T3D Xbox Portability

#1 In process right now.

EDIT:
For XDK developers, just like for the TGEA port to Torque 360.

#2 Awesome I can't wait :D

#3 Yay, Thats Much Easier then the TX process!

#4 ..no extra GG license fees until someone publishes ? or ?

#5 I'd imagine that it works the same as Torque 360 did. You have to have access to the XDK and then contact GG to arrange a licence.

#6 I'm trying to find out if there is a large cost involved to get up and running. ..I don't think that information needs to remain private.

#7 How large is "large"?

Most middleware for consoles ranges in the $10,000 to $2.5m range. And very, very rarely do you see the $10,000 range.

EDIT:
It should also be noted that console licensees are under strict NDA's about what they can and cannot communicate publicly.

#8 Would you say that the T360 will be under 10 000?

#9 I cannot publicly release pricing information. We are extremely competitive in terms of pricing with other engines in our market sector.

According to the few postmortems on XBLA development, the cost to produce and certify an XBLA game is between $150,000 - $750,000. Very little of that comes down to middleware licensing. Much of it is certification passes and tons of programmer and artist time. The low end assumes that all of the art assets are production-ready and may only need a localization pass if you have any text on your images.

#10 Thanks good to know :D

Im mostly interested in licensing and certification. What is the difference between the certification passes and a localization pass?

#11 Proper localization will be one of your passes depending on the release structure and guidelines. I was going to link to the full postmortem on N+, but I can't find it. I can only find the synopsis on Gamasutra.

#12 I was wondering about that too. How much it will cost to have the title released as AAA title on Xbox360. Besides the cost of the artists and programmers work and even the money to spend to find a publisher how much approximately will it cost to pay for obtaining the approval from Microsoft (XDK) and the license from GarageGames?
I understand that this cannot be said how much exactly , but at least any numbers to be told... :)

#13 I also found this article if anybody is interested

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15650

#14 For a boxed title, you have to consider production costs. From there your price-range jumps way up for all consoles.

#15 I also found this one about a developer's personal experience

http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2007/08/xbla_certification_jeff_minter.php

I'm actually excited that the process is not that easy. The harder something is to do the more 'special' the product is.

#16 I know that, David. But for a single console (for instance Xbox or Wii) ?

#17 Console development often feels like a chicken and the egg puzzle; it's a built-in catch-22 since most everything is under strict NDA. For example, you can talk generally how your company had problems with the localization process in certification for XBLA or how the game failed LotCheck twice on the Wii due to sound issues on the controller, but you cannot discuss how you fixed them publically nor the individual components of the LotCheck or cert problems that you faced publicly usually because they are extremely specific to the NDA's publishing process or certain NDA'd features of the particular console's SDK or devkit usage.

Plus, most companies do not provide information on their internal development costs; or if they do, they do not provide an itemized breakdown of those costs.

There are so many variables. How many passes will you make towards certification? Will you have publishing advances or will you be using your own cash? Do you have a solid product or are you working on a pitch? Which publisher and how effective is your pitchman at doing what they're doing? Have you ever worked in the console space before? Have you worked specifically in this console's space before? Have you negotiated budgets of $250,000 (or $500,000 or higher) and above with successful results? If you are looking at advertising for a AAA game, you will be negotiating with publishers and dealing with budgets much higher than that.

Hopefully the small companies saw huge returns during the first weeks of release before shelf-space was made for other titles and theirs were moved to the bargain bin. It's easy for Rockstar to note that they spent multiple millions on GTA and that they made it back; it's not as easy for a small company that made an unsuccessful Wii game to publish their costs when they close shop. Or if they do, people rarely take notice. We notice when large companies close their doors. We rarely notice when the little guys do.

#18 If you write a polite request for a console price quote, I know GG will reply. Try it. You might like it ;)

#19 Of course, you can't make that public. :)

But we are nice to those who ask nicely insofar as we can answer without a NDA's and console licenses in-place.

#20 Probably the best information you'll find: Jeff Tunnell talks about how much money can be involved in XBLA games

Jeff has a great and informative blog, and if you're really interested in this topic or many others, I'd suggest taking a look around!