Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of most expensive video games to develop

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a deletion review
). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Wifione Message 08:15, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

List of most expensive video games to develop

List of most expensive video games to develop (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)
(Find video game sources: "List of most expensive video games to develop" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR · free images · free news sources · TWL · NYT · WP reference · VG/RS · VG/RL · WPVG/Talk)

While potentially a good list subject, it's hurting for notability. The sources attached (and available) are extremely lacking, with the main refs citing unreliable, unsourced "estimates" instead of confirmed figures. I don't know if it's possible for this list to ever be definitive or encyclopedic with the available information and the nature of disclosing these figures. PROD was removed.

czar · · 02:43, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]

Note: This debate has been included in the
czar · · 02:44, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]
According to one source in one case the cost of developing a new game engine (which could be used for future games) was included in the cost of the game. Not
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. :-) -Borock (talk) 05:34, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]
"Most WP articles about video games mention the estimated development cost – this list is simply bringing all that information together." I've found the opposite to be the case—most major vg articles don't mention even estimated dev costs because their methodologies for estimating are too shaky. What articles do you know that cite hard figures?
czar · · 00:01, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Business-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 13:34, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Software-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 13:34, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 13:35, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Lists of video games is a compilation of other WP list articles on video games. Each of the articles listed is itself is a list containing multiple entries. Nowhere does the article link to individual video games or define criteria under which specific video games are listed. So I'm afraid I don't see how that could be an appropriate merge target. --Mike Agricola (talk) 17:30, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment: As I stated on the article's talk page when I removed the PROD, the list of most expensive video game development budgets appears to have originated from a blog. However, the story was subsequently picked up by a few media outlets. If the media outlets themselves are to be regarded as
    WP:RS
    , the fact that they published such a list would definitely support the article's notability. Even if a story originates on a blog, it becomes reliable if it subsequently receives significant coverage in other media sources that are themselves reliable. In this instance, I'm not clear on how reliable these media sources are:
Ashcraft, Brian (February 25, 2010). "Report: The Ten Most Expensive Video Game Budgets Apparently Are..." Kotaku. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
Gaskill, Jake (February 25, 2010). "Top 10 Highest (Estimated) Game Budgets Of All Time". G4. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
Horvath, Stu (March 8, 2010). "Most expensive video games: Were they worth the money?".
Daily News
. Retrieved 2013-04-20.
Regarding Kotaku,
WP:RS, but I'm not certain about The Game Fanatics. --Mike Agricola (talk) 17:30, 22 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]
The sources themselves are reliable, as in they have a system of internal editorial oversight, but the estimated numbers tend to be of a wide, unreliable range instead of a single figure, from unknown industry insiders, and calculated with no common methodology (e.g., see the NYT articles). I'm not sure those numbers can be called encyclopedic.
czar · · 00:01, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]
Those are good concerns to address editorially. For example, a footnote accompanying the table could note that the provided figures are only estimates. If possible, multiple sources should be consulted for each game and budgetary ranges (e.g. 40-50 million) presented where discrepancies occur. Reliable media outlets often quote "unnamed sources", yet these news stories are still acceptable to cite so long as the outlet itself qualifies as a
surmounted through appropriate editing. --Mike Agricola (talk) 01:33, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply
]
  • Keep - It's a bare-bones article in need of more content and sourcing, but the topic is definitely notable. I know that SWTOR in particular received a lot of coverage for being the most expensive video game ever developed, here for instance. —Torchiest talkedits 13:15, 23 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep: The current citations seem like a good start, so I think it satisfies WP:GNG. This is the type of information that I've gone hunting for in the past and I think it's a good topic for an encyclopedia. Praemonitus (talk) 04:36, 24 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's
talk page or in a deletion review
). No further edits should be made to this page.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop&oldid=1138016168"