How Much Does It Cost to Make a Video Game ?

[topgear]

So Here you go :

You pay $60 for many of the new games you play, but how much does a blockbuster game cost to make? Although it is a seemingly simple question, it is actually incredibly difficult to answer. Of all the opaque video game industry questions, this is perhaps the most opaque. Many in the industry don't even know the budgets of games. It is not unusual for developer working on a big-budget game to have no idea of the game's budget.

Publishers and developers almost never release information on budgets of their games, and publicly traded companies just combine all of their production costs in investor reports, giving little insight into individual game costs. Most commonly, the numbers we see circulated are often guesses from writers or analysts. So budget numbers could vary wildly: one place might say $60 million, another might say $15 million.

When we do get specific numbers, it is often only the development or marketing costs, which do not necessarily provide a complete picture of a game's entire budget of development, distribution and marketing costs. Also, specific numbers communicated to the public may not be accurate: like the film industry, it is possible for accounting to play tricks with budgeting to change the appearance of things. In 2009, EA executive Rich Hilleman indicated in a speech that his company "now typically spends two or three times as much on marketing and advertising as it does on developing a game." This formula is not necessarily applicable to every potential blockbuster game—a "AAA game", in gaming parlance—or to every company, but it is fair to say the break-even point for the average AAA game is well above the development budget. Companies also need to recoup marketing and other expenses.


There is no question, however, that the cost to make a AAA games in going up across the board. Last summer, when Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo talked to Sony's head of worldwide development, Shuhei Yoshida, about game budgets, Yoshida said budgets for top-tier PS4 games would be "slightly larger" than the $20 to $50 million price range he estimated as the development cost for "top PS3 games." Four years ago, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot estimated that the average production budget for the generation of games following Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would be $60 million. In an 2012 investor report, Take-Two admitted some of its "top titles" cost in excess of $60 million for development alone.

Below, I have a list, pulled from public sources as a first attempt to get a comprehensive sense of how much money the world's biggest and most expensive games cost. All the information presented below comes from publicly available sources and all figures should be viewed with appropriate skepticism given the murkiness I described above, though I have tried as hard as possible to find numbers I believe to be accurate.

Eagle-eyed readers may notice the following list lacks some of the more prominent numbers from the past few years, and that is intentional—many of those are rather specious. Leslie Benzies' widely circulated $100 million development budget for Grand Theft Auto IV was simply an estimate, and according to The Sunday Times article the number came from, Benzies did not actually know how much the game cost and just "[hazarded] a guess."

With that sort of admission, I can't help but take The Scotman's claim of a ~£170 million development and marketing spend for Grand Theft Auto V with a grain of salt. Following an incident in which The Wall Street Journal retracted claims that Starcraft II cost $100 million to develop, Chris Sigaty, a producer on the game, told Gamereactor that, unlike most companies, Blizzard doesn't have any sort of set budget for their games, and spends as much as is necessary to make the games the company wants to make.

Here are budget numbers for a select number of games. When possible, I have indicated whether it is development, marketing or combined costs.

Possible Price Tags for 115 Games, from E.T. to Watch Dogs
Please note: These figures are not adjusted for inflation. Also, development or marketing costs does not represent the total cost of the game. Non-development or marketing costs have been labeled.

Read on more on the Source website : How Much Does It Cost to Make a Video Game? - TechSpot

 

[gameranand]

Damn, game development is very fruitful business then. The profit is just too much as compared to the investment.

 

[Faun]

With Greenlight you can basically sell a half baked pre release game.

With crowd funding you can eliminated the risk early one.

 

[Nerevarine]

Damn, game development is very fruitful business then. The profit is just too much as compared to the investment.

Absolutely Not in India..

 

[gameranand]

Absolutely Not in India..

I hope it starts in India.

 

[tkin]

Absolutely Not in India..

Yeah, 60 million USD is about 400 crore INR, even top tier Hindi movies don't come close to spending this much.

What we Indians can do is to get on the android train, an android game can be made using as little as maybe 10000/- INR or lower, if it sells well you can get a huge return on investment.

 

[DVJex]

Yeah, 60 million USD is about 400 crore INR, even top tier Hindi movies don't come close to spending this much.

What we Indians can do is to get on the android train, an android game can be made using as little as maybe 10000/- INR or lower, if it sells well you can get a huge return on investment.

They spend 60 Million with American salaries. It'll be far cheaper in India. The difference in salaries is how you can make an android game in 10k INR.
The problem here is the scene. No one cares about the bigger(or should I say actual) video games, everyone is into mobile games. Most(or maybe all) game development studios are mobile game development studios rather than an actual PC/console game development studio ;@.

 

[ACidBaseD]

They spend 60 Million with American salaries. It'll be far cheaper in India. The difference in salaries is how you can make an android game in 10k INR.
The problem here is the scene. No one cares about the bigger(or should I say actual) video games, everyone is into mobile games. Most(or maybe all) game development studios are mobile game development studios rather than an actual PC/console game development studio ;@.

Because of the rampantly growing piracy in India.

 

[DVJex]

^ Are we really such a big market in the first place??
Our PC games are discounted in retail to counter piracy, and i'm pretty sure people are buying more now. And android games can be pirated too.
Now with Steam greenlight, you just have to spend a truckload on marketing and you will have international reach. The international market along with the console market is where the money's at.

 

[gameranand]

Because of the rampantly growing piracy in India.

Actually I think its declining.

 

[Nerevarine]

Because of the rampantly growing piracy in India.

If Piracy were the main culprit, why does the Indian animation industry such an epic fail ? Game development and animation go hand in hand..
The real reason is the lack of original ideas and creativity.. If India were to develop some game, then itd most likely be "Reuse and Recycle" Mahabharat/Ramayan based or religion based in general

 

[Anorion]

the main culprit is videogaming not considered a leisure activity for adults

 

[DVJex]

If Piracy were the main culprit, why does the Indian animation industry such an epic fail ? Game development and animation go hand in hand..
The real reason is the lack of original ideas and creativity.. If India were to develop some game, then itd most likely be "Reuse and Recycle" Mahabharat/Ramayan based or religion based in general

I think i saw some indie games by Indians a few years ago. Wasnt about mythology at all. The major studios here have no creativity and hence use those mythology stuff.

the main culprit is videogaming not considered a leisure activity for adults

That's changing now i think.

 

[topgear]

I think i saw some indie games by Indians a few years ago. Wasnt about mythology at all. The major studios here have no creativity and hence use those mythology stuff.

That's changing now i think.

Also the quality is not upto the mark [ no offense to anyone ] .. I remember playing Ghajini Video Game - it was just horrible.

 

[Nerevarine]

Also the quality is not upto the mark [ no offense to anyone ] .. I remember playing Ghajini Video Game - it was just horrible.

Who would you really offend ?
We all know Indian gaming industry is crap.. Just look at Playdead studios Limbo, its not a matter of how much $$$$ you put in investment, what it really matters is originality and good concept.. and its not like Limbo required "US accent voice acting" or any other western localisation like most games have..
TBH Limbo was better than MANY MANY AAA titles
Hope you get my point

 

[kunalgujarathi]

Yep
GTA 5- Investment Millions
Profit-1 billion

 

[topgear]

Who would you really offend ?
We all know Indian gaming industry is crap.. Just look at Playdead studios Limbo, its not a matter of how much $$$$ you put in investment, what it really matters is originality and good concept.. and its not like Limbo required "US accent voice acting" or any other western localisation like most games have..
TBH Limbo was better than MANY MANY AAA titles
Hope you get my point

Can't agree more on this

 

[AbhMkh]

Also the quality is not upto the mark [ no offense to anyone ] .. I remember playing Ghajini Video Game - it was just horrible.

Well then why dont you try to make it better eh ?...or do you just have the balls the complaint about it.

I absolutely hate people who try to ape westerners and "murican's" and then complaint about India as if they dont ****ing live here !

Case in Point : Mr Topgear..with a british auto show as his nickname, profile pic of clint eastwood(who isn't even a good actor) and the british SAS motto in his signature.

 

[snap]

What i hate the most is when people get a whiff of some another countries culture and start to defame their own country, criticism is fine but downright vilifying is not.

On the counter point people who don't see what is wrong with their own country is equally stupid. We must see the pros and cons of every culture/country not just blindly pretend everything is perfect.

In this case topgear was criticizing a particular game which we must agree that it was pretty horrible. One must learn to handle criticism

 

[Nerevarine]

Well then why dont you try to make it better eh ?...or do you just have the balls the complaint about it.

I absolutely hate people who try to ape westerners and "murican's" and then complaint about India as if they dont ****ing live here !

Case in Point : Mr Topgear..with a british auto show as his nickname, profile pic of clint eastwood(who isn't even a good actor) and the british SAS motto in his signature.

Please dont be butthurt and learn to face the truth.. The Ghajini game mentined by TG was absolutely pathetic.. Graphics and buggy nature aside, the story was a carbon copy of the film - no real innovation or creativity was employed for that game..
Game development in India is like Game development in Japan, only 10 years behind.. Nothing is going to change that as long as Gaming is considered "for kids and teens" not for adults

Although, Indians ARE showing good interest in game development.. The best place to start is to start small, like android games etc which can be made and published with very little investment.. Regardless, originality and creativity still plays the make or break decision for any game IMO

PS: Im not entirely biased towards Indian companies.. I can name several US based game companies who have developed absolute bullcrap when it comes to creativity (a good example is Gameloft games and the Dungeon Hunter series)