In our previous example, over 200,000 copies of the game would have to be sold before the developer would receive any royalty payments. In most cases, the developer does not receive any royalties beyond the advance unless the game is a huge success. It is not uncommon for a publisher to give a developer an advance on royalties in the neighborhood of one half million to one and a half million dollars to create a game. The publisher will usually spend at least another one million dollars in advertising and retail slotting fees. Bigger games that include a lot of digital movies or other content can be much more expensive to develop and advertising costs can be much higher for games with TV ads.
Many games cost publishers several million dollars.
Of course, there are plenty of low budget titles as well. Not great, but better than expected for such a small budget. This type of game is really hard to get placed in the retail stores. It is surprisingly difficult to get a game product on the shelves in a retail outlet. Most retailers are flooded with more product then they have room for on the shelf.