GT5 costs $60 million to make, says Yamauchi-san

  • Posted November 6th, 2009 at 10:05 EDT by Mike Harradence
  • 7,116 views
  • 57 Comments

Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi has let slip that the hotly anticipated PlayStation 3 outing GT5 has cost developer Polyphony Digital a whopping $60 million to make.

Speaking with AutoWeek, Yamauchi commented: "There are other games that cost more," adding, "Considering the size and scale of the game, I think it's probably a fairly small amount."

If we’re going to compare notes, Too Human and Grand Theft Auto IV cost around $100 million to produce, while Dreamcast epic Shenmue – released back in 1999 – was budgeted at $70 million.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Polyphony Digital boss reiterated that the firm has yet to nail down a western release date for the game, though did spill a couple of interesting technical tidbits, such as the fact the each car in the game is made up of 400,000 polygons – 100 times more than those present in GT4.

Wrapping up, when asked whether or not they would be a Gran Turismo 6, Yamauchi replied: "Yes. You won't have to wait as long as you did for GT5. GT5 represents a whole new operating system. GT6 is just new apps that run on the GT5 system."

Stay tuned for more news on Gran Turismo 5 as it breaks.

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What are your thoughts?

  1. ProStréétMan! | JOSHIE-G

    • 10:06am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    60 million jeeeze

  2. SolidSnakeUS | SolidSnakeUS42

    • 10:12am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Wasn't Killzone 2 a bigger budget?

  3. mickice

    • 10:13am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    They'll make it back, GT5 is likely to make upwards of 16 million sales.

  4. starblinky

    • 10:28am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    well that game alone wil NEVER make that money back.. There arent enough car enthusiasts in the world who own a PS3 and want to play racing sims.

     

    HOWEVER, they will make the money back after they release more games with the same engine and tech. Save time and money

  5. Clover

    • 10:41am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Of course they will make it back and they will also make a lot of profits. The budget is reasonable considering the scale of the game and how long it took to develop, I expected a lot more.

  6. SultanSR | SultanRS4

    • 11:00am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @4: GT5 will sell at epic rates. I'm sure it will not only turn a profit, but it will do it very quickly. Epic games deserve epic sales. Therefore GT5.

  7. tadpole3159 | faulkner8991

    • 11:12am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    its just a boring old racing sim. sony cut this turd loose and invest in fun, not monotonous driving sims.

  8. FloodOne | FloodOne

    • 11:25am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    I'm going to laugh when nobody buys this game.

  9. roy8846

    • 11:35am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    even if it only sold 2 million worldwide

    $60 x 2,000,000 = $120,000,000

  10. GradJackson

    • 11:45am GMT - November 6th, 2009

     Easter bunny for GT6? 

  11. Rediaen

    • 11:46am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Can't wait to play this 60 million dollar game!  400,000 polys per car?!  that's insane!

     @7 it's just a boring old racing sim that is in direct competition with a competitor's similar title; It's not a "turd" as you put it.  It's a gem, buddy.  If any GT is a turd, it's the PSP version (in my opinion).

    @8 There's a whole lot of nobody's out there that will buy or already have bought via preorder (myself included).  Take a quick look at the sales figures for the past GT titles.  It's going to sell quite well.

    @9 That's not an accurate method of determining revenue, as PD will not see all $60 of the sale price.

  12. don77 | AP707

    • 11:49am GMT - November 6th, 2009

     lolo

  13. spawn of stumpy | spawn_of_stumpy

    • 11:53am GMT - November 6th, 2009

    yeah they'l be making a profit on this game very quickly. i`d imagine that more people will buy GT5 than Killzone 2 so if KZ2 cost more to develop(?) then PD are laughing.

    with them mentioning GT6 i wonder if PD will start to leave a few bits & bobs out of GT5. they may say "we couldnt get the damage to work properly to what the public expect, so we`l refine it & add as an update later." Then that update will eventually be GT6 in about xmas 2011.

    all speculation & ideas... GT5 will rock tho no doubt about that.

  14. Shau - Kenshin | Phantom-Rebirth

    • 12:28pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @2

    No sir, Killzone 2's budget was at 20 mill I think. Wel lthat was the last that I read.

  15. yevon

    • 12:31pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Yeah, beacuse they have sold many many gt prologue...

  16. PS3-The Ultimate Machine

    • 12:50pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    With that much money,they better make it perfect!

  17. O_G_H

    • 1:31pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Now that people know this, everyone will be inclined to hope it fails and talk even more garbage about it.  That's how Americans are, anyway.  They feel like when people get "too big for their britches", they need to be knocked down a peg.

     

    @4  Look at GT's sales stats as a franchise.  It's the most popular console franchise on the planet.  Get informed before you post.

  18. Stevie | XxSteviexX

    • 1:35pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    lol Too Human

  19. neoxthexone | neoxthexone123

    • 1:41pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @15

    GT Prologue is a demo I don't think alot of people are gonna pay £20 or so for a demo.

  20. O_G_H

    • 2:19pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    For all you people that don't know anything, read this OLD article about the domination of Gran Turismo:

    http://www.videogamer.com/ps3/gran_turismo_5/news/gran_turismo_franchise_sales_pass_50_million.html

    Notice that GT5: Prologue sold 2 million BLU-RAY copies at the time of this old writing (that doesn't count downloading it).  Not bad for an expensive demo.  By the way, like the guy above said, if GT5 just sells 2 million (the same as GT5:P) there's no issue.  This is what happens when the whole world likes your game, not just one country.

    You may be quiet now, kids.

  21. Old-M

    • 2:31pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    i hate when some kids laugh about the 60 million
    this game will remain  for 4 years
    not like NFS series .

    this days i play Forza3 its good but not like GT5

  22. fontanaboy09

    • 2:37pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @15 GT prologue was a demo!

    @17 thanks for pointing that out to him lol

    While i think 60 million is alot maybe too much but i DO think over the next few years and the games they bring out under that technology that they will make a slight profit.know i cant wait for GT5 What will be absoloutly Epic With a capital 'E' lol!!

  23. gameoholic | Demented007

    • 2:53pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @2 & 14- Killzone 2 actually costed around $60 mill to be developed. Think about it, 4 yrs to complete, that's a lot of $.

  24. .:XterminatoR:. | l5t7v9

    • 3:04pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    woo!

  25. Sufi

    • 3:16pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    we already knew that a few days ago but thanks anyway.

  26. phil615

    • 4:05pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    It'll have enough sales to make a profit and they can pimp out the tech to other studios for money or use it in future projects. I personally don't care about the game and am going to pass. And while looking at the past is a good way to extrapalate information and see trends don't think it's a determining factor. I know people that love the series and frowned at it when they played prologue. Sim racers may be too niche of a market in 2009-2010 to blow up.

  27. Mimming | Mimming

    • 5:46pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Honestly, its lower than I expected

  28. FLASH48

    • 6:10pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Don't know up to date figures on GT5 Prologue, but the last i seen it was at 3.9 million copies sold! That is mostly hardcore GT people!! So i'm guessing GT5 will sell between 5 to 10 million copies, before GT6 hits the shelves! Just my opinion!!! 61 year old Gran Turismo fanboy and proud of it!!!!!!

  29. DemonOfRazgriz07 | DemonOfRazgriz07

    • 7:24pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

     the physics engine better be overhauled from GT5P. it was HORRIBLE in that. id rather play GT4 than that garbage

  30. Sablerage

    • 7:44pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

     and if it doesnt sell. is that the end of the GT series???

  31. FloodOne | FloodOne

    • 8:26pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @17- Get YOUR facts straight. Gran Turismo isn't even in the top ten of all time video game franchises, and it definitely isn't the top selling console franchise either. That would go to Final Fantasy,  even if you subtract any PC sales of FF XI

  32. Greystones

    • 9:23pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

     @31

    Please do get YOUR facts right as the gran turismo game on their respective console to be outsold by any final fantasy game is GT2 and it was outsold by FF7, so it's acceptable. GT even outsold FF7 so you cant deny that it is one of the biggest game franchises in the world.

  33. LiamTG | LiamTG

    • 10:05pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    It's about time they released this

  34. podsaurus

    • 10:06pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    wut

  35. The_One | Pwnguinz

    • 11:00pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @31/FloodOne: Lul, epic phail. The highest selling video game franchise is Mario, at over 200 million copies sold, and followed FAR BEHIND by The Sims, with over 100 million copies sold. Neither GT nor FF even comes anywhere close to 200 million copies that Mario has sold, so keep dreaming. FF, for the record, has sold less than half of Mario, at 85 million copies (and this is from... how many games? 14 titles?) while GT has sold over 50 million copies before GT:P.

    Sources for both GT and FF sales:
    http://www.gamespot.com/news/6190676.html (GT 50 million copies sold, as of May 2008)

    http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/square-enix-exposes-sales-results (FF 85 million copies sold, as of April 2009)
     

    Sales per game, GT is definitely one of the biggest selling games, easily selling over 10 million copies per title (how else can they sell over 50 million copies with only 4 games?). Even Halo can't touch that (Just for reference, 5 million for Halo, 8 million for Halo 2, and 9 million for Halo 3).

     

  36. Lefein | Lefein

    • 11:09pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    Good Lord!

  37. mikezed

    • 11:53pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    400K polys for the car models - but they also modelled the interior.  And at most you only see (bits of) one of those, so it's not so useful to playing the game.  Not to mention that bigger models just means slower loading.

    Still, you gotta give it to them, they really didn't hold anything back.  But do they have much of a game?  Or is it just GT4 again?  GT3 was a better 'game' than 4 IMHO - the 'world map' idea just didn't work very well.  And maybe just because it was otherwise simply 'more of the same' it was just plain dull (although after winning the polyphony-1 f1 like car in gt3, starting back with a family car really sucked!).

     

  38. higgos22

    • 11:58pm GMT - November 6th, 2009

    @15 tell me about it they sold close to 3million in a prologue I mean seriously obviously a Prologue aint gonna sell much and its sold heaps already this game will undoubtedly make back the money

    and here in Aus its $90 a game so I am paying $90 Australian which these days is about $85 U.S. for a $60million game seems fair to me

  39. Fingal_D | Fingal_D

    • 12:08am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    hmm, i thought GT4 was way better than GT3, think about it, GT3 had no used cars. and GT4 had around 700 total cars, if i remember... and the visuals were better. yeah the great thing abt GT series is that you can drive a real car on a real course, realistically. umm "no i would rather play burnout".

  40. coverlord | Drahgoon

    • 2:55am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    Didn't microsoft play $50 million for GTAIV expanisions, if so I would rather GT5 anyday. IMO money well spent!

  41. sosa2123

    • 3:28am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    im surprice that theres dumb people who think this game wont sell enough

    the gran turismo series have always sold amazingly

     

  42. rentman

    • 4:41am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    tried playing gran trusimo,didnt like it as much as the need for speed series

  43. chumdiddy | DanWillHor

    • 7:50am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    @9

     

    numbers are more like:

    $48 x 2million = 96m

     

    game companies dont actually get 60 for their games. they sell to retail at about 12 dollars less than retail sells the game (on average).  still, making its money back even after advertising.

  44. Byuu | Midget

    • 9:21am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    If i'm not mistaken, GT5 Prologue sold 3.3mil + copies. If GT5 sells even half as well they will still make a profit.

  45. Greystones

    • 10:49am GMT - November 7th, 2009

     @35

    Your point was what i was trying to get at, just didn't want to start quoting stats. Thats why i said perspective consoles and said one of the biggest not the biggest.

    As for mario he has like 8/9 games just on the Wii and no one else has that many so if he wasn't number one don't you think that he deserves an epic fail.

    Thanks for the epic fail btw.

  46. Versus

    • 11:54am GMT - November 7th, 2009

    why tha heck would too human cost that much to make, that game is trash.

  47. Acid-Hippie2007 | Acid-Hippie2007

    • 12:23pm GMT - November 7th, 2009

    Lol,l I can't wait 1080p goodness !!!

  48. killakevmiket | kmtburton

    • 12:31pm GMT - November 7th, 2009

    It really seems like most of you just saw the headline and posted lol  but as others have said if they sell 2 mill they make a profit if they sell 1 mill they break even and lets face we all know this will sell at least 10-15 mill in its LIFESPAN

  49. BLAZEFACE | FLAKO_662

    • 5:18pm GMT - November 7th, 2009

    at 60 dollars a pop im sure they will make their money back

  50. mishal

    • 6:14pm GMT - November 7th, 2009

    I couldn't bought all of the "REAL" cars in this game for less than $60m

Related information

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