Top 10 Most Expensive Video Games Of All Time

[Chaos Raiden]

10. Killzone 2: $45 million


One of the most anticipated PS3 titles, and one which has been in development for over four years, Killzone 2′s budget was originally $20 million. Then it was upped to $30 million. As development was extended by another full year, the budget went north of $40 million, and most estimates put it at $45 million. Higher estimates put it at over 41 million Euro, which translates to $56 million USD — but this number has never been confirmed by anyone at developer Guerrilla.
9. Final Fantasy XII: $48 million


The Final Fantasy games have been known for their outstanding quality, length and sheer production value. They’ve also been known as some of the most expensive games to have ever come out from Japan, and Final Fantasy XII had a budget of a whopping $48 million, excluding any marketing costs. The sequel, Final Fantasy XIII is rumored to have had at least a 50% higher budget, however, this hasn’t been made official (yet).
8. LA Noire: $50 million

La Noire was recently cited as one of the most expensive games in development today, by Tom Crago, the president of Game Developers’ Association of Australia. While this might have been exaggerated in order to shine some spotlight on Australia’s game developers (LA Noire is developed in Australia), it’s no secret that Rockstar has given LA Noire a massive budget, upwards of $50 million, to create a truly cinematic video game, where most of 1940s Los Angeles has been recreated and is fully explorable.
7. APB, $50 million

APB has been in development close to 5 years now, and Realtime Worlds have often stated that it’s the most expensive game they’ve ever worked on — Realtime Worlds founder Dave Jones had to raise Venture Capital, $50 million of it, to make sure that APB has enough money to sustain further development. The official budget is exactly $50 million, but Realtime Worlds is set to spend millions each year supporting and expanding the MMO.
6. Halo 3, $55 million

The Halo franchise has been so successful for Bungie and Microsoft that they virtually had an unlimited budget on Halo 3, as it had to be the best and most impressive game in almost all aspects when it was released. It pretty much was, at a price of $55 million, which excludes over $200 million Microsoft spent promoting the game.
5. Metal Gear Solid 4, $60 million

The biggest, pretties and most complex Metal Gear Solid game, one with hours and hours of cut scenes, amazing production values and one of the best visuals at its time, Metal Gear Solid 4 took 4 full years to make, at a price tag of $60 million, shared between Kojima Producitons and Sony.
4. Too Human, $60+ million

Sometimes, game budgets, just like movie budgets, tend to go over board and the final product ends up costing a lot more than originally planned. Too Human faced many issues during its development time, chief of which was the long and expensive struggle between Epic Games and the Unreal Engine 3, where developer Silicon Knights abandoned the engine and started making their own — at a time when the game was almost complete. This added at least another $10 million to the budget, according to some sources.
3. Shenmue, $70 million

A game which held the record as most expensive game for nearly 10 years, Shenmue’s budget was unheard of at the time of its development — a $70 million budget for a SEGA Dreamcast game. Shenmue offered a vast and explorable area, a complete weather system, and so many fine details and features that games even today don’t have. However, many failed to notice everything the game had to offer, and the game ultimately disappointed in sales.
2. Gran Turismo 5: $80 million


What’s set to become the biggest and greatest racing game in history, Gran Turismo has been in development for over 5 years now, and features over 1,000 cars, each painstakingly recreated for with extreme realism (and perfection) in mind. Its official budget as of mid 2008 was $60 million, and two years later when the game hits the stores, it will reach a staggering $80 million, making it the second most expensive game in history.
1. Grand Theft Auto 4: $100 million


When it comes to sheer production values, sheer amount of features, the details, no game beats Grand Theft Auto 4. The scope of the production dwarfs any other game: over 1,000 people worked on the game for over 3 and a half years, doing everything from studying New York city with cameras that recorded city traffic for months, to contacting over 2,000 people just to obtain the rights to the hundreds of music tracks that can be listened to in the game. Price to record a master for each track ran at around $10,000 and that excludes the license and royalty fees. There’s enough content in the game to keep the average gamer immersed for at least 100 hours. There should be, with a budget of $100 million, GTA 4 is the most expensive video game ever made.

Source: http://rightnreal.net/top-10-most-expensive-video-games-of-all-time.html

 

[heatlancer]

wow, 100 milli for a mediocre game like gta IV

suprised l.a noire didn't cost more with all the new equipement they are using, good post

 

[Dark Drakan]

Strange Red Dead Redemption isnt in there as that was meant to have cost just over $100 Million and that was just to develop without marketing costs.

Report – Red Dead Redemption cost $100 million during development

Shenmue was one of my favourite games ever and a shame sales were low and a the sequel to Shenmue II has never came to light. Remains one of gamers most awaited sequels of all time and i hope it happens one day.

 

[Chaos Raiden]

Strange Red Dead Redemption isnt in there as that was meant to have cost just over $100 Million and that was just to develop without marketing costs.

Report – Red Dead Redemption cost $100 million during development

I thought so too, but it was said that the claim is unfounded.

Suggestions that Rockstar San Diego’s newest project Red Dead Redemption cost $100 million to develop is not based on insider knowledge or available figures.

The source of the claims, a Daily Mail report, wrote that “Rockstar Games are thought to have spent up to $100million on the long-awaited project”.

The Daily Mail has since told Develop that separate reports arising from this claim is case of crossed wires.
The national paper said it sought the $100 million figure by searching various industry sites for news reports relating to development budgets.

The paper discovered that the most ever thought to be spent on a game project was indeed $100 million – the budget allegedly set aside for GTAIV – and theorised that Red Dead Redemption therefore cost up to $100 million to build.

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“It’s not based on anything we have heard about,” the paper said.

Red Dead Redemption, built by Rockstar San Diego, is sold into retailers this week.

High-profile projects routinely carry with them sizable development budgets. Polyphony Digital CEO Kazunori Yamauchi recently said that Gran Turismo 5 cost $60 million to build during its protracted development phase.
Yet Develop has recently heard from numerous industry professionals that publishers are tightening their grip on budgets – a direct consequence of the global financial fallout.

Avalanche Studio’s CEO Christofer Sundberg said that he had seen first-hand how publishers are reigning in on their budgets and costs.

“We’ve always been in the $20 million-plus budget area, but last year I saw things adjust to over $10 million,” he said.

“I think it’s a sign of the global economy and the bad times we’ve gone through.”

Source: http://www.develop-online.net/news/34886/Red-Dead-Redemption-100m-budget-claim-unfounded

 

[Dark Drakan]

Its engine was better than GTA IV and its world had better tech behind it so i can see why its assumed it cost as much if not more to create it but the figures were never released so guess we shall never know.