costliest video games ever produced

The Cost of Video games is rising with the gaming industry growing larger and more sophisticated every year. Ever given a thought on how much time, money and effort goes behind the development of your favorite video games. Gaming, just like any other business venture has started to have high production costs. But, unlike movies the gaming companies have been very discrete in matters concerning the revelation of their production,budgetand advertisement costs. Some of these gaming companies have spent severalmillionson their development,marketingand advertisement. The production costs mentioned are statistical approximations and not accurate calculations. The net production costs include development,marketingand advertisement expenditure. Below is a list of the 10 costliest video games ever made.

The gaming world was shocked last year when it was revealed thatActivisionhad paid half a billion $ for Bungies first person shooter destiny. However, to say the game cost$500 Millionto develop and advertise is not strictly true, as theres an ongoing plan to create content for the game and market it throughout the next 10 years. While Destiny is technically a long term investment for Activision, its also technically the most expensive video game ever produced

While GTA IV cost Rockstar a hefty sum to advertise and develop, this didnt deter them from going even further in the game sequel. GTA V which cost a reported$265 Millionneeded over 1000 Rockstar employees from around the world to work on the game for a number of years. Los Santos is a detailed resemblance of Los Angeles and the games huge open world scale, said to be why the project needed so much work.

This first person shooter which was released in 2009 is the sixth edition in the Call of Duty Series. After the Universal critical acclaim that Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare received, its no surprise that Infinity Ward wanted to go big in its marketing campaign for the sequel. Nearly200 Million Dollarswere spent on the games various publicity materials in addition to the cost of development which was between 40 50 Million USD.

Squares initial foray into 3D technology with the Final Fantasy Franchise required 120 programmers and artists to develop, making it the most expensive video game ever developed at the time. However, Final Fantasy VIIs development costs were considerably small in comparison to the amount spent on the games huge advertising campaign. This included a promotion with Pepsi ads and big magazines such as Rolling Stone and Playboy as well as Marvel and DC comics and multiple TV advertisements. The game finally released in 1997 after its three month long marketing streak. Adjusted for inflation Square spent around$213 Millionon Final Fantasy VIIs development and marketing.

Its said that the BioWares development of their MMO Star Wars The Old Republic started six years before the game finally released. In 2009 BioWare claimed that their project had more story content than all of their other games combined which is why they had a full time writing staff writing the script in lower of full two years before the gameplay development began. During its release in 2011 it was said to be the most expensive game ever. The cost of making it is said to be around150 200 Million USD. It eventually became the most rapidly growing Massively Multiplayer Online game ever.

Shenmues estimated production cost adjusted for inflation is a staggering$176 Million. This is primarily because Shenmue II is a gigantic game with a massive open world. Arguably the largest in its generation. A huge staff was required to create such a large game in just under two years. Its unlikely that any of the budgets went under marketing costs as the game had little to no publicity behind it.

Rockstar North really pushed the boat out with GTA 4 with one of the biggest marketing campaigns ever conceived for a game, reportedly costing 100 Million USDin addition to another $100 Million for development costs. Its release in 2008 made it the costliest video games ever produced. The official website had 13 unique teasers and four different cinematic trailers alongside a TV commercial, viralmarketingand more generic advertising.

Too Humans was produced at over$100 Million. Its mainly because the game was stuck in development from almost a decade. Originally planned for release on the Play station, Silicon Knights then shifted the development to Nintendo Game Cube before finally selling the title to Microsoft asXbox360 exclusive in 2005. The studio lost more money on the game after a lawsuit from Epic Games following the unauthorized use of their unreal engine on which Too Human was developed.

The expenditure needed to make Max Payne 3 was mostly due to the fact that the game was in development for multiple years past its original 2009 release date. When the game was finally released in May 2012, Rockstar claimed that the setbacks were to ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest gaming satisfaction. The game needed to sell 4 Million copies to be at par with the production costs. Max Payne 3s release included TV spots that aired during the 2012 UEFA Champions League final and numerous other social media promotions. Its development cost was about $105 Million.