The Rockstar Games studios know a thing or two about trouble. They make games about death, destruction and killing prostitutes after all, but this is a mess the company might have a hard time surmounting.
Rockstar San Diego’s Red Dead Redemption is the game in question this time around, and its fate is certainly uncertain.
Sources speaking with gaming-blog Joystiq say the game is in huge trouble, including one source who said the game “was a complete disaster for most of 2009 and previous … it has since turned around a little bit, but there are huge problems with it still.”
But it gets worse, yet another source said: “Red Dead has been in production for six years (mainly because of horrible management/lack of direction due to fear of disrespecting Rockstar NY) and it will never get the money back in sales it cost to create for those six years.”
A final tipster remarked of just what Red Dead has to accomplish, from a sales point, to make all of the development costs worth it.
“It will take 5 million sales at full price to recoup the development costs of Red Dead. The good news is they are not expecting to make money with Red Dead Redemption.”
So the studio isn’t planning on turning a profit on this one, that’s fine, seeing as the Rockstar label is so large, but maybe it’s just me, but I just want a fine product in front of me when I play and don’t want to hear about the prior drama.
Source: Joystiq