And to make our round of quick math even more thrilling, the latest report shows Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had sold 5 million copies by October 8 – a little over two months ago – which, at $50 a unit minus the assumed 30% distribution fee, nets the developer and publisher $175 million, covering the game’s cost more than 17 times.
To quote Owen Mahoney, Nexon’s former CEO, “I think that the AAA industry is structurally at its end. And without a serious rewrite of the ways we go about making games, it’s going to end in more disaster than it has already.” Comparing the budget of Clair Obscur with that of the AAA games listed above, it becomes clear as day what Mahoney meant.
