3.5 years like I said with 130 employees like I said... I don't know why people were so hell bent on saying 5 year dev cycle with close to 200 employees. Very end of 2004 is when they probablly started (Immediatly after KZ) and then went full cycle a few months later. The first few months were probablly just paying a few artists for concept art sketches. Still I believe it was less than 130 employees 3 and a half years before release since they also had KZ:L being worked on and the studio was smaller back then. Then when KZL was done a bunch of devs hoping on KZ2 then when the DLC was finished then the full team was working on it. Then in 2008 pulling people off since it was practically finished. (Seriously. Go look at the screens that were released mid-08. I don't know why sony delayed it till Feb. I cant see there being enough work for 130 employees for just polish for the last half year.)
BTW - 1 American Dollar = 1.25 Euros in '06. So a minimum of 25 million dollars then (20 million = tens of millions)
My breakdown.
Game finished in Jan. The 3.5 years means they started really developing in mid '05. 90 employees till end of '06. 120 employees till begining of '07. 130 employees till mid '08 when the game was practically done. Then back down. Those employees obviously started working on KZ3 right away.
