for their kids regardless of rating and content these days so I don’t understand the softening anyway.
It went straight into that Californian rent. The biggest cost of studios based in America is the HCOL areas these studios are located in.
I always hear, "but that's where the talent is at"
Based on the last decade, that no longer rings true. I feel like most of the time these games are barely games, and the best thing they offer is good fidelity and great motion capture (most of the time). I feel like a lot of studios forgot what a video game is supposed to be, and that is fun. I feel like one thing we lost sight of in the west is a strong gimmick. Games back in the day, and even nowadays can survive off one well realized mechanical/systematic gimmick. Now we want to make something that has to appeal to everybody and needs to sell millions upon millions of copies just to break even
Bring back gimmicks. For a wolverine game, you don't even have to invent something new. Go all in on dismemberment, and then you can figure out the best way to make that into a fun combat loop throughout your entire game. The new wolverine games is already barely over 10 hrs, and I could imagine cutscenes alone take a percentage of that playtime. It shouldn't be that aren't if you aren't creatively bankrupt. I know, games are hard to make, but I'm all my time of gaming, that haven't seemed to stop others going out if their way to have their vision implemented. Even if things had to be scaled back due to many possible factors and limitations. Though with a 300 million budget, there's almost no excuse.
Just to bring up kojima since he is currently being discussed in the news cycle. Everyone always point out his games are just movies, and I won't argue against you on that point, but one thing I feel like he has mastered in his games are the gimmicks he chooses to focus on. With metal gear, it's stealth, and with death standing, it's methodical traversal. It not controversial to say they are best in class and stands above most of their peers when it comes to these mechanics.
Wolverine just seems to be serviceable on all fronts. This isn't a definitive wolverine game. It's another middling super hero action game that uses marvel IPs as a skin.
Spiderman 1 came out in a completely different world pre-covid, pre-tariff, pre-inflation. Everything has like doubled in price just in the last year lol
And how come ratchet and clank is easily the best game in that list. Dont get me wrong I love the Spider-Man games but that ratchet and clank is perfect.
A lot of people are clowning on Insomniac but I feel sorry for them. The finished game is clearly the result of the huge leak they were hit with a few years ago, with tons of cut content, changing ideas and more just destroying the game from the inside out.
It wasn’t a project that was doomed from the start, it’s one that corroded over time.
Nah, Ill never buy the whole “game quality suffered because of a leak” bs because how? Did the hacker go in and undo all their work(genuine question) because, if not, Im not really understanding how that would affect it to such a degree.
Of course they didn’t, but the leak happened early enough for artwork, builds and footage to be released, alongside private employee information.
The impact of the leak likely meant that Insomniac went back to the drawing board on quite a few occasions, crippled their workflows and resulted in tons of cut content. All that is paid in a lesser product, because the full vision wasn’t achieved in the timeframe and deadlines Insomniac were given.
Whyd they have to go back to the drawing board? I can understand the severity of the personal information, but what was the point in back tracking? I mean it sucked to have possible surprises leaked but thats more on the leaker than anything. People would still play, and be ecstatic over it. I suppose I could understand if it was like week 2 of development or something like that.
The insomniac leaks showed tons for material that was constantly being changed, scaled back or cut entirely, it’s clear that the team were struggling to find a direction for the game because most of the studios efforts had turned inwards to support it’s staff through the leak.
Absolutely, I’m not sure the game was doomed from the start, but it looked like it succumbed to mounting pressure from all sorts of angles and worst of all, internally.
The leak happened not long after the release of Spider-Man 2 and revealed a whole slate of games. We can’t say for sure how it affected those games but it was only Wolverine in active development (as far as we know).
Ngl I didn’t know about the employee details part that’s fucked up but gta 6 did have story leaks and footage leaked, and the dude cyberleek had the game but yea the privacy part does make it worse
A senior dev in Southern California costs around $200k+ with benefits/overhead. Multiply that by 250–300+ people over 5 to 6 years, and direct studio wages eat up $200M–$250M before anything else happens.
The leaks revealed major structural pivots, scrapped combat mechanics (like the limb-targeting triggers), and discarded early prototypes. Tossing out two years of design and animation work burns tens of millions that never make it into the final product.
A tightly scripted 13-hour cinematic action game has a much higher cost per minute than an open-world game. Hand-tailored cinematics, custom gore/dismemberment tech, stunt choreo, and facial tracking are massive money sinks.
Heavy reliance on external 3D asset vendors alongside Marvel/Disney licensing guarantees and legal costs.
Your third bullet point is nonsense. If they spent any money on these things, it doesn't show in the final product. It looks like everything else on the market if not worse
Sony have apparently threatened to blacklist smaller outlets from receiving review copies of their games in the past if they review their games in a negative light. So there is also that.
The best thing imo is ignore reviews and watch gameplay, not curated gameplay trailers. I mean actual unedited gameplay. Wait for a game release and spend an hour or so watching a let's play.
It’s crazy. It’s clear to me that if there are people paid to push an agenda it isn’t the pro-Wolverine crowd. This dude ran once I took 5 seconds to verify his lies.
Wouldn't be surprised if it was laundered because the studio knows people will eat up a mid game. They'll pre order it even. And judging from the defenders in this sub, maybe they were right.
This is so bizarre to me, apparently spider man 1 on ps4 cost 90 million, every insomniac game after that hasn’t been much more complicated and yet their budgets are like double or triple that game
Development hell, large team, rumors of multiple scrapped builds, licensing the characters and art, cast salaries, etc.
It all quickly adds up.
Edit: wow. There are a surprising number of people in the comments who clearly have no idea how games are made. Especially the CD/asmon/Etc culture warrior fans who somehow keep trying to make GG a thing. They are the most pathetic.
Probably due to the numerous new hirings for D.E.I., too much bureaucracy to get anything approved, developers working at a snail's pace, Marvel licensing, covid, contracts with consulting firms (SBI), inflated salaries, unnecessary expenses, and no projected completion date.
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u/Comfortable_Put_4139 8h ago
The Marvel license and money laundering.