Briggs AnalyticsWhat is a video game studio's data worth?
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In this article
Why AI companies want a video game studio's recordsWhich systems hold the valueA worked exampleWhat to check firstThis is a Briggs Analytics estimate based on the company profile and current market activity. Final pricing is determined by the buyer after review. Not an offer.
Why AI companies want a video game studio's records
A game studio produces the densest decision record of any software company: builds, playtests, bug reports, design docs that changed every week, and the chat where every cut was argued. Buyers have named game studios as a sector they want, and the records most want are the ones that never shipped.
What a buyer is paying for is the loop: a piece of work that starts, moves through people and systems, and ends with a visible result. In a video game studio that looks like this.
- A design doc, a prototype build, a playtest, the notes, the cut. Studios record that loop hundreds of times per title.
- A crash report from a player, the bug, the branch, the hotfix build, the patch notes.
- A milestone review with the publisher, the feedback, the replan.
Which of your systems hold the value
Value follows the systems that recorded the work. For a video game studio, the usual ones are these.
| System | What its records show |
|---|---|
| Perforce, Git or Plastic SCM | every commit and every branch, including the features that were cut |
| Jira, Hansoft or Shortgrass | bugs by build, playtest findings, milestone tracking |
| Slack or Discord | design arguments, build-break channels, playtest reactions |
| Confluence, Notion or the design wiki | design documents and every revision of them |
| Player support (Zendesk, Helpshift) | crash reports, player complaints and the fix |
More connected systems means a higher number. A ticket that links to an invoice that links to an email thread is worth more than any one of them alone. See every system, and how to keep its history intact.
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A worked example
A 40-person independent studio, eight years old, on Perforce, Jira, Slack, Confluence and Zendesk. The Briggs Analytics estimate: roughly $190,000 to $450,000. Eight years of builds, playtests and cuts drive it.
What to check before the first call
Two contracts decide the deal: the publisher agreement for each title and the engine license. Both usually allow licensing your own process records and forbid licensing the engine source. Your counsel reads them first. Closed studios can still license what they own.
Other industries
In short
- Briggs Analytics estimate for a 40-person video game studio with 8 to 15 years of records: $190,000 to $450,000.
- Buyers pay for the process and the outcomes your systems recorded, so years of history and connected systems move the number most.
- Owners pay nothing.
Questions owners ask.
Does the game's source code get shared?
Only what the agreement you approve says, and only the code you own. Licensed engine source stays out. Buyers describe wanting the history around the code as much as the code.
Our studio closed. Too late?
No. A closed studio that still owns its repositories, tickets and chat exports can license them. Buyers for closed companies exist for exactly that.
Is cut content valuable?
Yes. Prototypes that didn't ship, playtest notes and the reasons for cuts are the record of how decisions got made, which is what buyers describe wanting most.
Which buyer?
The estimate shows what yours could be worth.
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