I've been working in the games industry for over 10 years, and I've never believed that disclosure of costs should be a problem. It doesn't need to be detailed out all the time, but a grand total of the money spent is not a big deal. Obviously, it should be up to the publisher to disclose such information, I don't want some new "trend" or blanket rule to emerge that will ostracize those who don't wish to detail their budgets, but I think the reveal will help the industry rather than harm it.
We know how much our movies cost to make, right? We can easily use the internet to find put the official budget for most films, and often their final box office earnings. We know Avengers cost around $300 million to make and earned over 1 Billion while in the theaters. That's a hefty profit. Will that knowledge stop anyone from seeing the next one? Doubtful.
My personal take is that revealing these costs will help customers understand why the cost of games has risen over the past decade or so, and give more credence to some crowd source funding, rather than the assumption that higher priced ones are always a scam.
I applaud Patrick for writing his article.
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