How many xbox one dev kits would a company like EA or ubisoft get? They have 100's of devs, but how would they dev with just 1-2 dev kits for the hole office?
Interesting question, though you might have to be someone high up in such a company to know. I personally can only guess they have quite a few considering play testers/quality control will need them along with the devs and anyone wanting to demonstrate the status of their software.
Typically its about 2 kits per team of 5 or less people. Most of it is done on PC no matter what gaming console you're developing for and then tested on the development kits anyway. I have first hand experience with this. If you are a multi platform publisher, you would probably have two or so of every console your game/title will be released on. Most teams consist of ten or so people depending on the size of the business, at least in my experience.
Lease through purchase of licensure if through Microsoft. Sony and Nintendo you just plain dump thousands to keep it.
look at 343 images, you see XNA's sitting on each developers desk, some even have a test AND a dev, depends on the scale of the company.
They have to "buy" them. Of course they don't own them, but get a license. Console dev is expensive. You're looking at a lot of money spent before those kits even arrive. Live and playstation store devs have less costs, but they don't get the favorable agreements concerning fees like a big dev does. Pick one: Low startup cost, high fees / commissions High startup costs low fees , low price per unit production That said, when new console launches and new kits arrive it's a huge morale boost, everyone likes shiny stuff! Speaking of new kits, Sony VR should be interesting.
Think of them like work laptops. Companies will buy as many as they need to get the most efficiency per $ out of there workforce (for big to middle sized companies). I've seen 1:1 ratios of dev kits* to developers before, but I've seen higher/lower as well depending on the team. Small companies will get enough to fit their budget. *some form of dev kits, these include test units, dev units, and random other hardware for development.
343i don't count as they are Microsoft corporation. If they wish stacks of dev kits on each of everyone's desk.