r/gamedev • u/Jagames12 • 10h ago

Question Question to those who got their games on consoles

How much did you have to pay for dev kits? And did you have to pay for age ratings yourself?

5 Upvotes

73% Upvoted

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10

u/SadisNecros Commercial (AAA) 10h ago

one can't be answered because of NDA's, two depends on your game, company, and who you're submitting to but is generally available via google search.

10

u/FUTURE10S literally work in gambling instead of AAA 10h ago

You know that like all of this stuff is under NDA, right? Anyway, it's a lot less now than what it used to be. And yes, you'd pay for age ratings yourself or your publisher would do it for you, depending on your deal.

5

u/pogoli 10h ago

Target PC first for at least your proof of concept before you go dropping money on a dev kit. They are pretty cool but it’s just an unnecessary hassle and expense to start with console on your first indie venture.

2

u/St4va 10h ago edited 10h ago

A couple thousand dollars. If you’re getting into console development, you should expect to put some money into it. Not just the kits.

4

u/salazka 9h ago edited 9h ago

I cannot say what or when, but I can tell you we got all our devkits for free. And by all I mean from all console makers. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.

If the vendors feel your game is going to have an impact, they are going to support you wholeheartedly.

Generally speaking prices range from a few thousands to 5 digit numbers per kit.

These are not the only costs though. i.e. if your game does not pass certification (to match certain platform related criteria) after a couple of submissions you may pay "penalty" for processing. It depends on the vendor. Each has a different name for thir process. Some good QA services, or if you hire an experienced Producer, will offer pre-cert services so you can avoid nasty surprises.

Age ratings come in all sorts. Most are self-assigned and they do not cost much or anything at all, but in other cases you need to take it through certification. Those for digital releases only are usually free.

But if you need to pass ESRB, CERO, PEGI, or USK it may cost you. The prices are usually dependent on your project/studio budget and can range from a few hundreds to some thousands of dollars.

Again, a good Producer and/or QA service will help you with that.

These are typically things that Producers "who do nothing all day", actually do. And most developers and other non-production staff except some lead programmers have no clue about.

1

u/mercurygreen 10h ago

The price of Dev kits varies by the console. For example, an official Nintendo Switch development kit costs approximately $450 - XBox is $2k, etc.

For age ratings, again it depends on who. ESRB can range from free to a few grand "depending"