In an era where blockbuster open world games cost unfathomable sums of money to make, Ghost of Yotei looks like it’ll be a profitable endeavour for developer Sucker Punch.
Speaking in an interview with GameFile (paywalled), boss Brian Fleming explained that the sequel had a similar development budget to its predecessor. We know Ghost of Tsushima cost around $60 million to make, so it’s fair to assume its follow-up is in the same ballpark.
While this is still a lot of money, it means Sucker Punch should have no trouble making its investment back.
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We know as of September 2024 that Jin Sakai’s outing had sold around 13 million units and banked Sony a cool $400 million in revenue. Even if Yotei doesn’t perform at quite the same level, its higher launch day selling price should put it on a similar trajectory.
Of course, other costs do need to be considered on top of the $60 million; Sony will likely spend an enormous sum on marketing the game. But this isn’t a project that’s going to make or break the studio.
It’s actually rather refreshing to see a tentpole first-party title like this with a reasonable development budget attached to it.
It just goes to show that it is possible to keep costs manageable, and we struggle to see a scenario in which the game doesn’t post a tidy profit once all’s said and done.