Top 10 Most Expensive Video Game Budgets Ever

Video games are quickly approaching Hollywood movies in terms of budget size, and often surpass then altogether. In the early 90s, video game budgets were around $100,000 - when Doom was released in 1993 it had cost $200,000 and was touted as one of the most expensive games at the time. Today, that barely covers one month worth of production. Here are the top 10 most expensive video game budgets ever.

[mrv321]

I think the cost of WoW is probably larger... if you counted the patches and updates and all that then personally I think the upkeep of WoW is larger without the server cost. Mind you it's not like blizzarrd worry too much. Their buissness model could be do coke and delay games while funding Duke Nukem Forever AND the space race, peace race and the mineshaft race and still be profitable.

[GUCommander]

Yea...It is impossible for WoW to not have exceeded 100 million in budget. I wouldn't be surprised if it was nearing a billion dollars...And that's not including servers, support staff (tech support, community managers, account specialists, etc), and marketing. I'd be really surprised if it wasn't on that top 10 list without any patches or updates. Just core game costs. I'd also be surprised if diablo 3 or starcraft 2 weren't on that list.

Other than the fact that I think this isn't a top 10 article, it is just a 10 high budget games article, it was a good read.

[devsgreat]

too human :\ lol

[InFAMOUS1]

My buddy works at Silicon Knights and he said they are still having a hard time getting around Too Human's failure. He only came in during the last 7 months of production but he said its sooo 'heavy' there it feels like 7 years!

[DigitalHorror81]

http://www.metacritic.com/g...

[Upbeat]

i lol at halo 3. how did they spend that much money on that game when all they did was update the halo 2 engine

[Rainstorm81]

Number 4 hurts the most.

[kratos123]

i was really chaocked when i saw number 4 numbers 60 mill fore such a bad game really? that game devolper is just bad like really 60 mill?

[menoyou]

Then add another 500 million for Halo's marketing.

[Saaking]

Wow, those are some huge numbers. I still can't believe how much Shenmue cost back then.

[Darkfocus]

look at how long it was in development, I mean it started in 1998! and was gonna be a PS1 title. http://xbox360.ign.com/arti...

[GVON]

Only one i'd question is GT5

" 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"

And the reason I question it is because of this from Nov 09

"What did GT5cost to make?

[Yamauchi and translator do some figuring, converting yen to dollars] $60 million. There are other games that cost more. Considering the size and scale of the game, I think it's probably a fairly small amount."
http://www.autoweek.com/art...

In any case,if it does hit $80m,GT5p sales still keep it in profit before it's out,Sony will be making profit on every GT5 sale,probably even from the bundles.

[AKNAA]

OMG! and that was waaaay back in my younger days!
well, I guess that explains why the dreamcast died... unfortunately.

as for FF12... Damn! a $48 million dollar budget and the main character ends up looking like a H0m0.....

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

Development of GT5 would include GT5P.

It has sold over 4 million.

Even if we said $20 per sale that is 80 million in revenue right there.

Polyphony will have zero trouble making $ on this game.

[GVON]

exactly,at GT5p's full price and not taking into account the pounds strength over the dollar in early 08,based on sales they have around $120million then minus the development cost (60 or 80) and it's profit.
Again not taking marketing costs or rateb,but at full price,if 5 hit's typical GT numbers numbers your looking at $550 million+ on a game that has essentially become free to make :)

This is why PD get a free ride from Sony,what can they say to Kaz
"um,we need the game"
Kaz looks up "has the latest check come in from GT5p"
Sony executes bow heads and scurry of backwards,

[sikbeta]

Money well spent

[Immortal321]

that's 60mill back, an extra million is profit.

and yes I was only talking for the ps3 exclusive.

[Mr Logic]

If I'm not mistaken the most expensive part of a videogame is the engine. Which is why so many games just pay royalties and use the UE3.

So does anyone else find it weird that a game like Killzone 2 with it's graphics cost less than Halo 3?

[slayerggx]

If these are nominal (what they cost at the time) or real (adjusted for inflation in 2009/010 numbers) dollars?

[TengkuAmir10]

GTA4, hmpphh. I got that game and after 1 year, i gave it away (for my cousin).

It is nothing compared to San Andreas which is arguably the best game ever made. "arguably"

[Nihilism]

Surely Guitar Hero would have to be #1, development budget=

100 million

Actual development cost: 1 million
Song licensing costs: 1 million
Distribution costs: 1 million
New Bentleys for every senior manager etc at activision and Harmonix= 97 million

[Fox01]

Notice that Nintendo games cost $50 to make and yet they sell over 10 million. In fact in Nintendo world 10 million is a "flop".

[II Necroplasm II]

Games like Halo and GTA don't hurt to fork so much money into, because they will sell big.

But Too Human- $60+ Mil...

Ouch.

[saint_john_paul_ii]

I agree GTAIV was really...Really overated. but i can understand why it costs so much money to make. aside of it being a sandbox type of game, you have to look at the attention to detail the game has(no i do not mean graphics, since thats its lowest point). the city felt real. it was pretty much alive.

[SoX FireBlade]

omg too human

I'm surprised that halo 3 on the list ;o

[RedSky]

GTA4 had incredible attention to detail, but did anyone really care anywhere near enough to justify the budget? Did anyone visit even half the huge city that they built from scratch? Did anyone really care that the traffic density was modeled just right?

Sure, initially it blew everyone away, but once you get over the "oh wow this is so real", did anyone really care? As far as the storyline goes, they could easily have done it with scripted, linear mission sequences, without having the ability to explore where you want and the gameplay would hardly have been worse.

Sure you lose the ability to cruise around and choose your mission order, but imagine if they'd spent that huge budget on branching storylines or more variety. Imagine how good it have been.

They're just lucky they clearly decided to spend a sizeable amount of cash as bribes to popular gaming websites so they would give their game near perfect scores, when it's clear the gameplay has all but remained the same since GTA3.

[Redempteur]

i did care i enjoyed that spice of realism three times already

[Perjoss]

The metacritic scores for GTA4 speak for themselves (98 just as a reminder). A group of kids on internet sites saying that it sucks dont make it so :)

[PrimordialSoupBase]

Say what you will about GTA IV (yeah, it's not the best GTA, but good nonetheless), it's a very impressive feat of attention to detail and tech.

[stiggs]

You really think that a $60.00 game sale results in $60.00 profit? The cash obtained through a retail purchase is divided amoung several parties such the reseller, publisher, developer, manufacturer, console maker and anyone else who has a share of the royalties (featured musicians, actors or athletes). For each unit sold a developer makes approximately $15.00 and a publisher around $20.00. This is why we see developers shutting down after posting sales of hundreds of millons of dollars.

[hay]

Wow, Silicon Knights sure know how to waste money.

[Lightsaber]

$ony sure loves to throw their money around

[DARK WITNESS]

@ Pope_John_Paul_II

I don't know if it's fare to say gta's graphics were it's low point.

it still looks Way better then most sandbox games - and then add to that all the stuff going on in the game, but it is a game that you really have to pay attention to the little details to really appreciate.

take into account the physics, animation, AI, water effects, lighting - right down to driving on the beach and watching the sand trail up from the tires .... and then think of the size of the city and everything going on in it.

think of saints row 2 or wheel man and a lot of other sandbox games, they look almost last gen compared to what gta4 managed to do. you can't talk about graphics and think of gta the same way as killzone or gears of war.

what gta lacked was content and the madness of the other gta games.

It tried to take itself a bit to seriously in my opinion that was it's real Low point, on a technical level i think a lot of people just bash it because its cool to. thats just what i think anyway.

[randomwiz]

i wonder how different the list would've been if you took advertising into account

[kratos123]

then you have to add 40 million fore halo 3 . thats the only own i now off what the cost where fore the commercials

[Megaton]

The article says over $200 million spent to advertise Halo 3.

[LordMarius]

$200 could have gone to making 4+ games O_o

[jessupj]

I don't think the 200 million quoted is correct, but we do know it is some insanely high number. Makes me a bit sick actually if you take into account that probably 2-3 whole new AAA games could have been developed with halo 3's marketing budget. Fortunately it doesn't affect me, but if I was a 360 owner I'd be a little bit pissed.

Call it bad business, call it whatever you want, but I'd glad Sony invest more into their games then their marketing.

[BuZzz Killington]

200 mil is justified if you include that ad......

[mastiffchild]

Considering the marketing budget for MW2 was twice(at least, so I'm told)the cost of producing the game itself who knows WHAT the figure might be for Halo3 as it's definitely the most promoted game I can ever remember-and by quite a distance-more than GTA4 and that had a TON of ads but nothing compared to Halo3.

I was surprised the budget for Halo3 was so much(dev budget) when they never made a proper new engine as that was the cost builder for GTA4 and KZ2, wasn't it? Not that they didn't make a massive profit but it just surprised me Halo3 was in the list because of it.Most opf the other games either ran way over their intended dev cycles or had to make new engines or both but,IIRC, Halo3 didn't do either, did it? It wasn't late, not drastically,was it? Or am I being stupid?

[RockmanII7]

And they payed 100 million for timed DLC. I really doubt money is a factor for MS.

[BuZzz Killington]

i guess the halo 3 superbowl ad never was shown at the superbowl. supposebly it was monday night football or something...hmmm i swear there was one i guess all i rememered was all the hype around the ad and forgot and never actually made an appearence at the superbowl and was just a rumor my bad.....and besides i wouldnt put it past ms for having a 200 mil advert budget for hallo 3, but im not exactly sure where the money in advertising goes....

[swiftshot93]

The results of the high budget of GTA IV show. Its the most realistic game of all time, and easily has one of, if not the highest production values of this generation.

[LordMarius]

and yet its one of the most not fun and overrated games of this gen

[TooTall19]

Uncharted 2 is the most overrated game this gen.

[Two-Face]

Just like Killzone 2. The slow, heavy feel of the gun is really boring. It's not responsive and not precise. BF: BC 2 got it right.

[smittyjerkins]

GTA IV is sooooo overrated. I couldn't even finish the single player once it was that boring and unfun.

Whereas, I enjoyed Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 a lot and am still playing them.

[PLAYSTATIONGENRATION]

Uncharted 2 is the best game out period.......U have not played a game better than uncharted 2....single player and multi player

[captain-obvious]

i agree with tow face with only one part
the rest of his comment is garbage

I mean Killzone2 is great
the game got 91 on metacritic without co-op and ALOT more things that games these days need to have high score
but it just takes so much to kill someone online

if they just do what DICE did with BF:BC2
it'll be more than perfect

[Two-Face]

So he need to be striped out of bubbles, because he has a different opinion then you?

I think you should be striped out of bubbles for saying something like that.

[TooTall19]

Lately the online has been hit or miss but it's still my favorite online mp. I thought GTA IV was awesome and the budget definitely showed.

@Playstation

I apologize. I forgot that a ps3 fan can't say anything negative about a major ps3 exclusive. Doing so will result in loss of bubbles and claims of being paid by MS.

[I Call 9MM]

A GTA IV, one of the most expensive games ever made, and one of the games I paid the least for. Thank you Steam!

[BuZzz Killington]

like the car destruction and roll overs were epic, and the explosions were good the rag doll effect was sweet....hitting pedestrians in gta 4 was perfect...remember the old games lol splat well in this one if your door was open you could smoke people with it also pushing people down stairs was fun, when you run over a moltove c*cktail your tires ignite looked real cool.....the things that got me hung up was the weapons and lack of dismemberment, not enough gore... the lack of flame thrower, mini gun, no chain saw, no real unique weapons, just basic ones, the knife was a joke no slitting throats, and you used the knife like it was a sword lol knives are for stabbing they could have made the stabbing really cool like you grab the persons head the stab them in the abdomen like 6 times jail shanking style, no missiles in the attack helicopter, no float plane, or float heli, no base jumping, no tank. biggest of all ps3 owners got screwed with the whole Dlc thing if i had the dlc id probably being saying the same thing as the people prasing it but we got shafted man, rockstar could have included all the gt4 dlc in our gta 4 version if they wanted.... they did alot of things that i wanted but at the price of taking away alot, plus shafting ps3 owners makes me agree gta 4 was overrated, and all the calls and sh*t really pissed me off roman is a chick i swear.....also drunk driving was cool....also i wanted the amusement park to be open that would have been dope to take my dates there then i could throw up on her lol....putting a amusement park there then not opening it was rough lol

[crazyturkey]

Too Human a joke 10 years in the making.

*Edit*
Just read in Wikipedia that Silicon Knights is working on the sequel. In another 10 years we will see it.

Also I''m pretty sure that for Halo 3 most of the money went towards advertisement.

[mrv321]

It's being translated into a sentence, the militay hope to turn it into a weapon grade joke... hopefully to win the war in Afganistan. Many fear this weapon could be used against us and Russia has been developing a equally bad game but with games like Rogue Warrior the Russians are falling being leading to a bad game gap.

[Nitrowolf2]

well i believe its a trilogy thing
hopefully they are able to the game and make a sequel worth buying, who knows they could surprise

[ProjectVulcan]

Too human and shenmue both mega flops when it came to reclaiming their budget at retail. Bearing in mind shenmue is now over ten years old, and these arent adjusted budgets....70m dollars in the late 90s was equivalent to an expensive hollywood film of the time (the matrix cost 63m in 1999). Shenmue only managed 1.2 million units worldwide, too human HALF that (and they want to make it a trilogy?!). This is why Sega just dont want to do a shenmue 3, they lost such a MASSIVE amount of money on the original as a high risk project- they would have had to sell two copies to everyone that owned a dreamcast to make a penny on it.

So disappointing, as shenmue is easily one of the best games i have ever played (too human definitely isnt lol)

Sony also know that Gran Turismo 5 will be money well spent. Gran Turismo is clearly synonymous with the playstation brand, and easily sony's biggest selling IP across its three generations of home consoles. Halo is microsofts best selling IP of course....but not even that behemoth can touch Gran Turismo for series sales amazingly- even if you only count the first three respective games! No wonder sony are not rushing polyphony, its extremely important that GT5 is spectacular

[showtimefolks]

anyone who has played a GT series game knows why GT5 will be so big lifetime sales wise it will beat any game

also what's to consider is GOW3 and GT5 will be huge system seller(GT5 world wide is bigger than here in the USA)

shenmue IP is for sale or sega is looking for funds i would not be surprised if either sony or MS buys the IP and release the 1st and 2nd in HD and than make the 3rd with a good fanbase(in my opinion if done right this game has a shot at becoming a big series sales wise)

[hikayu17]

the other reason why sony is not rushing PD is because they have covered pretty much the whole development cost with GT5P . that game sold like what ? 4.65 millions world wide as of december 2009 ? say , it's sold at 20$ US dollar , they've made 90 millions dollar out of it . sure , there are other cost publishing game , but whatever is left pretty much covered a whole lot , if not all , of the budget .
this is , imo , a very smart move for PD and sony in general :make a perfect game while having to pay little to none , at the same time not making gamers sick of waiting for the game by release just a bit of the game , kinda like a demo/teaser , but much better . maybe future games should do that . make a high budget , extremely well done game while releasing some kind of prologue at a low price . it's the best of both world eh ?

[OpenGL]

If you adjusted for inflation Shenmue would probably still have the most expensive budget of all time.

[ProjectVulcan]

Adjusted for inflation Shenmue would be over 90 million dollars today.

[Hakimy]

after all the stuff I heard before,I thought that killzone 2 would be the highest one so I'm surprised to see other games having higher budget than KZ2.it also sadly explains why games now are becoming too expensive to buy and that even worse things might come after years from now,especially when the next gen comes.

[snp]

Yeah, i was a little surprised Killzone 2 wasn't higher up the costs charts; just on, as you say it's reputation for being 'expensive'. Oddly, the game - looking at the list of what stuff generally costs these days - almost seems like a bargain considering the engine/tech built for it is doubtless being incorporated in, and cutting the costs of, many of Sony's other first/second party studio games.

Interesting, non-provocative (by N4G standards) article.

[hiptanaka]

Can you say "millions in losses?"

[Akagi]

Marketing is a waste of time.

If the game is good, people will buy it.

[Two-Face]

''Marketing is a waste of time.

If the game is good, people will buy it.''

Modern Warfare 2. Nuff said.

[showtimefolks]

uncharted 2 great
demon's soul same thing

halo 3 would have sold just as much but MS feels like they had to let people know its was coming

halo reach will break every record in the book cost wise with production and advertisement

also GTA 4 cost after dlc is how much?

[rambi80]

"Marketing is a waste of time."

The people behind "just Dance" for the wii may have a different opinion

[Immortal321]

when MS advertise halo reach what will the show?

[Anon7349]

Yeah, if you make a great game.. you don't even need advertisement and it will sell. See Demon's Souls

BUT WHY MAKE A GREAT GAME WHEN... You can do the following:

a)Take an existing franchise, add a bunch of stuff to it that sounds cool to a 13 year old boy and totally forget about things like quality and balance

b)Take a popular existing franchise, and rehash it countless times

c)Make your game easy so casuals can enjoy it

d)Use a popular existing brand to sell the game for you!

e)Advertise, Advertise, ADVERTISE and A D V E R T I S E

Activision did all of the above and look how they're doing? Comparing that to Demon's Souls which was one of the greatest game this generation of console, I'd say if you wanna make money.... it's easier to market bad games than it is to sell based on quality alone.

Marketing > Quality

Although Demon's Souls only appeals to a very tiny niche audience while MW2 appeals to casual gamers and your average american 13 year old.

[yog-sothot]

Unfortunately, marketing is not a waste of time...

And being a good game is not enough to have good sales (Beyond good and evil, okami, psychonauts...)

I think that if marketing budgets were taken into accounts, the list should also have more Wii and DS games

[Akagi]

Halo 3 :/

[Killjoy3000]

I like how the most technically impressive games if this generation (Uncharted 2, Crysis if it counts as this generation) aren't even on this list. Uncharted 2 easily has the best production values, yet the cost is lower than all these games. Shows what you can do with a great engine and amazing tech engineers.

[showtimefolks]

18 months of real production and now over 3.5 million sold,,before 2010 is over with uncharted 2 will be over 5 million hopefully

[Immortal321]

but cost lower than the game's listed is remarkable!

wow Sony is showing great power and not even costing a lot than expected.

the whole time! man with all those Sony is doom articles, and selling roughly around 500k-1mill exclusive games, I thought they was losing profit.

the whole time they was making money.

[showtimefolks]

its not kojima and sony what about konami who published the game?

and i doubt sony put in any money just because they don't pay for exclusives

[Fox01]

Do you know why "Agent" is exclusive, or why Batman: AA had exclusive content, why DCU is exclusive, why WKC, Yakuza or Valkyria Chronicles aren't on the Wii or X360?

[TheBlackSmoke]

- Agent is exclusive in exchange for take two breaking their playstation only contract for gta 4 which was made last gen.

- DCU is made by sony online entertainment

- After MS canned a level 5 game well in to production, they have said they will never do a 360 game again.

- Yakuza 3 and Valkyria chronicles were made for japan only so naturally there was no point in a 360 version, the games came/coming to the west nearly 2 years later after various petitions.

So really all you can say is sony paid out for some joker dlc...hardly comparable to paying for an abundance of mediocre exclusives, timed exclusives and funding game expansions the price of full retail games.

[Fox01]

First or all, Agent will only be on the PS3 because Sony paid $20M for it.
Second, why are games like Valkyria Chroicles, Folklore, Yakuza... only available on the PS3 if Sony doesn't pay for exclusives?

Why do you think Assassin's Creed and Dante's Inferno have exclusive both have Sony exclusive content?

For once use your brain and think.

[TheBlackSmoke]

"First or all, Agent will only be on the PS3 because Sony paid $20M for it. "

There's literally no proof of that statement at all. Speculation is not fact.

"Second, why are games like Valkyria Chroicles, Folklore, Yakuza... only available on the PS3 if Sony doesn't pay for exclusives?"

...sigh... reading comprehension is not your strong suit is it? ill quote myself...

"- Yakuza 3 and Valkyria chronicles were made for japan only so naturally there was no point in a 360 version, the games came/coming to the west nearly 2 years later after various petitions."

Let me reword it for you...THEY WERE JAPAN ONLY TITLES,

360 + JAPAN = NON EXISTANT.

As for Folklore, well that game was funded and published by SCEJ, as in the studio who made it went to sony with the game and got funding to make it in exchange for exclusivity. Lets not act like folklore was this huge multi million dollar franchise that sony wanted to jump on, it only exists because of sony and once again its an independent JAPANESE developer so who do you really think they were gonna go to?

Assassins creed 2 ps3 exclusive content is only available through the psp version of the game....hmm i wonder...maybe ubisoft wanted to create an incentive to buy both the console and psp version .... nah thats ludicrous.

Dantes inferno dlc is self explanatory. Do you really think with sony having god of war 3 coming up that they are eagerly trying to chase down dantes inferno DLC? lmfao. Think about it, 360 owners only have DI, PS3 owners have DI and gow 3 (which is far superior)...dont you think maybe EA wants to do as much as possible to make ps3 owners buy DI ? nahh too much common sense.

When people say sony do not pay for exclusives dont take it literally, of course sony has paid for exclusive content but it comes down to you having to cherry pick specific incidents in order for you to make that point. What people are getting at is that sony do not rely on paying for exclusivity as their main source of bringing something unique to their system, take MS deals away and all your left with is pretty much Halo.

Anyway I've countered your argument thoroughly, maybe you should use your head and know what your talking about before you call others out.

[Chaos69]

I suggest you take a nice cup of STFU because you obviously don't know what you're talking about.
1. How can a game be "Japan only" when the game was released in the "West"?
2. The studio that made Folklore never joined Sony.
3. Sure fox has no proof of Sony paying for Agent, but the same goes for you. You have no proof of Microsoft ever paying for exclusives either, but that doesn't stop you from talking out of you ass.
You don't know the reason behind Agent's exclusivity so stop spreading nonsense.

[TheBlackSmoke]

I suggest you go back and finish school then you might be able to read and understand my big boy sentences.

1. How can a game be "Japan only" when the game was released in the "West"?

Yakuza and VC were made only for japan...what part of this do you not understand?. Upon creation those games were intended to stay in japan and made for the japanese audience. They were only brought over to the west after petitions and/or positive reviews. Yakuza 3 is not even out yet and that game is nearly 18 months old in japan. Because they were originally made for japan only why the fvck would they waste money making a 360 version that's gonna sell like crap?.

2. The studio that made Folklore never joined Sony.

"As for Folklore, well that game was funded and published by SCEJ, as in the studio who made it went to sony with the game and got funding to make it in exchange for exclusivity"

Where in that sentence did i say they joined sony? Folklore is a 2nd party exclusive. LEARN TO READ

3.Sure fox has no proof of Sony paying for Agent, but the same goes for you.

Indeed, we will never know for sure but i think its safe to assume that sony wouldnt of just happily danced around and just let one of the biggest franchises in gaming (gta) go to the rival console for nothing. Its common sense that agent is part of a compensation deal, just like FF14 was a caveat for loosing FF13 exclusivity.

"You have no proof of Microsoft ever paying for exclusives either, but that doesn't stop you from talking out of you ass."

A certain $ 50 million dollar DLC comes to mind or have you chosen to forget that shambles. If MS is willing to pay the price of a full AAA game just to secure some timed DLC then i think they will pay for anything and everything they see an opportunity on. You really think SCC and ME2 are not on PS3 because MS asked them nicely?, get real and face the fact that MS has nothing without paying for exclusivity.

MS without their exclusive deals = HALO HALO HALO HALO, Fable the 10 hour "rpg" and whatever the latest abomination RARE spews forth from their no talent ass.

[X_GAMER_X]

Microsoft spent 10-40 mill in marketing Halo 3..google it

or: http://games.slashdot.org/a...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
http://www.gamespot.com/new...
http://www.maxconsole.net/?...

But hey, the revenue was over 700 mill..any exclusive games did that???

[MajesticBeast]

wiifit:P

[Akagi]

Final Fantasty 12, 44 mil for a CGI movie.

[Nitrowolf2]

the trash talk (from bots like the truth/bungie/MGSR) about KZ2 being a waste of money and the devs not seeing there money back at all (which they did), we just need to take a look at number 4

[TengkuAmir10]

You do realize all of them (TheTruth/BUNGIE/MGSR) are the same person right?

[Nitrowolf2]

yes i do

[showtimefolks]

i guess you didn't like killzone 2 online i loved it and so did many others i do expect co-op for killzone 3 along with 60fps and destructable stuff but core gameplay will stay the same hopefully

BC2 is aight but maps are to big demo was aight i am gonna play it for its hopefully great SP

[kaveti6616]

Haha. 60 frames per second. That's rich, man.

[captain-obvious]

are you kidding me ?
i got me the KZ2 80 gigs bundel
KZ2 is my first PS3 game

i unloked everything in the MP
i loooooove KZ2 MP
its just after i played BF:BC2 Demo for a while
then i got back to playing kill zone
i felt like a real n000000b lol

but for reall
sometimes at killzone it takes you a full clip to kill someone

that it unless your used to the controles

[Marquis_de_Sade]

KZ2 is superb online, but it isn't this super skillful, tactical game that some make it out to be. Aiming down the sights serves no purpose when the ISA rifle is so accurate from the hip and the shotgun is probably one of the easiest guns to destroy with in any FPS, don't get me started on the assault class/rocket launcher.

Just making the number of bullets required to kill someone a ridiculous number doesn't make the game skillful.

[Silly gameAr]

Yay. More list.

[gillri]

Will never forget playing shenmue as long as I live, the most special experience I have had playing a game.............ever

the sequel too in recent times only ME2 and Okami has come close

[TABSF]

Wow and to think PC developers only spend a couple of million yet produce better games :)

[ATi_Elite]

I like this list. It shows you why console games advertise so much. Their budgets are huge and they need to get that money back.

most Pc games have small budgets and they don't advertise on Tv so any games sold are pure profit.

Shenmue was graphically the best game out between the Dreamcast and PS2. To this day I don't think the Ps2 has a game that could touch it. Poor Dreamcast you were ahead of your time.

$100 million for GTAIV?! Too bad it wasn't half as good as San Andreas.

[jalen247]

All those games on the list made their money from those games except Too Human and possibly Shenmue.

Polyphony Digital already made money off GT5 development by releasing GT5P and selling almost 5 mill.

[Claudinho69]

pretty sure mw2 was more than 48 million

[dkgshiz]

How? Its not like theres any big improvements from COD4. I couldn't see that game going over $20 million. Plus we all know IW cut corners with MW2. Most likely to save money. I mean look at the buggy MP :)

[jmd749]

interesting article. i didn't know LaNoire and APB were such big budget games.

[fOrlOnhOpe57]

included the time and cost of producing the games engine. Seeing as nothing in that list comes even close as an all-round finished product (even a year on, still very little ) I think the cost represents real value for money.

Only thing that baffled me was Sony's noticeable lack of advertising, at the time, here in the UK anyway. It certainly must have saved Sony a packet on TV advertising time. Maybe they were expecting all the hype to get the job done. IMHO, it didn't help Kz2 sales figures the way MS does with Halo's advertising.

[Qbanj69]

a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot.

[PietroDimeglio]

Interesting, I would have expected Mass Effect and Uncharted to have been up there though.
Peace.

[dkgshiz]

Even with a 60 million budget Denis Dyack somehow managed to make one sh!tty game! Im sure thats the last time we ever hear from the turd developer :)

I always knew Shenmue was a really expensive game. Its crazy to think thats how much that game costed back in 1999-2000. I admire Sega though for actually believing in there products and they decided to produce it.

[dkgshiz]

Your buddy works at Silicon Knights?!
Cyber Empires (1992) (Amiga, Atari ST, DOS)
Fantasy Empires (1993) (DOS)
Dark Legions (1994) (DOS)
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1996) (PlayStation, Windows)
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (2002) (GameCube)
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) (GameCube)
Too Human (2008) (Xbox 360)

Heres a list of all the games Silicon Knights developed since 1992. If I were you I would tell him to find another job. Clearly Silicon Knights isn't one for speedy development. Or in that matter making good games. Eternal Darkness was good. Other then that they make some pretty awful games.

[dkgshiz]

Went towards advertising. Which makes a lot of sense. Its not like Halo 3 was a technical marvel or anything. Theres really no reason for this game costing $55 million. I guarantee that 50% of that money went towards advertising. Shenmue I could easily believe that budget. If you take a look at Shenmue, play around with it, and just walk thoroughly through the game. You will see why it costed $70 million. For its time Shenmue was a technical marvel. Everything about it was amazing.

[Rageanitus]

I just wonder what their budget is ...

After messing around with multiple engines.

[bunfighterii]

yeah interesting to note GT5 is probably already profitable because of prologue.

it still amazes me that its the only franchise around people are willing to pay for a demo like that.

can't wait for GT5

[Dying_clown]

Those were some extreme numbers $45 to a $100 Million. But a few of those games were good so I guess it was worth it.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Sweet jesus, 100 million??? Wow...

[ForROME]

Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuch to #4

[i_like_ff7]

I call bs on this list. Where's the source?

[CLOUD1983]

GT5 cost over 80m $ and not even released yet that's #2 most expensive game ever created! but I guess Polyphony know that this game like the previous one will make sales of 10-11m $ maybe more and surpass the old titles we must w8 to see.

[The_Nameless_One]

How come WoW isn't on this list? I think at roughly $70 million will put it at the top 3.

[KeenanTheSavage]

what is this world coming to?

[newflesh]

I need to go and play some Shenmue. But where is my little dreamcast!