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[cormack12]

Thought it would be interesting to start tracking game costs and development time as the industry caves in to identify trends. So let's start, please contribute in thread with a source, more hands make light work I'll keep adding what I find today, and find better sources over time, or update with more reliable ones in thread

Spider-Man 2 | $300 million | 5 years (need source) | 2023
Starfield | $300-$400 million | 8 years | 2023
Halo: Infinite |
Alan Wake 2 | $75 million | 4 years | 2023
Hogwarts Legacy | $150 million | 5 years | 2023
Horizon: Forbidden West | $212 million | 5 years | 2022
The Last of Us 2 | $220 million | 6 years | 2020
Immortals of Aveum | $125 million | 5 years | 2023
Cyberpunk 2077 | $316 million | 4 years | 2020
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty | $125.9 million | 3 years | 2023
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart | $81 million | 3 years | 2021
Red Dead Redemption 2 | $540 million ($300 million marketing) | 6 years | 2018
Zelda: Breath of the wild | $120 million | 5 years | 2017
Witcher 3 | $81 million | 3 and a half years | 2015
Callisto Protocol | $161.5million | 3 years | 2022
Lords of the Fallen | $67.7 million | 3-5 years | 2023
FFVII: Remake | $140 - $144 million | 4 years | 2023
Death Stranding | $210 million | 2 years | 2019 | See here for logic
God of War: Ragnarok | $200 million | 4 years | 2022
Baldur's Gate 3 | $100 million | 6 years | 2023
Helldivers 2 | | 7 years | 2024
Concord | 6-8 years | 2024

 

[Labadal]

No wonder that the industry is going down the shitter.

 

[Kupfer]

Cyberpunk 2077 | $316 million | 4 years
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty | $125.9 million | 3 years

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Cool good idea for a thread.

 

[OmegaSupreme]

The rumored budget for Infinite was like 500 million, wasn't it?

 

[_Ex_]

Diminishing returns house of cards.

 

[Unrivaledx88]

I mean yall want your graphics yall want your Details and Framerates,
What do yall expect ? These journalists will bomb your game if it’s half baked so yeah they gonna take their time .

 

[Rosoboy19]

I mean yall want your graphics yall want your Details and Framerates,
What do yall expect ? These journalists will bomb your game if it’s half baked so yeah they gonna take their time .

Seems to me the huge budgets are more of an issue than the development time. Nintendo spends years working on games but they use that time to perfect and polish, not as a money sink for ginormous graphics leap and marketing

 

[Ribi]

All of a sudden Star Citizen isnt looking too bad

the spiderman 2 one is funnier when you consider the world is the same as the first one

dont forget to toss in skull and bones with its 11 years dev time.

 

[Big Baller]

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Final Fantasy VII PSX - $45 million
Final Fantasy VII Remake - $140 million

Can't find numbers for Rebirth yet.

 

[willothedog]

Final Fantasy VII PSX - $45 million
Final Fantasy VII Remake - $140 million

Can't find numbers for Rebirth yet.

wouldn't you have to include inflation to make it comparable or do those figures take that into account?

 

[GHG]

cormack12 in the article you linked for Starfield it says the following:

It’s unclear as of yet how much Starfield will cost in total with all other parameters combined, but speculation says that the final figure should be somewhere around $300-400 million, considering the stature of the title at hand and the amount of time it’s been under development. Moreover, if the 500-member development team part is correct, costs are certain to be quite higher than $200 million.

 

[Hudo]

Remember when Duke Nukem Forever was the butt joke of the gaming industry?

Well, turns out that it was a prophecy all along.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

ok. What am i supposed to see here?

 

[March Climber]

Seems to me the huge budgets are more of an issue than the development time. Nintendo spends years working on games but they use that time to perfect and polish, not as a money sink for ginormous graphics leap and marketing

Can you share the Nintendo budget numbers? I'd like to compare it to the OP.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

wouldn't you have to include inflation to make it comparable or do those figures take that into account?

In that case, FF7's budget with inflation in consideration, $86,472,056.

 

[Danjin44]

Godzilla Minus One showed just throwing money at something does it make it better...that movie able to out shine most Hollywood movies with fraction of their budget.

 

[Robb]

Zelda BotW:

Nintendo needs to shift 2m copies of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to recoup the game's huge development costs.

The upcoming Zelda has been in development for more than five years, Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto explained during a recent investor Q&A

So 5 years and roughly $120M(?).

 

[Flabagast]

Very good thread idea.

The budget for CP77 was truly insane, if you add the budget of Phantom Liberty it's in the same ballpark as RDR2 (with no other game close to $500M if I am not mistaken ?) and you have to remember devs in Poland are way less paid that those of Rockstar.

But it shows imho, CP77 must be the biggest game to come out since RDR2 and it does things no other game do (notably in dialogue animations and staging)

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

cormack12 , you should put year of release in there too.

 

[Flabagast]

Also you can add The Witcher 3 | 81 millions (same source as the Cyberpunk one)

 

[Rosoboy19]

Can you share the Nintendo budget numbers? I'd like to compare it to the OP.

Nintendo doesn’t really share that info, unfortunately. The last two Zelda games surely had big development costs, possibly over 100 million each. It just seems that if Nintendo spends that big on a game, they usually have the polish and gameplay to back it up and the sales take care of themselves.

 

[AJUMP23]

Spider-Man 2 | $300 million | 5 years (need source) Made money
Starfield | $200 million | 8 years Made money (maybe)

Halo: Infinite |
Alan Wake 2 | $75 million | 4 years
Hogwarts Legacy | $150 million | 5 years Made money

Horizon: Forbidden West | $212 million | 5 years Made money

The Last of Us 2 | $220 million | 6 years Made money

Immortals of Aveum | $125 million | 5 years
Cyberpunk 2077 | $316 million | 4 years Made money

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty | $125.9 million | 3 years Made money


I think the games I marked made money more than they budget.

 

[Flabagast]

Spider-Man 2 | $300 million | 5 years (need source) Made money
Starfield | $200 million | 8 years Made money

Halo: Infinite |
Alan Wake 2 | $75 million | 4 years
Hogwarts Legacy | $150 million | 5 years Made money

Horizon: Forbidden West | $212 million | 5 years Made money

The Last of Us 2 | $220 million | 6 years Made money

Immortals of Aveum | $125 million | 5 years
Cyberpunk 2077 | $316 million | 4 years Made money

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty | $125.9 million | 3 years Made money


I think the games I marked made money more than they budget.

Not sure about Starfield

 

[AJUMP23]

Not sure about Starfield

Me either, But I was trying to think if it drove subs.

 

[lakitu1982]

What is the budget for GTA6, would anyone take a guess? Must be the biggest yet.

 

[Zannegan]

I mean yall want your graphics yall want your Details and Framerates,
What do yall expect ? These journalists will bomb your game if it’s half baked so yeah they gonna take their time .

You're right: something has to give.

Personally, I'd be happy to let the graphical quality of assets linger between the PS3 and PS4 if it meant faster turnaround for projects. Visually sumptuous roller coaster games do nothing for me.

Plus, faster turnaround means lower budgets, and lower budgets mean lower risk. Who knows? We could even see studios take a chance on some original gameplay ideas when every game doesn't have the potential to bankrupt them if it flops. Simpler assets would also make things I DON'T want to compromise on (like framerate) more achievable. I don't even mind the ultra low-poly look if the art style and gameplay justify the sacrifice.

Every game doesn't have to look like Minecraft or Battlebit, but neither does every character have to look like something out of Diablo 4.

 

[winjer]

Callisto Protocol | US$161.5million | 3 years

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

I think for this list to make sense we also need how successful these games were.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Does spending years in early access count? Indie games are notorious for it.

 

[Icymanipulator]

Would there be a way to add information on how many copies were sold and/or how much each game made?

 

[Killer8]

Spend 5 years and hundreds of millions of dollars making a 50 hour slog that no one finishes. That's the AAA way.

 

[Flabagast]

What is the budget for GTA6, would anyone take a guess? Must be the biggest yet.

Early reports talk about a budget north of $1bn (which it will most probably surpass indeed)

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

I think for this list to make sense we also need how successful these games were.

Agreed. We also need to know if the marketing budget is included in these numbers.

 

[tmlDan]

This threads gonna stress me out, isn't it lol

 

[Go_Ly_Dow]

Final Fantasy VII PSX - $45 million
Final Fantasy VII Remake - $140 million

Can't find numbers for Rebirth yet.

What's the source for Remake btw?

 

[geary]

Cyberpunk 2077 | $316 million | 4 years
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty | $125.9 million | 3 years

Need to keep in mind that in the budget and timeline of PL is included also the massive reworks from the patches before 2.0 and 2.0.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Fifth Generation Consoles (Sony PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64)​

1. Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)
   • Development Time: Approx. 3-4 years (1993-1997)
   • Development Cost: Estimated over $45 million, with marketing costs pushing it over $80 million.
2. Resident Evil 2 (PlayStation)
   • Development Time: 2-3 years (1994-1998)
   • Development Cost: Estimated around $5 million.

Sixth Generation Consoles (Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo GameCube)​

1. Halo 2 (Xbox)
   • Development Time: 3 years (2001-2004)
   • Development Cost: Over $20 million for development, with a massive marketing campaign.
2. Final Fantasy X (PlayStation 2)
   • Development Time: Approx. 4 years
   • Development Cost: Estimated over $32 million.
3. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PlayStation 2)
   • Development Time: Approx. 4 years
   • Development Cost: Estimated around $10 million.
4. Shenmue (Dreamcast)
   • Development Time: Approx. 5 years
   • Development Cost: Estimated to be around $70 million, making it one of the most expensive games of its time.

 

[NecrosaroIII]

What's the source for Remake btw?

Wikipedia

List of most expensive video games to develop - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Midn1ght]

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart | $81 million | 3 years?

 

[Flabagast]

Would be interesting to have the budget of Death Stranding 1 also

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

These days, If anything, the budget of a project just tell us how mismanaged a project is.

I mean, BOTW apparently had a budget closer to FF7R, but the former has 10x more content than the latter.

Final Fantasy VII Remake - $140 million

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Star Citizen | ∞ | ∞

 

[Punished Miku]

Pentiment - Jimmy John's for 12 people

 

[Clear]

The question that needs to be asked, but noone ever puts forward is how much do AA (not AAA) games cost to make?

Kinda important thing to know if you want to make an argument against the sustainability of AAA.

 

[kittoo]

Remedy achieved a lot in Alan wake 2 for 75 million. Good going.

On the other hand, WTF at Callisto protocol and Spiderman 2!

And LOL at immortals of aveum. Who thought that was a good idea?

 

[cormack12]

The question that needs to be asked, but noone ever puts forward is how much do AA (not AAA) games cost to make?

Kinda important thing to know if you want to make an argument against the sustainability of AAA.

I think you'd class Rift Apart, ALan Wake 2, Lords of the Fallen and Immortals of Aveum in there so between $60 million to $125 million based on that. Although I'd ssay the problem is apparent in costs when you look at Immortals and Callisto for example.

 

[Dazraell]

Cyberpunk 2077 | $316 million | 4 years
Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty | $125.9 million | 3 years

Cyberpunk actually had much longer development cycle as the game was originally announced back in 2012. It was always on a backburner as Witcher 3 was CDPR's main project. To my understanding the project was rebooted and refocused in 2016, but I'm fairly certain some of the money they counted here went for initial trailer from 2013 and all of the development made between 2012 and 2016

 

[cormack12]

Would be interesting to have the budget of Death Stranding 1 also

Sketchy logic but Kojima said it broke even at the end of April 2020, so I took the rough sales figures/user data and multiplied it by an average retail of $60. I'll update it if I find a better source for sales on PlayStation until May 2020