Technology

Is 3D Printing Disruptive Technology?

Published

9 years ago

September 3, 2014

Jeff Desjardins

Infographic: Is 3d Printing Disruptive Technology

Is 3d Printing Disruptive Technology

Technology moves at an extremely fast pace. However, particularly when it comes to adoption, technology seems to only inch forward sometimes. 3d printing will likely revolutionize the way we prototype and manufacture, but it takes some time for industry and individuals to get on board.

The above infographic makes the point that right now we are only partially into the typical adoption curve. It took about 35 years to reach an average of one personal computer per person in the US. While it is not statistically accurate to superimpose that same adoption curve on the 3d printing market, it does give us some insight.

At that rate, it looks like there would be one 3d printer for every five people in the US by 2023 or so. By 2040, we’d have nearly full adoption. In other words: it takes time for a technology to truly be disruptive. We’ll likely see 3d printing fall off the map in the hype cycle, and re-discover it when it is ready to conquer the latter part of the adoption curve.

It’s hard to predict revolutions. In 1943 Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM, boldly predicted “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”. Not a bad guess, but he was only off by tens of billions of devices.

Original graphic from: Farnell

Related Topics:3d printing 3d printing disruptive future of 3d printing 3d printing business model jay leno

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Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues

Dive into the GTA budget through the years, with GTA VI set to be the most expensive video game of all time.

Published

1 day ago

December 5, 2023

Marcus Lu

A cropped chart comparing the GTA budget and revenue across three game titles.

Charting Grand Theft Auto: GTA’s Budget and Revenues

Over 10 years since the launch of Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), the second most-sold video game in history, Rockstar Games has announced its sequel GTA VI will be “coming 2025.”

As the anticipation only grows for this next big entry in the franchise, we take a look at the GTA budget through the years. How much have the last two games cost to make, how much have they earned, and how do they compare with the latest entry?

Data for this visualization comes from Statista, TweakTown, and Twitch Metrics.

How Much Has GTA VI Cost to Make?

The GTA franchise has grown enormously in scale from humble beginnings as a top-down, 2D video game in 1997. Fifteen installments later, the upcoming release, GTA VI, is estimated to be the most expensive video game to be made yet.

Here’s a look at how much GTA VI and the last two major releases cost, and how much revenue they’ve earned as of August 2023.

Year	Title	Production Costs ($)	Revenue ($)	Copies Sold
2025 (est.)	GTA VI	$2B (rumored)	N/A	N/A
2013	GTA V	$265M	$7.7B	185M
2008	GTA IV	$100M	$2B	25M

In 2008, GTA IV cost around $100 million—already a budget that rivalled big Hollywood releases. However with 25 million copies sold, the game earned nearly $2 billion—a five-fold return on its production cost.

Five years later, GTA V (2013) cost more than $200 million to make—twice GTA IV’s budget. A decade after its release, GTA V has generated close to $8 billion, with hundreds of millions in annual revenue from subscriptions and in-game purchases—a model that its successor is sure to follow.

In fact, subscription fees and in-game purchases represented 78% of Take-Two Interactive’s (parent of GTA developer Rockstar Games) revenues in 2023.

Analysts estimate the to-be-released GTA VI’s costs at $2 billion, including marketing and other expenses. A massive open-world (set in the Miami-inspired “Vice City”), cutting edge graphics, and a reportedly brand-new game engine are all reasons for the game’s outsized budget.

For comparison, the current most expensive games to have been made include Red Dead Redemption 2 (also by Rockstar) and Star Citizen, both reportedly with a $500 million budget.

Meanwhile, Take-Two Interactive shares are up more than 50% for the year.