Top 10 Highest (Estimated) Game Budgets Of All Time

29 Comments

Posted February 25, 2010 - By Jake Gaskill

It’s hard to nail down exact numbers when it comes to video game budgets, which is why whenever you come across a list like the following one it’s always good to remember that they are merely educated estimates. Having said that, it’s well understood that game budgets have been neck and neck with Hollywood productions for some time now, and it’s fair to say they’ll remain in that vicinity for the foreseeable future.

To that point, Digital Battle has compiled a list of the top 10 game highest game budgets ever, and while none of the figures are that surprising, they are certainly discussion worthy. Take a look:

1. Grand Theft Auto IV - $100 million
2. Gran Turismo 5 - $80 million
3. Shenmue - $70 million
4. Too Human - $60+ million
5. Metal Gear Solid 4 - $60 million
6. Halo 3 - $55 million
7. APB - $50 million
8. L.A. Noire - $50 million
9. Final Fantasy XII - $48 million
10. Killzone 2 - $45 million

Shocking? Expected? Troubling?

Source: Digital Battle

Tags: PC Gaming, PlayStation 3, Videogames, Xbox 360

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infamouscole15

MGS4 would have been my guess for highest budget cause the art and voice work was off the charts. not to mention the graphics

Posted: February 25, 2010 12:22 PM
Cyphin

Not sure how recent the data is, but I expected FF13 to be up there. It was started on PS2, then moved to PS3 and finally ported to the 360. Not to mention all those cg movies ain't cheap and that they built a new engine to power the game.

Posted: February 25, 2010 12:19 PM
jdiggitty

So Fallout 3, Fable2, Mass Effect2, Gears, and Modern Warfare2 were made for under $45mil? That's hard to believe.

Posted: February 25, 2010 12:07 PM
Juicelee

its a shame that sega will never finish the shenmue series for this sole reason... makes me a little sad inside :(

Posted: February 25, 2010 12:07 PM
Sack-Lion

I expected MGS4 to be near the top of that list, but still not too surprising.

Posted: February 25, 2010 11:59 AM
vinny87

I think that Shenmue should still be #1 considering inflation. GT5 actually has already been paid for. The prologue generated 100 million in sales. I'm surprised games like Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2 didn't make the list considering how much emphasis they placed on animation and VO.

The big lesson though is that delays REALLY hurt developers in terms of cost. 7/10 games were delayed.

Posted: February 25, 2010 11:40 AM
geoeye

60+ million for Too Human ouch. i still wanted another Too Human for the story but it looks like that won't be happening

Posted: February 25, 2010 11:38 AM
WARLORDV

some games i though were gona be thr arnt i guess they worked well with the money they had

Posted: February 25, 2010 11:35 AM
MrPickering

I wish Too Human had been a better game, I am a big SK fan but that game really missed the boat.

Posted: February 25, 2010 11:30 AM