Most Expensive Games Ever Made

The marketing budgets for some of the top tier games these days can actually rival their development costs. Getting nationwide TV/magazine/internet/slurpee ads isnt cheap.
 
I had no idea Shenmue cost that much, I mean I had heard for years it was up there but 70 million?! Too Human just made me LOL
 
I love Too Human, one of my favorite games. Just disappointed in the way it ended, it set up for a sequel that I doubt will ever come...:cry:
 
[quote name='Curiousgeorge']I'm sorry but what is APB referring to?[/QUOTE]


All Points Bulletin. A game that hasn't been released yet and is under the genre of MMO supposedly.
 
For LA Noire thats just what Sony spent so far. Rockstar probably had to spend more money to finish it up.

Also MW2 should be on the list as that cost $50 million for production.
 
Here's another list which actually lists some sources:

* Grand Theft Auto IV - $100 million [1]
* Shenmue - $70 million [2]
* Too Human - $80-100 million
* Tom Clancy - $50 million [3]
* Metal Gear Solid 4 - $50-$70 million (rumor)
* Halo 3 - over $30M, about $60M including promotional costs
* Killzone 2 - ~$40-$60M [4][5][6]
* APB MMO - $50 million budget [7]
* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - $40-50 million [8]
* Final Fantasy XII: $35 Million
* Tom Clancy MMO - $50 million budget [9]
* Final Fantasy IX - $40M [10]
* Stranglehold - $30m [11]
* Assassin's Creed 2 - $24m [12]
* Crysis - $22m [13]
* Assassin's Creed - $20m [14]
* Lost Planet - $20m to develop, $20m to promote [15]
* Crackdown - $20 million [16]
* Ghostbusters - $15-$20 million[17]
* Half-Life episodes - $12 million each [18]
* Red Steel - $12 million [19]

[quote name='DarkSageRK']Why is APB an ouch? It hasn't even come out yet.[/QUOTE]

Well, it's a MMO that was supposed to be released two years ago. I'd honestly be surprised if it's able to make back a quarter of its budget within the first year (if ever) considering recent MMO releases. Of course, I question the $50 million budget. The only source I can find anywhere says $50 million was raised for APB "and future projects".
 
[quote name='Interstella 5555']Wow, that's quite a list. I thought Uncharted 2 would be up there as well.[/QUOTE]

I remember reading somewhere that it was in the $20 million range, though take that with a grain of salt.
 
[quote name='DarkSageRK']Why is APB an ouch? It hasn't even come out yet.[/QUOTE]

Its an ouch because, as others have mentioned, it was supposed to be released 2 years ago and has been in the planning stages for over 5 years. Coincidentally, the last positive buzz the game received was probably 2 years ago as well...

It has quite an uphill battle ahead of it.
 
[quote name='DarkNessBear']Lol, Too Human. Where'd they throw all that money away? How is Dyack still employed? Probably from the 8(?) year production of that game.[/QUOTE]

Dyack owns the company. That's how he still has a job.
 
I've always wondered how much money was spent on Daikatena, Duke Nukem Forever, and really old games even though none of them belong anywhere near these lists. And how much games budgets went up/down for companies with each successive one like from Doom to Doom II, Quake, Quake II, Quake III.
 
[quote name='KingBroly']Dyack owns the company. That's how he still has a job.[/QUOTE]
Yea, even more reason for him to be out of work. I'm not really sure on his financial situation, so I'm stunned he has money like that to throw away.

But, any number on the destruction Duke has left in his Forever path?
 
[quote name='DarkNessBear']Lol, Too Human. Where'd they throw all that money away? How is Dyack still employed? Probably from the 8(?) year production of that game.[/QUOTE]

Believe it was over 10 years and started as a PS1 title. Shades of DNF, there.
 
[quote name='Josef']I've never even heard of APB. Yeah, that's going to do well.[/QUOTE]

I actually thought they were talking about the old arcade game of the same name. I used to play that like a fiend every time I went to the local arcade that had one.:D

It was annoying, yet addictive.
 
The craziest thing about the GTAIV figure is when you realize that a fair amount of that was spent on audio (music rights, voice work, recording, etc.) alone.

[quote name='KingBroly']If Final Fantasy XIII doesn't appear on that list soon I will be shocked.[/QUOTE]
This. It's probably just a matter of time, though. The article says: The sequel, Final Fantasy XIII is rumored to have had at least a 50% higher budget, however, this hasn’t been made official (yet).
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']I actually thought they were talking about the old arcade game of the same name. I used to play that like a fiend every time I went to the local arcade that had one.:D

It was annoying, yet addictive.[/QUOTE]

Actually, that's the first thing that came to my mind too :) I was like "how the hell did that old arcade game cost 50 million to make and market?"
 
[quote name='Magus8472']I remember reading somewhere that it was in the $20 million range, though take that with a grain of salt.[/QUOTE]

Makes you wonder how games like Too Human cost that much.
 
[quote name='DarkNessBear']Yea, even more reason for him to be out of work. I'm not really sure on his financial situation, so I'm stunned he has money like that to throw away.

But, any number on the destruction Duke has left in his Forever path?[/QUOTE]

Also keep in mind that Nintendo is part silent owner of the company.
 
[quote name='HaLLuZiNaTiOnZ']Makes you wonder how games like Too Human cost that much.[/QUOTE]
Thats easy. $20-30 million is the average budget for a PS3/360 game. Too Human costing $20 million isnt exceptional. Its par for the course.
 
[quote name='Dr Mario Kart']Thats easy. $20-30 million is the average budget for a PS3/360 game. Too Human costing $20 million isnt exceptional. Its par for the course.[/QUOTE]

Too Human was $60 Million+

What I meant was, how can a company spend $80-100 million and make a mediocre game, based on opinions I've seen, while another spends a fourth of that and makes a game of the year quality game?

Where the fuck did that $60 million go?
 
[quote name='HaLLuZiNaTiOnZ']Too Human was $60 Million+

What I meant was, how can a company spend $80-100 million and make a mediocre game, based on opinions I've seen, while another spends a fourth of that and makes a game of the year quality game?

Where the fuck did that $60 million go?[/QUOTE]
It was in development for a long, long time. They had to spend money to keep development going and to finish it.
 
I'm surprised people haven't heard of APB after all the love it gets from Crackdown fans, the potential it has for what GTA should've always been, and how it was held up as one of 360's big guns before going to PC.

Here's Daikatana's cost from Wikipedia:
On April 21, 2000, Daikatana finally reached gold status. It sold 200,000 copies, which Romero claimed made up its production costs. The production cost of Daikatana was well over 40 million dollars, meaning each copy would have had to have sold for $200 each, before taxes, to cover the production costs.

Potentially an even bigger bust than Too Human, which sold 168k in NA in August alone, not counting all the other money wasted at Ion Storm.
 
[quote name='J7.']I'm surprised people haven't heard of APB after all the love it gets from Crackdown fans, the potential it has for what GTA should've always been, and how it was held up as one of 360's big guns before going to PC.[/QUOTE]

I just watched the one trailer for APB and while it looks like it controls pretty similarly to a GTA type of game I would NOT get the game due to 1) only on PC or 360, 2) MMO=monthly fee=fuck that and 3) no big booms(aka destructible enviros).

If they made a GTA MMO with Mercenaries-esque enviros where I could plow a truck loaded with explosives into a building, bail out and then implode the building by blowing up the truck, I would be in heaven and consider paying a nominal monthly fee.
 
[quote name='blant217']I love Too Human, one of my favorite games. Just disappointed in the way it ended, it set up for a sequel that I doubt will ever come...:cry:[/QUOTE]

Well, it was intended as a trilogy... But yea, who knows if the other games will get made.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']I just watched the one trailer for APB and while it looks like it controls pretty similarly to a GTA type of game I would NOT get the game due to 1) only on PC or 360, 2) MMO=monthly fee=fuck that and 3) no big booms(aka destructible enviros).

If they made a GTA MMO with Mercenaries-esque enviros where I could plow a truck loaded with explosives into a building, bail out and then implode the building by blowing up the truck, I would be in heaven and consider paying a nominal monthly fee.[/QUOTE]

You certainly love driving, bailing, and blowing. ;) That seems to be your favorite move that you'd like to see in more games. Have you played the Burnout games? Hell, they should make a Burnout GTA. Better handling faster cars with missions, more slow mo and explosions.

I'd like to see a GTA with cities created by gamers in a complete sim city type mode, policed by gamers who must keep cities safe by running fire, ambulance, and police missions, while they must run a successful gambling and drug empire, while they try to stop other cities and their gamers from doing the same. That's the type of future I'd like to see gaming go in. Much more genre combining and larger evolution.
 
[quote name='J7.']You certainly love driving, bailing, and blowing. ;) That seems to be your favorite move that you'd like to see in more games. Have you played the Burnout games? Hell, they should make a Burnout GTA. Better handling faster cars with missions, more slow mo and explosions.

I'd like to see a GTA with cities created by gamers in a complete sim city type mode, policed by gamers who must keep cities safe by running fire, ambulance, and police missions, while they must run a successful gambling and drug empire, while they try to stop other cities and their gamers from doing the same. That's the type of future I'd like to see gaming go in. Much more genre combining and larger evolution.[/QUOTE]

That actually sounds pretty interesting. What I'd like to see is a type of game where players could give other players missions to do(within reason).
 
I'm pretty shocked by quite a few...

Killzone 2 at 45 million is a lot more than I thought it would be but at least the game sold and it was a good ame. But Too Human costing 60 million is insane, considering how bad the game was.

I'd love to see how much some of these games turned over in terms of revenue.
 
[quote name='Cantatus']Here's another list which actually lists some sources:

* Grand Theft Auto IV - $100 million [1]
* Shenmue - $70 million [2]
* Too Human - $80-100 million
* Tom Clancy - $50 million [3]
* Metal Gear Solid 4 - $50-$70 million (rumor)
* Halo 3 - over $30M, about $60M including promotional costs
* Killzone 2 - ~$40-$60M [4][5][6]
* APB MMO - $50 million budget [7]
* Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - $40-50 million [8]
* Final Fantasy XII: $35 Million
* Tom Clancy MMO - $50 million budget [9]
* Final Fantasy IX - $40M [10]
* Stranglehold - $30m [11]
* Assassin's Creed 2 - $24m [12]
* Crysis - $22m [13]
* Assassin's Creed - $20m [14]
* Lost Planet - $20m to develop, $20m to promote [15]
* Crackdown - $20 million [16]
* Ghostbusters - $15-$20 million[17]
* Half-Life episodes - $12 million each [18]
* Red Steel - $12 million [19] [/QUOTE]

Only games I see on that list that I would guess actually MADE money would be AC 2, MW 2, Halo 3, and possibly Tom Clancy depending on which series its talking about (Ghost Recon, Rainbow, Splinter Cell) or if that's for all 3.

Not sure on the Half Life episodes (made money from console/PC sales of Orange Box also), FF IX, FF XII, MGS 4, and extreme maybe on GTA IV.
 
[quote name='J7.']I'm surprised people haven't heard of APB after all the love it gets from Crackdown fans, the potential it has for what GTA should've always been, and how it was held up as one of 360's big guns before going to PC.[/QUOTE]

I think the people who left Realtime Worlds to create Ruffian Studios and went to work on Crackdown 2 are going to end up being the smart ones.
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']Only games I see on that list that I would guess actually MADE money would be AC 2, MW 2, Halo 3, and possibly Tom Clancy depending on which series its talking about (Ghost Recon, Rainbow, Splinter Cell) or if that's for all 3.

Not sure on the Half Life episodes (made money from console/PC sales of Orange Box also), FF IX, FF XII, MGS 4, and extreme maybe on GTA IV.[/QUOTE]

GTA IV sold about 14 million, FF IX and XII sold around 5.5 million, MGS4 sold around 4.5 million. Those probably turned a profit. Don't know the figures on the other.

I wonder, how much of the development costs comes from a developer making a new engine for that generation's run of games? Episodes From Liberty City, for example, was probably comparably easy and cheap to make, since the physics and everything were already in place from GTA IV.
 
now you know why there won't be a shenmue 3 and so forth. shenmue 3 would have probably been double or triple that 70 million. can you imagine that?

it's funny that these companies are still in favor of doing these high price budget games as opposed to smaller cheaper budget games. what are they thinking? i have no sympathy for these companies.
 
[quote name='pochaccoheaven']it's funny that these companies are still in favor of doing these high price budget games as opposed to smaller cheaper budget games. what are they thinking? i have no sympathy for these companies.[/QUOTE]

They're thinking big budget games are the only ones that sell reliably.

And they're right.
 
There used to be a thread on CAG that was started by a member who had access to NPD numbers. It was a great and long-running thread, but I can't seem to find it....
 
Too Human was supposed to be a trilogy? Or do you mean they took the game and split it into 3 parts? My issue with that game, and I'm assuming the LARGEST reason it didn't do well, was the fact that it's short and repetitive. They lost out on Achievement Hunter sales by making the achievements long and boring too. Honestly, who wants to build each character type to level 50? That would imply finishing the game what? 15 times? Ugh... I have a character at lvl 49 and just don't feel like getting to lvl 50, ha.

Anyway, big budgets sell. There are always going to be bombs. I am just surprised that during the spending of those budgets that you don't get to $30 mil and say, "wow, honestly, this game sucks... we need to change (insert aspect of game that sucks)". All of these ads online to pay people $70 an hour to test video games. Give me a copy of the game for free and I'll test it and tell you what I think.

Large budget items remind me of corrupt government. I understand the salaries and technology are expensive, but I'm sure they bought themselves many $2000 toilet seats (so to speak) along the way. Someone made out like a bandit in these.
 
Killzone 2 was in development for a LONG time and had a ton of people working on it (both people from Guerrilla Games and Sony studio.)

However, a large amount of that costs was subsidized by the dutch government so luckily for Sony it didn't cost them as much as it normally would have.

And as other people have said, Too Human was in development for a LONG time and had to be remade for the 360 (switch from UE3 to custom engine).

Where as Uncharted 2 used an existing engine and was only in development for two years. Makes a big difference.
 
[quote name='Retom7']Too Human was supposed to be a trilogy? Or do you mean they took the game and split it into 3 parts? My issue with that game, and I'm assuming the LARGEST reason it didn't do well, was the fact that it's short and repetitive. They lost out on Achievement Hunter sales by making the achievements long and boring too. Honestly, who wants to build each character type to level 50? That would imply finishing the game what? 15 times? Ugh... I have a character at lvl 49 and just don't feel like getting to lvl 50, ha.

Anyway, big budgets sell. There are always going to be bombs. I am just surprised that during the spending of those budgets that you don't get to $30 mil and say, "wow, honestly, this game sucks... we need to change (insert aspect of game that sucks)". All of these ads online to pay people $70 an hour to test video games. Give me a copy of the game for free and I'll test it and tell you what I think.

Large budget items remind me of corrupt government. I understand the salaries and technology are expensive, but I'm sure they bought themselves many $2000 toilet seats (so to speak) along the way. Someone made out like a bandit in these.[/QUOTE]

Ads online to pay people $70 an hour to test video games? Where? I'd gladly do THAT for a living.:D
 
[quote name='MSUHitman']I think the people who left Realtime Worlds to create Ruffian Studios and went to work on Crackdown 2 are going to end up being the smart ones.[/QUOTE]

I won't disagree if what their looking for is sales and money. It wasn't cool what MS did to Realtime Worlds though and it's quite possible Ruffian was formed because MS approached certain members behind the scenes, it all seemed very shady. You can say at least that MS funded them to make Crackdown 2 behind Realtime World's back. Even if MS were the publisher of the first game (Realtime wanted to make the sequel eventually), it's wrong to take a studio's game and hand it to an upstart without talking to the creators about it- even if they have some former members. I respect what Realtime Worlds is trying to do by pushing the envelope with something ambitious and innovative even if I'll never play it.

[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']That actually sounds pretty interesting. What I'd like to see is a type of game where players could give other players missions to do(within reason).[/QUOTE]

That would be a nice next step. Have you played Burnout Crash Mode? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GTR4vqe_FE

[quote name='pochaccoheaven']now you know why there won't be a shenmue 3 and so forth. shenmue 3 would have probably been double or triple that 70 million. can you imagine that?

it's funny that these companies are still in favor of doing these high price budget games as opposed to smaller cheaper budget games. what are they thinking? i have no sympathy for these companies.[/QUOTE]

I think they would be a lot more conservative with Shenmue 3 in terms of it's design and production compared to the epic-ness of Shenmue in all respects back in the day. That said it would still be very expensive and that's a huge reason it hasn't been made.

[quote name='Retom7']
Anyway, big budgets sell. There are always going to be bombs. I am just surprised that during the spending of those budgets that you don't get to $30 mil and say, "wow, honestly, this game sucks... we need to change (insert aspect of game that sucks)". All of these ads online to pay people $70 an hour to test video games. Give me a copy of the game for free and I'll test it and tell you what I think.

Large budget items remind me of corrupt government. I understand the salaries and technology are expensive, but I'm sure they bought themselves many $2000 toilet seats (so to speak) along the way. Someone made out like a bandit in these.[/QUOTE]

They often do get to a huge budget number during development and say "this sucks" and then they make changes only if they can afford to because making changes extends development and costs a lot more money. They gotta keep the games under lock and key - if they were to let people test who are willing to do it for free it would get pirated or the people wouldn't stay. Testing sucks.
 
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