Video games are big business and as such companies and studios invest millions upon millions of dollars on bringing these virtual worlds to life. As the medium has become more and more respected in the mainstream we’ve seen a trend emerging where companies are willing to spend huge chunks of cash, sometimes even more than blockbuster movies, on developing the most mind-bending video game worlds imaginable.
But the question is, what video games were the most expensive? Which companies invested the most in development of the game and the marketing for the product? Whilst game budgets aren’t typically disclosed, analyses and estimates have given us a pretty good idea of which games cost the most to make. From The Last of Us Part II to CyberPunk 2077 here is a list of the most expensive games ever made. For fairness, we’ve adjusted the list to account for inflation; and we are also counting the marketing in the overall expenses.
Red Dead Redemption 2 – $198 million
Rockstar is known for going all out with the budgets for their games. However, with Red Dead Redemption 2, it really shows. From the NPC’s AI to the detail of the sandbox environment, it really feels like a living, breathing world that you’re able to inhabit as a player. Couple that with a truly amazing story and well-acted scenes that can easily keep you enthralled for 100+ hours and you’ll start to understand why Rockstar invested as much as it did in this game.
This figure comes from an analyst estimate on the game’s budget, however, some outlets have claimed that the budget was even higher. Online publication VentureBeat claimed that the game cost somewhere around $200 – $300 million to make. If so, then this game would be sitting near the top of this list, although the claim is unverified, so we’re going with the analyst figures on this one.
Horizon Forbidden West – $212 million
This critically-acclaimed follow-up had a lot to live up to. It’s safe to say that the developers did everything in their power to make the sequel the best it could possibly be, which includes spending huge wads of cash to make it perfect. Horizon Forbidden West offers a massive open world for players to mess around in and new destructive robot enemies to face-off against.
It seems the huge investment paid off as the game has an impressive critic score of 89 on Metacritic, only falling fractionally short of Horizon Zero Dawn, which sits at 89.
Halo 2 – $248 million
A strong entry in a franchise full of strong entries. Halo 2 is a great game and the most expensive out of all of them to make. Even Halo 3 cost about $30 million less than this game. However, it’s not the best in the series with 3 and Reach arguably being the better sequels. Still, the amount of money spent on this game paid off as the franchise is still going strong today, 20 years later.
The Last of Us Part II – $249 million
Fans were hyped for this game for years. The sheer level of detail that went into the creation of The Last of Us Part II already justifies the game’s inflated budget, but the fact that this game was practically guaranteed to make a huge profit upon launch probably convinced Sony and Naughty Dog that the game needed to be done right.
Despite the controversy surrounding the story’s direction, there is no denying that passion was poured into the project and it seems that everyone behind it had faith that the game would succeed and even surpass the original in many ways.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – $260 million+
It’s not too common to see a MMORPG receive such a large budget for its development but considering it’s Star Wars we’re talking about it makes sense developers would want to do everything in their power to do the beloved universe justice.
The game features a massive open world that puts the player at the center of their own story. Furthermore, it’s free to play, although that does mean the presence of the dreaded microtransactions. However, the figure does come from press estimations, so it’s not clear how reliable this number really is.
Final Fantasy VII – $146 – $264 million
We’re talking about the original Final Fantasy VII here, not the re-make, although that game has a massive budget too. For the time it was almost unheard of to spend so much money on the development of a video game. Only an estimated $40 million was spent on development, with about $40 – $100 million spent on marketing, (before taking inflation into account.)
Grand Theft Auto V – $259 million – $310 million
Obviously this game was going to appear somewhere on this list. Grand Theft Auto is one of the most profitable video game franchises of all time and considering how much time and dedication Rockstar pours into each installment it’s not hard to see why. At the time the game world was pretty groundbreaking – Grand Theft Auto V wasn’t just a crime game, it was a life sim. You could race, go diving, play golf, and purchase real estate. The world felt truly alive and set the bar for future open world titles.
On top of that you have GTA Online, which continues to draw in new players ten years after the game first hit store shelves. Even though making the game set the game studio back around $300 million, that was a drop in the ocean compared to how much the game made for the company. GTA V made around $800 million on the day it released alone and crossed the $1 billion mark three days after release.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 $327 million – $341 million
An outright classic; for many this was the peak of their Call of Duty experience. Everything aligned with this game – the story was great, the online multiplayer was perfect and it was slap bang in the middle of the greatest era of COD.
A huge majority of this game’s budget was dedicated to marketing. In fact, only around $40 million was spent on developing the game. The remaining $200 million was spent on promotional material. It just goes to show how important marketing a game can be. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 went on to sell around 8 million copies on launch.
Cyberpunk 2077 – $357 million
Yes, this game was a bit of a disappointment when it came out, but not for lack of trying. In all honesty, it looks like CD Projekt Red simply set its sights too high and flew too close to the sun. Like many video game developers have tried before, Cyberpunk 2077 wanted to be revolutionary, in terms of feeling like a real, living, breathing world – this game was truly going to be next gen. With aspirations set so high, it’s no wonder it’s one of the most expensive games ever made.
The game did well as many had faith in the studio; they gave us The Witcher games, after all. The concept and studio reputation was enough for this game to make its money back once launched. However, negative word-of-mouth began to spread as fans quickly found out the game was pretty broken on launch. Patches have since fixed most of the problems but it seems customers might be wary of future titles from now on.
Star Citizen – $541 million+
Ok, to be fair this game hasn’t actually come out yet, but already Star Citizen is set to be the most expensive video game so far. It’s been in development for over ten years and there is still no release date in site for the epic sci-fi open-world game. The project has been crowdfunded, and so far the total amount it’s raised is around $550 million.
That’s a lot of money. No other crowdfunded game has even come close to this figure. People really want this game. Like Cyberpunk 2077, Star Citizen promises a lot, it’s pretty much a space life sim — you can explore the cosmos, mine for ores, salvage space wrecks, become a mercenary — the possibilities it seems are endless. But unlike Cyberpunk 2077, the studio behind the project, Cloud Imperium Games, seem to be taking their sweet time, making fans wait for an ungodly amount of time.
What’s unique about this game is that the budget has been entirely funded by fans who just want to see an awesome project come to life. It’s likely another game will surpass this milestone, but for now, Star Citizen holds the top place for most expensive game ever made.
What about in the future?
There are some pretty big titles right around the corner that could take that number one spot, the first one that springs to mind is the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI. The game is rumored to have a budget between $1 billion and $2 billion, which would be almost as much as all the games on this list combined. However, these rumors are unsubstantiated so it’s difficult to judge exactly how much the game really cost to develop.
Video games are big business, so it’s no surprise some people suspect the next GTA has cost a fortune to make. Every new AAA aims to revolutionize whilst being something fans can play for longer. On top of that developers are taking a lot longer to perfect their products – showing a dedication to quality. Future games will likely continue to get more and more expensive, but that only results in more sales and (hopefully) happier gamers.
