Making a game is really expensive. I mean, like really expensive. Way more expensive than making a cake, or a wardrobe. Games are a lot more fun and interesting though, so it’s all relative – right? I mean, what video game would be less fun than looking at a wardrobe? Especially when the cash thrown at it is so immense.
Take, for example, the seminal Grand Theft Auto V. To date, it is estimated to be the most expensive game ever created, taking a team of hundreds over five years to create. Add to that the millions of dollars worth of advertising required to hammer the game into the public consciousness and the final price tag is nothing short of eye-popping. Still, it lived up to the hype, sold faster than turkeys in December, and was unquestionably more fun than flat-pack furniture.
It was a fairytale ending. But throwing money at things doesn’t always have the effect of making them great, as Bill Gates no doubt realized after he finished personally burying the last Zune MP3 player in the middle of the Arizona desert. (This may not have actually happened.)
[zergpaid]The price tag of game creation is becoming more translucent, with the rise in eminence of sites like KickStarter, and the games themselves are swallowing more money than ever before thanks to better graphics, famous voice actors, film licences and so on. They’re bigger than ever, and it stands to reason that more currency is needed to create them. But tragically, the mark of said currency is sometimes utterly mystifying. Some games are so expensive – and so bad – that you’d be amazed to hear they even cost money at all, as opposed to, say, being bartered for some eggs, or painting the developers garden fence.
“What are those games??” I hear you impatiently crying. Well, stop crying and I’ll tell you, but a note before we proceed. No Call of Duty games made it onto this list. Is it because I don’t think they’re bad? No. I absolutely do. Instead, it’s because Activision keep their budgets a military-grade secret – although I can’t imagine it would actually cost that much seeing as most of their sequels are brought to life via the magic of Ctrl + V.
*Please note that this article is reflective of my personal opinion. I know that some of these games received positive reviews on We Got This Covered, but for me personally, they were disappointing.