Top 10 Most Expensive Game Development Costs

Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have pictured a game’s development cost to exceed that of many Hollywood movies, but today, we’re starting to see that happening. Many high-profile games do exceed the budgets of moderate movies out there, and it’s no surprise. Both a movie and a game have similar development processes, after all.

Some games have a far more expensive development cost than others, and it’s quite obvious to tell which those are simply by the names. With names like “Final Fantasy XII”, “Killzone 2” and “Halo 3”, it’s not too surprising to see huge numbers. But do you realize just how huge? For comparison, when the original Doom was released, it cost around $200,000 to make. In 2004, Half-Life 2 was released, and ended up costing $40 million in total.

Today, even a $40 million figure isn’t something worth dropping a jaw over. Gaming site Digital Battle has taken a look at the ten most expensive games ever made, and in 10th is Killzone 2, which manages to beat Half-Life 2 by $5 million to sit at $45 million. Beating that by just a few more is Final Fantasy XII, at $48 million. Of course, as mentioned above, names like those pretty much assume high budgets, but believe it or not, there are some other games with high budgets that didn’t seem to have near as much hype.

There’s L.A. Noire, for example, at $50 million, All Points Bulletin (APB) also at $50 million and Too Human, at $60 million. One game I was surprised to see listed is one of my absolute favorites, Shenmue. It may have been developed for the Sega Dreamcast, a console that’s now ten-years-old, but it still cost $70 million to produce. So, what’s the most expensive game ever developed? Probably no surprise… Grand Theft Auto IV, with a total cost of around $100 million. Whew.

To put it into perspective, when a game does well, it can make back its development cost back fast. In the case of GTA IV, that was definitely the case, with over $500 million of revenue generated in the first week. I would say that was a $100 million well spent.

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.