What did they make?

[Deadman_ny]

Just wondering, and I'm wondering if anyone else is wondering. What did it cost to make Wing Commander 1-X and what did the games bring in.
The movie industry posts what they made and what it costs. Not sure if it's a closely gaurded secret with the gameing industry. Not trolling, just curiose since it's mentioned. And I know everything costs more then you'd think. I know that with three employees that workers comp and is my highest buisness exspence and why plumbers charge $60 an hour.

 

[Moonsword]

There's some figures along these lines in the WC Bible over in the document archive. You might try looking in there.

 

[Deadman_ny]

Bible gives figures for WC1-WC3 including Armada and Privateer not WC4, WCP and gross figures on what was made isn't listed. And it only goes up to 1995. WC3 blows all the other games away numbers wise. Based on that I'm assuming it was the most profitable game out of the entire series. Kilrathi saga isn't listed either.
The biggest complaint I heard from people about WC4 was that Origin didn't change the flight model all that much and that made it a flop. They were just trying to stick with what worked for them in WC3 and taking it further. Only thing that disapointed me about WC4 was the lack of another sequal/prequal soon after.
They were pumping out a WC title about every year, then WC4 hit. So in the end LOAF was right. The game just wasn't profitable anymore.

 

[AD]

Bible gives figures for WC1-WC3 including Armada and Privateer not WC4, WCP and gross figures on what was made isn't listed. And it only goes up to 1995. WC3 blows all the other games away numbers wise. Based on that I'm assuming it was the most profitable game out of the entire series. Kilrathi saga isn't listed either.
The biggest complaint I heard from people about WC4 was that Origin didn't change the flight model all that much and that made it a flop. They were just trying to stick with what worked for them in WC3 and taking it further. Only thing that disapointed me about WC4 was the lack of another sequal/prequal soon after.
They were pumping out a WC title about every year, then WC4 hit. So in the end LOAF was right. The game just wasn't profitable anymore.

You're making some pretty big assumptions here. WC4 was hardly a flop. However it also cost somthing like 12 to 14 million dollars to make which cut into the profit margin, but it still sold really well. And your assumption doesn't take into account that origin went on to make prophecy (for a significantly smaller amount of money). Prophecy didn't flop either though it's sales weren't nearly as large as they would have hoped. Sales figures of previous WC titles were never a large factor in why other planned projects never made it out the door. WC online died because Earth and Beyond was further along in development and EA didn't want to compete with itself. And there were other factors that killed some of the other projects. Prophecy was also only at most two years after WC4 and we got secret ops a year later.

 

[ChrisReid]

They were pumping out a WC title about every year, then WC4 hit. So in the end LOAF was right. The game just wasn't profitable anymore.

Yeah, don't think that the *Wing Commander* games weren't profitable. Even if WC4 and WCP were less profitable than WC3, they were so profitable that Secret Ops was released for free to maintain excitement (and test distribution) until the next major release. The reasons why there was such a long gap after Secret Ops are very complex and partly depend on the awful sales figures for the half-dozen non-Wing Commander space sims that came after Prophecy.

 

[Deadman_ny]

Never thought that the game Wing Commander was all that big of a flop. I love the games and the books. Read action Stations again then played WC1 and the secret Missions and just about done with Freedom Flight. Going to read and play the game as close to the time line as possible.
Twords the begining WC had all this momentum going and there was a definite fan base. And now days with the leaps and bounds in graphics and tech... Imagin what they could do, hell look at what fans have done by themselves to improve existing games or create spinoffs. Even with the fanfics there are such great storylines to exsplore. The possibilities are endless. It just ...well pisses/argrivates me that the people/company with the rights to such an awsome game are just letting it...wither.
The real reason I asked is that all I hear is how unprofitable the last couple of WC games were (WC4,WCP) and that's why they never came out with another.

 

[AD]

The real reason I asked is that all I hear is how unprofitable the last couple of WC games were (WC4,WCP) and that's why they never came out with another.

I don't know where your hearing this, but it wasn't here. WC4 may have been expensive but it still made back what it cost. Prophecy was 10 times cheaper to make and sold relatively well too. The profit margin of existing WC games had nothing to do with why there were no more titles released.

Like Chris said, sales figures of other series (like freespace2 and terminus and others were really poor and affected sales projections for future titles. Other issue like Earth and Beyond affect EA's buisness strategy. But at the same time, while you never hear much about them, there almost hasn't been a time since secret ops came out that EA wasn't working on some kind of WC proposal or another. They just didn't work out for whatever reasons that DO NOT involve how well WC4 and prophecy sold. (two of the major issues were actually that EA felt there was a perception that WC needed to have Live Action video and Chris Roberts name on it to be successful)

It just took untill Arena was released for one of these proposals to pan out, which is hardly letting WC wither. And then there's the rumor that a full WC title may already even be in the works.

 

[Deadman_ny]