Back in the late eighties and early nineties, the cost of developing video games was fairly modest when compared to what it is today. As the capabilities of home consoles and high-end gaming rigs have increased though, so too have development costs, with most modern titles now costing publishers and developers tens of millions of dollars to produce. Some, however, can cost considerably more.
Over the last decade or so, there has been a huge increase in the number of games costing more than $50m to develop, and that's before marketing and promotional costs are taken into account. While most of these titles do manage to turn a profit, some of the figures involved can be truly mind-blowing and offer a lot of insight into the sheer scale of the games industry as well as how competitive it really is.
The following list will focus on development costs only.
Updated November 28, 2024, by Tom Bowen: With each passing year, the total value of the video game industry continues to rise. In 2023, it was valued at around $250 billion; an amount that's expected to rise to more than $360 billion in the next three years alone. It's not just players who are spending more money on video games though, with developers and publishers also investing larger and larger amounts into their titles in the hopes of capturing a larger market share. As a result, the record for the most expensive video game ever developed has been shattered multiple times over the past decade or so, with the average cost of developing a video game now considerably higher than it was just a few years ago. In fact, some might argue that development costs are spiraling out of control, leading to longer and longer development cycles and immense pressure from stakeholders to release games before they're ready.
18 Final Fantasy 7
Development Cost: $40m+
The jump to 3D was always going to increase development costs, but few could have predicted what a huge difference it would make. The first Final Fantasy game to make the leap into the third dimension was Final Fantasy 7, which reportedly cost Square about $40 million to develop, with another $40 million or so then spent on marketing the game in the West.
Square's aggressive marketing strategy definitely paid off though, with Final Fantasy 7 being the first JRPG to truly break into the mainstream outside of Japan. Most consider it to be one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time and its impact on both the franchise and the genre can still be felt to this day. It may be one of the most expensive games ever made, but it's also one of the most successful.
Final Fantasy 7
- Released
- January 31, 1997
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation (Original), PC, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4
- Genre(s)
- RPG
17 Dead Space 2
Development Cost: $60m+
Many consider Dead Space 2 to be the best of the original Dead Space trilogy. It builds upon everything that worked so well in the original game, providing players with an engaging experience designed to cultivate feelings of isolation and then use those feelings to shock and terrify players. All of these improvements came at a high price, however, with the game's developers later revealing that Dead Space 2 cost $60 million to develop.
Some will argue that that was money well spent, as Dead Space 2 is the highest-rated Dead Space game on Metacritic, beating out both its 2008 predecessor and the 2023 remake. Unfortunately, despite all of the praise that it received and the fact that it sold millions of copies, Dead Space 2 failed to turn a profit; thus highlighting the pitfalls of spending tens of millions of dollars to develop a single game.
Dead Space 2
- Released
- January 25, 2011
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Visceral Games
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror
16 Watch Dogs
Development Cost: $68m+
Watch Dogs is one of those games that sounded great on paper but never quite managed to reach the same lofty heights as some of its peers. It's a strange one, really, as the execution and implementation of the team's concepts and ideas were more or less spot-on, leading to a visually impressive game title that did exactly what it said on the tin. Of course, with a reported development budget of almost $70 million, that should perhaps have been a given.
Watch Dogs received fairly positive reviews, with most scores falling somewhere between 75 and 80. Granted, that's far from bad, but for one of the most expensive games ever made, its failure to hit a 90+ average will likely have disappointed some of the top dogs over at Ubisoft. Thankfully, the game sold a lot better than it reviewed, breaking several Ubisoft records as it flew past the eight million units mark in just a couple of months.
Watch Dogs
- Released
- May 26, 2014
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ubisoft Montreal
- Publisher(s)
- Ubisoft
- Genre(s)
- Open-World, Action, Adventure
15 Shenmue
Development Cost: $70m / $47m
For many years, Shenmue held the Guinness World Record for the most expensive video game ever made, with reports suggesting that the Dreamcast classic cost Sega a staggering $70 million to develop. Even by today's standards, that's an awful lot of money, though, given that Shenmue actually began development on the Sega Saturn several years prior to its eventual release and some of the cutting-edge components found throughout it, it's perhaps not too surprising to see such a large figure being bandied about.
Interestingly, however, in the years prior to the game's release, series creator Yu Suzuki has suggested that the $70 million figure supplied by Sega may not be entirely accurate. While speaking at the Game Developers Conference back in 2011, Suzuki revealed that the actual figure was closer to $47 million and that some of this amount was spent on marketing as well as on the development of the game's 2001 sequel. Whichever way one slices it though, that's still an awful lot of money, particularly once inflation is taken into account.
Shenmue
- Released
- December 29, 1999
- ESRB
- t
14 Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Development Cost: $75m+
The latest chapter in the excellent Tomb Raider reboot series, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, also happens to be Lara's most expensive outing to date. In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, Head of Eidos Montreal David Anfossi revealed that the game's production budget came in at somewhere between 75 and 100 million dollars, with an additional $35 million or so being spent on marketing and promotion.
Luckily for the developer, the game sold incredibly well, with more than four million copies being snapped up in its first three months on the market alone. It performed strongly with critics as well, although its ratings on Metacritic aren't quite as impressive as those for the two games that preceded it. Regardless, it's more than likely that the title returned a healthy profit for both its developer and its publisher, Square Enix.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
- Released
- September 14, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Eidos Montreal
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Adventure
13 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Development Cost: $80m+
It's looking increasingly probable that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear game, with the influential Japanese developer having parted ways with Konami back in 2015. The exact reasons for the sudden and shocking split will likely remain a mystery, but the budget for his final project with the company is at least a little bit clearer.
According to Eurogamer, a report from a Japanese financial newspaper revealed that $80 million had been spent on the game's production as of April 2015. With the final release not coming until September of the same year, however, it's fairly likely that the final cost was a lot closer to the $100 million mark, especially if post-release content and patches are taken into account.
Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain
- Released
- September 1, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Kojima Productions
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Genre(s)
- Action, Open-World
12 Defiance
Development Cost: $80m+
Defiance was an MMO third-person shooter that was released for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC back in 2013. Although it didn't impress critics all that much, it did attract a fairly sizable player base and survived for a very respectable eight years before servers were finally shut down in early 2021. The game's huge budget certainly helped in this regard, although its true cost remains a little unclear.
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Shortly before its release, a report from Forbes suggested that around $100 million had been spent on the entire project, although this amount also covered the cost of a sci-fi television series of the same name. The report estimates that around $80 million went towards the game itself, but this amount could be considerably higher given that an enhanced version of the title was later released for the PS4 and Xbox One.
Defiance
- Released
- April 2, 2013
- Developer(s)
- Trion Worlds
- Publisher(s)
- Trion Worlds
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Action
11 Immortals of Aveum
Development Cost: $80m+
Immortals of Aveum had a development budget of more than 80 million dollars, yet has never had more than 800 concurrent players on Steam. While talking to Remap Radio in early 2024, the game's director suggested that its $70 price tag may have been to blame for its poor performance, although the middling review scores and strong competition probably didn't help too much either.
Less than a month after the game's August 2023 release, around 40 of the development team were laid off, with another 30 placed on furlough in April of the following year. As of the time of writing, there's no word on if or when Ascendant Studios will ever make another game, but if they do, it seems unlikely that the studio's next project will be anywhere near as ambitious as Immortals; at least not when it comes to budget.
Immortals of Aveum
- Released
- August 22, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Ascendant Studios
- Publisher(s)
- EA
- Platform(s)
- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- FPS
10 Battlefield 4
Development Cost: $100m+
Considered by many to be one of the very best FPS franchises out there, it should perhaps come as little surprise to learn that EA's Battlefield games are not cheap to make. According to the company's former Chief Creative Officer Richard Hilleman, the series' fourth entry cost a staggering $100 million to develop, which would make Battlefield 4 the franchise's most expensive title to date.
The game performed strongly with critics and has sold more than seven million copies since its launch. Despite these impressive accomplishments, however, it struggled to keep up with the competition, with Call of Duty: Ghosts going on to sell almost three times as many copies. Whether the highly anticipated Battlefield 6 will fare any better in this regard remains to be seen.
Battlefield 4
- Released
- October 29, 2013
WHERE TO PLAY
9 Max Payne 3
Development Cost: $105m+
Rockstar Games isn't known for taking half-measures or playing it safe, as evidenced by the sheer scale of the projects that the developer typically takes on. While GTA and Red Dead may be the most notable examples of this though, there are plenty of other impressive titles decorating the company's extensive back catalog of games. One of these is Max Payne 3.
The iconic video game cop's third and final outing is also his most expensive, with estimates suggesting that the game had a production budget of $105 million. It sold more than four million copies in its first year though, so should at the very least have recouped its development budget. More importantly, perhaps, the game served as a perfect send-off for Max while also offering a solid gameplay experience in the process.
Max Payne 3
- Released
- May 15, 2012
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Studios
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter