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Top 10 most expensive video games budgets ever
digitalbattle.com - Video games are quickly approaching Hollywood movies in terms of budget size, and often surpass then altogether. In the early 90s, video game budgets were around $100,000 — when Doom was released in 1993 it had cost $200,000 and was touted as one of the most expensive games at the time. Today, that barely covers one month worth of production. Here are the top 10 most expensive video game budgets ever:
10. Killzone 2: $45 million
One of the most anticipated PS3 titles, and one which has been in
development for over four years, Killzone 2’s budget was originally $20
million. Then it was upped to $30 million. As development was extended
by another full year, the budget went north of $40 million, and most
estimates put it at $45 million. Higher estimates put it at over 41
million Euro, which translates to $56 million USD — but this number has
never been confirmed by anyone at developer Guerrilla.
9. Final Fantasy XII: $48 million
The Final Fantasy games have been known for their outstanding quality,
length and sheer production value. They’ve also been known as some of
the most expensive games to have ever come out from Japan, and Final
Fantasy XII had a budget of a whopping $48 million, excluding any
marketing costs. The sequel, Final Fantasy XIII is rumored to have had
at least a 50% higher budget, however, this hasn’t been made official
(yet).
8. LA Noire: $50 million
La Noire was recently cited as “one of the most expensive games in
development today”, by Tom Crago, the president of Game Developers’
Association of Australia. While this might have been exaggerated in
order to shine some spotlight on Australia’s game developers (LA Noire
is developed in Australia), it’s no secret that Rockstar has given LA
Noire a massive budget, upwards of $50 million, to create a truly
cinematic video game, where most of 1940s Los Angeles has been recreated
and is fully explorable.
7. APB, $50 million
APB has been in development close to 5 years now, and Realtime Worlds
have often stated that it’s the most expensive game they’ve ever worked
on — Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones had to raise Venture Capital,
$50 million of it, to make sure that APB has enough money to sustain
further development. The official budget is exactly $50 million, but
Realtime Worlds is set to spend millions each year supporting and
expanding the MMO.
6. Halo 3, $55 million
The Halo franchise has been so successful for Bungie and Microsoft that
they virtually had an unlimited budget on Halo 3, as it had to be the
best and most impressive game in almost all aspects when it was
released. It pretty much was, at a price of $55 million, which excludes
over $200 million Microsoft spent promoting the game.
5. Metal Gear Solid 4, $60 million
The biggest, pretties and most complex Metal Gear Solid game, one with
hours and hours of cut scenes, amazing production values and one of the
best visuals at its time, Metal Gear Solid 4 took 4 full years to make,
at a price tag of $60 million, shared between Kojima Producitons and
Sony.
4. Too Human, $60+ million
Sometimes, game budgets, just like movie budgets, tend to go over board
and the final product ends up costing a lot more than originally
planned. Too Human faced many issues during its development time, chief
of which was the long and expensive struggle between Epic Games and the
Unreal Engine 3, where developer Silicon Knights abandoned the engine
and started making their own — at a time when the game was almost
complete. This added at least another $10 million to the budget,
according to some sources.
3. Shenmue, $70 million
A game which held the record as most expensive game for nearly 10 years,
Shenmue’s budget was unheard of at the time of its development — a $70
million budget for a SEGA Dreamcast game. Shenmue offered a vast and
explorable area, a complete weather system, and so many fine details and
features that games even today don’t have. However, many failed to
notice everything the game had to offer, and the game ultimately
disappointed in sales.
2. Gran Turismo 5: $80 million
What’s set to become the biggest and greatest racing game in history,
Gran Turismo has been in development for over 5 years now, and features
over 1,000 cars, each painstakingly recreated for with extreme realism
(and perfection) in mind. Its official budget as of mid 2008 was $60
million, and two years later when the game hits the stores, it will
reach a staggering $80 million, making it the second most expensive game
in history.
1. Grand Theft Auto 4: $100 million
When it comes to sheer production values, sheer amount of features, the
details, no game beats Grand Theft Auto 4. The scope of the production
dwarfs any other game: over 1,000 people worked on the game for over 3
and a half years, doing everything from studying New York city with
cameras that recorded city traffic for months, to contacting over 2,000
people just to obtain the rights to the hundreds of music tracks that
can be listened to in the game. Price to record a master for each track
ran at around $10,000 and that excludes the license and royalty fees.
There’s enough content in the game to keep the average gamer immersed
for at least 100 hours. There should be, with a budget of $100 million,
GTA 4 is the most expensive video game ever made.
