The gaming industry has been seeing ballooning budgets for major AAA titles, leading to concerns about the sustainability of such costs. However, it’s not every day that we get a closer look at just how massive the budgets have become for some of the most iconic franchises.
Thanks to Stephen Totilo of GameFile, we now have detailed insight into the budgets of several high-profile Call of Duty games from 2015 to 2020, and it’s revealed that one of them holds the record as the most expensive video game ever made—at least in terms of confirmed costs.
The Most Expensive Call of Duty Games
The details of these staggering budgets were uncovered as part of a court filing in a lawsuit related to the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting, filed against Activision. Here’s a breakdown of the confirmed costs for these three games, covering their entire lifecycle, including post-launch content:
- Black Ops 3 (2015): $450 million
- Modern Warfare (2019): $640 million
- Black Ops Cold War (2020): $700 million
These figures include everything associated with the games, from development to marketing, and all the additional content rolled out post-launch.
Setting the Record for Most Expensive Game
The budget for Black Ops Cold War at $700 million has set a new standard for gaming industry costs, surpassing even other high-profile titles. Prior to this, many were shocked when Sony’s The Last of Us Part II was revealed to have cost $220 million to make. More recently, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 came in at around $300 million, which was three times the budget of its predecessor.
These numbers show just how much the gaming industry has grown and how the costs associated with creating a blockbuster game have skyrocketed in recent years, especially when considering the extensive development, marketing, and post-launch support required for such massive projects.
A New Era of High-Stakes Gaming
As the cost of creating major games continues to rise, it raises the question of sustainability in the industry. With budgets now exceeding those of blockbuster movies, developers and publishers face greater financial risks, but also the potential for even larger rewards if the games achieve significant commercial success.
The Call of Duty franchise’s consistent high-budget entries exemplify the increasingly expensive nature of AAA gaming. The road ahead may see even higher costs for future titles, leaving the industry to grapple with the balance between development expenses and profitability.
With such astronomical budgets, the pressure to deliver exceptional and profitable games has never been higher. The question remains: will the gaming world continue to see such high investments, or will these extravagant costs eventually hit a ceiling?
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