Board Thread:Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time discussion/@comment-3244796-20130324045045/@comment-1845428-20140701205628

The amount doesn't really matter, to be honest. What matters is how much profit was made. To date (excluding digital sales) the game has made approximately $22,000,000. Is that good? Well, the "average" cost for making a video game is about $20,000,000. Of course, that average does include games like GTA V, which cost $265,000,000; Modern Warfare 2, which cost $217,000,000; and the mother of them all, Street Fighter II, which, after adjusting for inflation cost a whopping $700,000,000 to make. Those outliers, along with many others, definitely raises those cost averages. I have no real experience with the cost of making video games, but I would say Sly 4 cost anywhere from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000.

Now, take into consideration the fact that Sony's old advertising agency, Deutsch Inc., barely gave any limelight to Sly 4. This saved on costs, but definitely hurt the game in sales. Good thing for games like Sly Cooper, Sony dumped  Deutsch Inc. and picked up BBH New York, who are responsible for the Michael ads (the ones for PS All Stars), the Weather Channel, Axe body spray, and the Kevin Butler ads (you know, the ones we all love). While Sly 4 may not necessarily be deserving of a sequel money-wise, the sequel would definitely get a lot better advertising, and would therefore have better sales, which hopefully would equal more sequels.

-Teenbat