Infinity Blade is Epic's 'most profitable' series

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says Infinity Blade is the company's "most profitable" game series, in terms of "man years versus revenue."

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If you get squeamish around the impending threat of mobile games, be advised that the content of this article is graphic and may disturb you. Infinity Blade is Epic's most profitable game franchise, according to CEO Tim Sweeney. The statistic comes with a few caveats, but it's still a pretty striking example of a rapidly changing games marketplace.

"The most profitable game we've ever made, in terms of man years invested versus revenue, is actually Infinity Blade," Sweeney told an audience at GDC Taipei, reported by Gamasutra. "It's more profitable than Gears of War." That "man years invested" part is important, as company co-founder Mark Rein was sure to accent that point. This is only about man years versus revenue, not total profit numbers.

Still, it makes plenty of sense. Infinity Blade was produced in a much shorter time period than Epic's big-budget blockbusters, so that shifts the ratio dramatically. It's easy to see how the mobile market would be tempting if a much smaller investment can yield these results, especially if they're bolstered by physical sales and microtransactions as Infinity Blade has been.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 27, 2012 6:00 PM

    Steve Watts posted a new article, Infinity Blade is Epic's 'most profitable' series.

    Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says Infinity Blade is the company's "most profitable" game series, in terms of "man years versus revenue."

    • reply
      June 27, 2012 8:27 PM

      They should bring this to the PC.

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      June 27, 2012 8:41 PM

      Relative profit. ROI, but not overall money taken in of course. If I invest $1 and get $1000 back that a fantastic ROI, but it's not going to buy me a house.

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        June 27, 2012 8:49 PM

        But if you are talking about funding additional projects then you are better off investing in 10 low cost/high return opportunities than you are in 1 high cost/medium return opportunities.

        Assuming limited resources, of course.

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          June 27, 2012 10:01 PM

          You assume that the amount needed to make a game like IB is close to a Gears title and it isn't. You could invest $100M into it, but you wouldn't make that back. The only option is to make a lot more smaller games and that's possible, but I kind of doubt a game like that could hold up for infinite sequels like a CoD or GoW game.

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        June 27, 2012 8:59 PM

        I'm pretty sure they can buy a dope fucking house with the money they made on IB.

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          June 27, 2012 10:01 PM

          Not the point. It's just a little misleading.

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            June 27, 2012 10:09 PM

            The headline might be misleading, but Sweeney's original quote seems pretty clear:

            "The most profitable game we've ever made, in terms of man years invested versus revenue, is actually Infinity Blade"

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            June 27, 2012 10:52 PM

            At least the shack's article had the decency to put it in quotes, lots of other sites reported it as a straight up most profitable... i mean thats what he said but far fron what he meant

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        June 27, 2012 10:23 PM

        Congratulations on really getting to the bottom of what he plainly said.

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      June 28, 2012 12:08 AM

      I regret buying it. I didn't like the swipe combat at all :(

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      June 28, 2012 6:46 AM

      Sounds like Epic is talking a LOT of shit.
      I don't believe a fucking word they saying and I HIGHLY doubt this news.
      Sounds more like pimp talk.

      No way those attention deficient disorder "gamers" are all of a sudden becoming hardcore gamers. There is a reason Angry Pigeons is ranked numero uno. They want a quick in and out.

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        June 28, 2012 6:49 AM

        Allowing me to see these front page gems is the best thing about nuShack.

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        June 28, 2012 8:25 AM

        No one said they're becoming "hardcore games". The article says IB made them a lot of money, and that's undeniable.

        IB is not a hardcore game. It's a game you can grind and optionally spend some money buying upgrades. No surprise at all it's making them so much money based on developer hours.

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        June 28, 2012 8:27 AM

        What planet are you people from?

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      June 28, 2012 6:50 AM

      This just in, IB was developed by a single outsourced indian developer

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      June 28, 2012 8:48 AM

      :( probably means no chance of Shadow Complex sequel

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