Talk:List of most expensive video games to develop

Some games that can be added in this list

https://kotaku.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-a-big-video-game-1501413649 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Costas theodorou7 (talk • contribs) 16:43, 7 June 2018 (UTC)

Pokemon red marketing cost reference

Does anyone know where in the citation does it state that Pokemon Red marketing budget was 50m? I tried looking at it, and cannot find it from the source (yet). Anyone know the page number? --199.212.68.252 (talk) 22:09, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

It was mentioned on page 66, as the ref cited, but it was worded as "allegedly" more than 50 million, without specifying which specific games or properties, simply that NOA had spent it on "Pokemon". I've removed the entry as a result. We have to have a clear number tied to the specific game, not the franchise. -- ferret (talk) 22:25, 23 November 2018 (UTC)

Maybe it was refering to this [[1]] ? Timur9008 or this [2] ? (talk) 5:46, 14 August 2019 (UTC)

Star Citizen 2017 financials

Star Citizen can probably be provisionally added at 193.34M USD, (the summation of the total costs per year). As that only covers through 2017, it's obviously out of date, at this point, but it still puts it near the top of the list. 199.103.2.101 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:24, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

It was removed semi-recently by an IP. I'm somewhat on the fence about it's usage for a budget, but chose not to remove it when it was first added. -- ferret (talk) 23:35, 4 June 2019 (UTC)

Depending on how reliable the live stats are, Star Citizen should be second place, soon to overtake the first. --Swift502 (talk) 10:04, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

It's not reliable for this. Funding goals, how much money they have raised, how many ships and what not they have sold, etc, is not the same as the development budget. -- ferret (talk) 12:52, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

All the money raised is going to development of the game, as stated by Chris Roberts himself . Otherwise they'd be sales and not pledges. Seeing as how CI has no other IPs in active development, and that Star Citizen has no projected release date, it's safe to assume that all the money raised is contributing to the total development budget. 24.185.56.93 (talk) 23:47, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

References

Semi-protected edit request on 2 June 2020

red dead redemptions 2 is not added 182.70.83.20 (talk) 07:27, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. JTP ^{(talk • contribs)} 08:20, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

red dead redemption 2

please add Ottovondodo (talk) 10:53, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: No figures were issued for this game.Timur9008 (talk) 20:49, 28 August 2021 (UTC)

Past the first few titles, the list is irrelevant and misleading

Hey,

The first few entries (let’s say top 5-10) are still relevant to this day as very expensive (and/or most) expensive. However, past that, I see projects on this list that were not super particularly expensive when they were made and not expensive now either (E.g. Mass Effect Andromeda).

I can tell you with certainty that most if not all AAA-level games today are revolving around the 100M mark, many times exceeding it. The difficulty lies with the enherent secrecy surrounding the industry as a whole, so reliable data, especially for budgets is very difficult to find. This doesn’t mean an outdated list should be kept.

Proposal: Only keep the top 5 or top 10 games on this list and update as newer more expensive projects appear. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.228.199.79 (talk) 09:06, 13 September 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 September 2020

APB:reloaded costed over $100,000,000 USD to make Dronkgamer4 (talk) 17:00, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. – Thjarkur (talk) 17:09, 14 September 2020 (UTC)

Seperate list for MMOs?

Including World of Warcraft for only $40 million is a bit disingenuous. As the citation says, the $40 million refers to the cost as of 2004, when quite plainly there has been a lot of development in World of Warcraft since then which would be much greater than the initial cost. The same, presumably, can be applied to any of the big budget decade spanning MMOs - Everquest, Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars Online, Runescape - (or perhaps any game with truly significant post launch content - League of Legends, Dota, Team Fortress 2, Fortnite, Minecraft, etc, etc, etc (GTA5?)). All this suggests that the current list is inadequate for these types of titles, and there should be a seperate list for games with significant pre and post launch spending, or at least an additional column in the table, or clarification around these types of titles for when the spending figure is from and what it includes. // Lollipoplollipoplollipop :: talk 08:54, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Really this applies to every title. This list is problematic as these figures are rarely disclosed, and even in cases on non-MMOs, which often feature multiple DLC packs these days, we have no updates on the cost of the DLCs. What about the cost of running CoD servers, for example? The problem is this list cannot truly be maintained and satisfied for any title. I've been debating whether it should just be sent to AFD. While it would pass WP:LISTN at a surface glance (There's definitely reliable secondary sourcing for lists of "most expensive games"), the problems with keeping it maintained go beyond our scope and ability. -- ferret (talk) 12:12, 16 September 2020 (UTC)

Star Citizen 2020

Pretty sure Star Citizen has exceeded its initial budget even further. They've raised more: https://cloudimperiumgames.com/blog/corporate/cloud-imperium-investment-fact-sheet and may very well exceed $300m in development funding already https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/mustafa-mahmoud/star-citizen-becomes-most-expensive-video-game-ever/

Money raised is not money spent, and money spent is not strictly "game budget". This is repeatedly explained in regards to Star Citizen. -- ferret (talk) 19:54, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Maybe need to add an FAQ with the help of Template:FAQ. -- Emir of Wikipedia (talk) 19:58, 6 October 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 18 December 2020

Change cyberpunk 2077 development cost from $121+ million to $330m.

The source for this information is the British newspaper the guardian.

Quote from article: "CD Projekt RED spent an estimated 1.2bn zloty ($330m) to make Cyberpunk 2077, according to analysts at Polish bank BOS, which would make it one of the most expensive games ever made."

Link to article: https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/dec/18/cyberpunk-2077-sony-pulls-game-from-playstation-store-after-complaints 90.246.53.249 (talk) 09:56, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

 Done. First place on our list? That's nuts. ◢  Ganbaruby!  (Say hi!) 14:15, 18 December 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 February 2021

I have information on games that fall into this range. I would appreciate if I was allowed to edit, so that I can add onto this page. 173.69.128.134 (talk) 23:39, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

 Not done: this is not the right page to request additional user rights. You may reopen this request with the specific changes to be made and someone will add them for you, or if you have an account, you can wait until you are autoconfirmed and edit the page yourself. -- ferret (talk) 23:53, 6 February 2021 (UTC)

Records and/or "milestones"

Please stop adding a table that tries to imply or document record breaking or industry milestones. As the article leads states, "Most game budgets aren't disclosed, so this list isn't indicative of industry trends.". As such, without clear sourcing that claims a game broke records at the time or was higher than industry norms or otherwise some form of milestone, we cannot do it. It's simply WP:OR and synthesis to claim any game on this list broke a particular trend or set a record or was otherwise a notable milestone, and no sourcing showing otherwise has been provided. -- ferret (talk) 01:21, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Fair enough. I could go hunting for some sources that do claim them to have broken records, but can't really be bothered anymore. I was just trying to find some way to include older games which never came close to the $50M threshold. By '80s and '90s standards, $50M is way too high, resulting in the list having a WP:RECENTISM bias. I think the threshold should be lower for games released before 2000. Maestro2016 (talk) 13:23, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

There's a fair point that the list has RECENTISM issues as trends in the industry shift to ever more expensive productions, but we're ill equipped to deal with that especially with the lack of wide reporting of budgets. We simply don't have the sourcing to give proper context. The best-selling lists face similar issues where the growth of the industry of itself over decades means what was best-selling in the 80s would be a commercial failure today. -- ferret (talk) 13:59, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

It was in the '90s that development budgets started ballooning in size. Up until the start of the '90s, the highest development budget I could find is Dragon's Lair with $1.3M. By the end of the '90s, the highest budget was Shenmue with $47-70M. That's a roughly 30-50 fold increase over the course of a decade. I feel there needs to be a different threshold for older games, which can't be judged by the same standards as more recent games. Maestro2016 (talk) 22:02, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

World of Warcraft

Warcraft had an estimated budget of $90 million according to Bob Drobish, president of startup True Games Interactive who spoke to a meeting of video-game engineers at the Digital Media Center incubator.

source - https://www.newspapers.com/image/208117769/ | The Santa Fe New Mexican| page- 17|

Can this be included? The number is not from Blizzard directly. Timur9008 (talk) 15:00, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

A third party estimate from someone who didn't work at Blizzard is no good. -- ferret (talk) 12:08, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Can this be used?

https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7CA148424607&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-GPS&asid=4ff920d9 Timur9008 (talk) 06:05, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Looks like an impromptu comment by the co-founder of Multiverse Network (which, importantly, did not work on World of Warcraft). Doesn't really fit anywhere here. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 06:15, 14 October 2024 (UTC)

Sonic & Knuckles Entry

The citation for the Sonic & Knuckles entry clearly states that the 45 million dollar figure refers to an advertising campaign, and not the cost it took to develop the game itself. Does this count toward the development cost total for the purposes of this list? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:6c40:657f:cfec:f83c:4d31:794a:4dbb (talk) 15:11, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

This list takes into account both development and marketing. In the case of Sonic & Knuckles, the marketing budget alone is enough to surpass the minimum US$50 million for inclusion in the list, so it can be included without any development costs. – Rhain ☔ 15:15, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

Handheld Video Game Exclusive List

There should be a list for the most expensive handheld video games to produce. Person077777777 (talk) 01:00, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

That would fail WP:LISTN, as that's not a grouping discussed by sources. -- ferret (talk) 01:59, 8 December 2021 (UTC)

New World?

I've heard numbers between $200m-$500m thrown out for New World. While it's unlikely we'll get a definite answer, it's almost certainly one of the most expensive games ever made. 2600:1700:9EA7:9C0:50C1:62D3:C2B:2AAA (talk) 21:30, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

We need more than just "numbers thrown out", I'm afraid; we either need an official figure, or one from a reliable source or industry analyst. – Rhain ☔ 22:43, 5 July 2022 (UTC)

Halo 5: Guardians

Michael Pachter estimated Halo'5 budget to be $160 million. [3] Can this be included? Timur9008 (talk) 12:15, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

 Done. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 12:25, 4 December 2022 (UTC)

Final Fantasy VII Remake

From the source [4] "“I haven’t come across a single game which took more than $100 million in Japan” to get made, said Atul Goyal, a managing director at investment bank Jefferies & Company, who pegged the budget for Final Fantasy VII Remake at up to $140 million" Can this be included? Timur9008 (talk) 10:02, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

 Done. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 11:16, 15 December 2022 (UTC)

Halo 3

Michael Pachter estimated the budget for Halo 3 to be a little more than $60 million [5]. Can this be included? Timur9008 (talk) 04:56, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

 Done. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 05:12, 29 December 2022 (UTC)

Far Cry 5

From the source [6] "Studios are only as successful as their last hit, and with a development budget of between $80 and $130 million, there’s significant pressure on Far Cry 5". Can this be included? Timur9008 (talk) 09:08, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

That's quite a wide range. It very clearly indicates some undisclosed and varied estimations. I wouldn't use it. -- ferret (talk) 13:59, 11 October 2023 (UTC)

Star Citizen

Given numbers are incomes. Not expenditures on the game itself. Elk Salmon (talk) 22:18, 11 December 2023 (UTC)

The numbers include income (as most of them do) but covers expenditures as well. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 22:13, 7 February 2024 (UTC)

Yeah but they are split for Star Citizen and Squadron 42 so this number is incredibly misleading and should be removed KucherHD (talk) 14:18, 24 August 2024 (UTC)

The Callisto Protocol

Reported budget is $162 million 142.180.18.176 (talk) 08:11, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

 Added. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 23:59, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

Monopoly Go!

Reported marketing budget is $500 million.

Ryan York (talk) 23:18, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

 Added, good find. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 00:41, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

References

GTA IV development budget

Michael Pachter estimated the development budget for GTA IV to be $45 million [7]. Can this be included? The total estimated cost is included in the article. The East Bay Times/Pachter article also predates the article that's used here(the $100 million one) Timur9008 (talk) 14:51, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

Why would we include an offhand estimate like this with no backing data or information? It could be right, or it could be wildly wrong. It's not a hard figure and this article should be based on non-estimates. -- ferret (talk) 15:00, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

Fair Enough. I asked because Patcher's estimates are used in the article but yeah you're right. Timur9008 (talk) 15:35, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

The Pachter article predating the Benzies one (only by one day, mind you) is more reason not to use it—not to mention the $100 million figure is from the game's producer, not an analyst estimation. That being said, there's a section for estimates (with attribution) so it seems fine for that. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 00:09, 31 March 2024 (UTC)

Star Citizen Budget is Wrong

The cited Budget for Star Citizen is the whole income of CIG, however CIG is developing Star Citizen and Squadron 42 at the same time so Star Citizen should be removed because there is no way of telling how much percentage of that money is spend on Star Citizen. KucherHD (talk) 09:47, 25 August 2024 (UTC)

Concord

According to some sources in its article, Concord had a budget of $400 million, and therefore should maybe be included on the list. Eastwood Park and strabane (talk) 22:40, 24 September 2024 (UTC)

Agreed, probably goes in the section press estimations? Thelen Shar (talk) 02:30, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

I would typically agree, but several developers familiar with PlayStation have disputed the figure, and some suggested that it might include the cost of acquiring the studio too. Press estimations seem valid to include if they're undisputed, but this isn't the case here. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 22:13, 27 October 2024 (UTC)

Genshin Impact Increment

With the game celebrating it's 4th anniversary last month and accounting that this past year had just as much content updates as previous years, there is an argument to be made that we have enough precedent to increment by another USD$200m; or would we still need a new source confirming the budget for this past year?

Inflation adjustment for assumed USD$900mil:

(Initial 2020) $100m -> $121,826,738 in 2024

(Y1 2020-2021) $200m -> $232,720,227 in 2024

(Y2 2021-2022) $200m -> $215,476,243 in 2024

(Y3 2022-2023) $200m -> $206,956,961 in 2024

(Y4 2023-2024) $200m -> $200,000,000 in 2024

Total adjusted: $977m+ AlakazamHD (talk) 17:52, 12 October 2024 (UTC)

It's logical to assume that the budget has continued to increase annually, but you're right, we would need a source to confirm that's the case as of 2024. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 21:47, 12 October 2024 (UTC)