Innovation can be profitable: Heavy Rain generates $100m in sales
Guillaume de Fondaumiere, co-CEO at Quantic Dream, recently revealed that the French studio’s dramatic interactive adventure title Heavy Rain has grossed $100m for Sony Computer Entertainment.
As reported by Games Industry, de Fondaumiere made this announcement during the Q&A segment of a keynote speech he delivered at last weekend’s Digital Dragons games festival in Poland – his point being that experimental IPs can be lucrative:
“These projects have been and are profitable, to some extent. I’ll give you one example that I know about: Heavy Rain. Let’s say it’s $22 million to produce. With marketing, it’s maybe $30 million. With distribution, $40 million. Sony earned $100 million with the game, so it’s very profitable. It’s the sort of margin that most publishers would strive for, for any game.”
The entrepreneurial videogame executive went on to say that Journey, the beautiful and emotion-evoking indie title from developer thegamecompany, is further proof that the industry needs to stop thinking “innovation rhymes with unprofitable”. And he’s right; Journey achieved instant critical and commercial success worldwide, winning multiple awards and becoming the fastest-selling game to date on the PlayStation Store in both America and Europe.
Quantic Dream’s next game Beyond: Two Souls is due to release in June exclusively for PlayStation 3. If you haven’t done so already, we strongly recommend you check it out.