Control 2 is an Action RPG, Needs to Sell 3 to 4 Million Units to Breakeven - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 19 November 2024 / 2,169 Views
Remedy Entertainment in its Capital Markets Day 2024 presentation announced Control 2 is an action RPG.
The developer also revealed Control 2 needs to sell between three and four million units lifetime in order to break even as the game has a budget of €50 million.
Control 2 will enter full production in 2025 and is in development for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Control has sold over 4.5 million units worldwide and has surpassed 19 million players and Alan Wake 2 has sold over 1.8 million units.
The developer last month announced FBC: Firebreak, a three-player co-operative first-person shooter set in the Federal Bureau of Control from the game Control. It will launch for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam and Epic Games Store, Xbox Game Pass, and PlayStation Plus Game Catalog in 2025.
Remedy Entertainment is also developing Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake, which entered full production earlier this year.
Alan Wake 2 has also recouped most of its development and marketing expenses as of the end of September. The Lake House DLC and the Physical Deluxe Edition released on October 22.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
It'll be easier to accomplish if they release physical on release day!
3 - 4 million is a big spread. so which one is it?
Games don't have fixed prices, so there is no one magical number. The more copies sold at full price the lower unit sales needed to break even and vice versa. Dev revenue varies by where the sale is made (retail, Vs PS store Vs Steam etc)
Video game development is also unpredictable so the cost could easily go under/over budget.
Can't see it happening, Remedy will he brought out after this release doesn't sell its numbers.
Let's wait to see the game at least.
Budget of €50 mil but needs to sell 3-4 million at probably $70 to breakeven. How does that work?
yeah that Math ain't Mathing.
Best I can figure is it's gonna cost them (the developer) 50mil, and when you take out publisher fees, platform fees, retail fees, and add in advertising (assuming that isn't included in the 50mil) it comes out to 3-4 million copies to break even. Cuz I mean just 50mil divided by $60 is under 1 million copies. So maybe the developer only gets like $20 or something after all the other costs/fees and if they do a ton of marketing, like $20 million, that'd come out to 3.5 million to break even. Don't know how the financials work on game sales but that would seem to be the only way that figure makes sense.
With a untaxed price of 50 euro per unit, it means around 40% doesn't go to the dev. In that case wouldn't marketing fall to the publisher. Since around 30% goes to platform holders, and 10% to retail. It means the publisher gets around 20% so for that kind of money they would need to do something I guess.
If you are talking retail, the dev/publisher only gets about $20 of that $70. If you are talking digital sales, if it is on Steam/Nintendo eShop/PlayStation Store/Xbox Store, it is a 70/30 split, with 70% going to the dev/publisher. So $49 for a $70 game. On Epic Games Store, the split is 88/12, so they get to keep ~$62 of a $70 priced title.
That is the split for the dev/publisher, with the split between those two being agreed upon by them in private terms. I am guessing for Remedy/505 Games, it is pretty heavily in Remedy's favor since they do all of their funding themselves for the actual development. Probably like a 90/10 split or something.
FYI - the 505 Games split only applies to any physical release of Control 2. Remedy fully publishes titles themselves on digital platforms; 505 is only there for the physical distribution. So Remedy would keep 100% of that 70% of their digital title releases.
I mean action-RPG is a broad term but sounds a bit weird on paper
