It is quite simple to estimate the cost of a game at least for the ballpark.
Size of the team, time to develop (just look at the time of release minus time of the last game released) and average salary.
When we talk about indies - B - A - AA - AAA let's say something like 100k 1M 10M 30M+ budget (or if you want to define other boundaries) since they have a very big gap between them you can easily separate as some already made here.
And even if you don't want to use absolute numbers you can still look at the game in hand and see if it have all the scope for AAA or not.
I don't know why do we need 2 reaction thread for the Octopath Traveller though (this one even being a reaction to the reaction, on the platform holders games being AAA).
duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363
Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994
Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."
