LGV is getting crazy discount, -80%. TGV with route is cheaper than ICE with new skin. Will it make money? How much does it cost to create a route? If the cost has been recovered, how does DTG distribute the extra income? A. Repair problems in LGV. B. Create new train for LGV. C. Extend LGV route. D. Crazy discount. E. Pay for advertising. Would you go for the discount or better content? If I buy 5 LGV with -80%, can it be upgraded to a longer route at the same price?
I doubt DTG will reveal their commercial secrets. However I think we can assume most routes have a target sales figure in mind even at the planning stage and if the committee decide that can't be achieved, the route doesn't happen. Costs could vary from very low to very high, depending on whether it's been built from paper or digital references, if site visits are needed maybe involving overnight stays. A route done by a third party will have fewer direct costs to DTG and probably paid for on a commission/royalty basis. There have been a few surprises during the life of the product, Sherman Hill for example sold at a massive discount very soon after release. Routes like LGV have no doubt achieved the anticipated sales figures several times over and now very much back catalogue. Any sales whether at full price or discounted are a bonus.
Dtg aren't going to tell you what they do with the money. What are you trying to get out of your post?
This thread makes even less sense than your previous attempt at trolling. Harmless enough, I suppose.
A highspeed route is probably developed faster. It is not as detailed as a slow commuter route for the most part, and doesn't need to, as you're flying though the scenery very fast and lower quality assets are obscured by UE's postprocessing. Also it only has three stations.
Generally Profits are reinvested into the business. Their accounts are public and listed on Companies House, so you can get a rough idea by dividing expenditure by the number of projects released in that financial year. Obviously it won't be detailed because that's commercially confidential
Kindely check steam for New York Trenton in US Super Bundle. High discount also on Amtrak Acela. Customer feedback for the route on steam is quite negative ... May be a price reduction helps. That's business. Currently dovetail is presenting DLC's quite often. Difficult to play all these routes although that might be interesting but lifetime is limited. Same as for Train Simulator Classic. Buy all DLC's and you are out of money. Not possible to play all of them. That seems to be the way it works. Interesting would be the difference between Train Sim World and Train Simulator Classic. Due to the better technology I would expect the requirement for example to scan objects (laser). Trying to do things with manual painting will lead to bad results and might be too expensive. With Unreal Engine 5 this trent will continue. Just recognized: Bisides that the information system on the platform do not work in many DLC's or display wrong information there are information systems from GB on the US stations. LIRR, Metro North Rail have different systems in place.
Another factor in costs could be whether licence holders require a percentage or up front payment. A preserved railway might expect a percentage from sales in return for supporting the project.
I'll bite, I guess. It entirely depends on how many people are working on the route, and for how long. But although this sounds simple, different teams will work on a route at different points, depending on where it's at in the development. I don't know how DTG split up their teams, but research will probably come first and be at a very advanced stage before any track is laid or locos modelled. Probably the environments are arted up last, before QA, submission, and then release. Let's simplify this for the time being, and say that the average salary per employee working on a route is £65k (some will be a lot higher, others will be lower, based on seniority, experience, etc). Let's assume (and this could be way out) that the average team size is 30 per route. We're looking for the monthly "burn" rate, or the average cost per month, which would therefore be about £162,500 (which is reasonable for a DLC team). Therefore, if a route took 9 months to create with this burn rate, you'd be looking at just under £1.5m for the total cost of the DLC. Although as I said, with different people working on a route at different times, the actual burn rate could average out a lot lower - and it depends how they factor in QA (internal or external), etc. Assuming a DLC is £29.99, the amount per sale DTG will keep (based on 10% tax and 30% platform fee, plus deductions for refunds, card fruad, etc) is probably around £17 per sale. And that means that the number of DLC units needed to be sold to break even (in the above example) would be around 86,000. If my burn rate average was way out, and the route cost is instead £1m, the total number of DLC units needing to be sold would be closer to 59,000 units. (Of course, DTG teams will likely be working on multiple DLCs at any one time, as well as having a core team on the base game - either improving, or building the next major update/features, etc - as well as the preservation crew; plus a small team focused on legacy and current bug fixes, etc).
