Top 10 most expensive video games budgets ever

[TheAnalogKid]

Not sure of the validity of the claims for each and every one of the titles listed, but it's worth a quick look. Yes, KZ2 is on the list...no, it is not number 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. According to the article, the numbers do not include the budgets used for advertising, which would certainly change the order of appearance for a few of these.


http://www.digitalbattle.com/2010/02...-budgets-ever/

[IceNine]

Holy shit... Too Human wasn't even very good for that 60+ million!

[TheAnalogKid]

And then you have Ken Imaizumi, MGS4 producer, already disputing his part of the list.

"It's being written in recent news that MGS4's budget was over 50 million or 70 million," Imaizumi tweeted. "It didn't cost that that much." If it cost that much, Imaizumi added, the game would've become multi-platform.

http://kotaku.com/5479974/kojima-pro...-budget-claims

[TheAnalogKid]

Holy shit... Too Human wasn't even very good for that 60+ million!

Yeah, thats insane. Never played it, but it seemed like it had alot of the same thing Haze for Ps3 had going for it.

[nmcmahan52]

it's all about the nectar

[IceNine]

This is what I found really fucking crazy:

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.


What the fuck??? How the fuck??? Why the fuck??? Didn't they already have a built-in audience?

[nmcmahan52]

yeah but they needed that shitty blue mt dew campaign

[rm082e]

What the fuck??? How the fuck??? Why the fuck??? Didn't they already have a built-in audience?

Sure, but they had to convince a bunch of those people to buy new consoles. The majority of Halo fans did not buy a 360 at launch to play Kameo and they didn't get on board with Gears. It took Halo 3 being the event that it was to sell 10 million copies.

[IceNine]

Sure, but they had to convince a bunch of those people to buy new consoles. The majority of Halo fans did not buy a 360 at launch to play Kameo and they didn't get on board with Gears. It took Halo 3 being the event that it was to sell 10 million copies.

Maybe I am just out of touch with what this stuff costs, but $200,000,000 seems like a lot of money for advertising. Maybe it paid off overall though if a lot of people who weren't going to bought Xbox 360s. Microsoft certainly knows more about this stuff than I do.

[Televator]

I already knew Shenmue was expensive when it was released.....but It was expensive enough to still remain near the top of list like this? Above Halo 3?! If I were drinking coffee right now, I would spit it out.

[Pyrochaos]

This is what I found really fucking crazy:

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.


What the fuck??? How the fuck??? Why the fuck??? Didn't they already have a built-in audience?

You don't sell 8 million copies by not advertising.

Marketing is a huge part of a game success.



Also: I liked Too Human. I just think it's style of game (the boulder's gate/loot collecting) isn't for everyone. Plus it should have been 4 player co-op.

[IceNine]

You don't sell 8 million copies by not advertising.

Marketing is a huge part of a game success.

Oh, I know you have to advertise, but $200,000,000 seems like a hell of a lot of advertising... they could have bought all the ads in the superbowl for that.

[Snadinator]

Yeah, thats insane. Never played it, but it seemed like it had alot of the same thing Haze for Ps3 had going for it.

Too Human was way better than Haze. The co-op was a lot of fun. But as Pyro says, it should have been 4 player as it originally was intended to be.

[rm082e]

Maybe I am just out of touch with what this stuff costs, but $200,000,000 seems like a lot of money for advertising. Maybe it paid off overall though if a lot of people who weren't going to bought Xbox 360s. Microsoft certainly knows more about this stuff than I do.

True, it's a staggering number. But think about all those Xbots who went out and bought a 360 for Halo 3. I'm one of them and I'll tell you that I also bought Bioshock, Gears, and Mass Effect within that couple of months span of time. While MS doesn't make as much off those games as Halo 3, they still get licensing fees on them. Then I bought a second controller and you know that didn't cost them $50 to build. Then they hooked me into Xbox Live which who knows what their profit margin on that is. Then there's the XBLA and their proprietary MS Points system which is basically an interest free loan system for them.

Point being, Halo 3 wasn't launched in a vacuum. It was the catalyst to get a boat load of people to buy into the Xbox as a brand. It's like a drug dealer selling that first gram of meth for cheap - they know they'll get their profit on the come-back.

[IceNine]

True, it's a staggering number. But think about all those Xbots who went out and bought a 360 for Halo 3. I'm one of them and I'll tell you that I also bought Bioshock, Gears, and Mass Effect within that couple of months span of time. While MS doesn't make as much off those games as Halo 3, they still get licensing fees on them. Then I bought a second controller and you know that didn't cost them $50 to build. Then they hooked me into Xbox Live which who knows what their profit margin on that is. Then there's the XBLA and their proprietary MS Points system which is basically an interest free loan system for them.

Point being, Halo 3 wasn't launched in a vacuum. It was the catalyst to get a boat load of people to buy into the Xbox as a brand. It's like a drug dealer selling that first gram of meth for cheap - they know they'll get their profit on the come-back.

A fine point has been made and I will concede that it was probably worth the $200,000,000 in advertising, staggering though it is.