torok said:
Yes, it is. Just check it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop. DC Universe Online is on the list too. God of War III and Beyond Two Souls costed 40M each and almost entered the list too. |
Not a very useful/reliable source. Most of those entries don't even distinguish between what goes to marketting and what goes into development. I wouldn't be suprised if some of these didn't even include marketting. Destiny's at the top of the list with $500M even though wiki's source clearly states that budget is for the entire franchise Activision is planning. Not just one game. Other things on that list that are hard to calculate or some up would be the MMO's like DC Universe. How many expansions has that game gotten since release? How much of the budget is just expansion work? What was the original budget and how many expansions did that include, assuming the budget's increased since? This looks like a list of just rough estimates someone's said at one point or another.
It's almost got the Heavy Rain info right. Quantic's CEO and Executive Producer confirms Heavy Rain took $21.8M to make. Distribution and marketting cost add another $30.4M. That's pretty modest compared to other titles on that list (assuming that list is anything to go by).
Also, please remember that my first post was about marketting expenditure, not development budgets. Cost of developing games is something SONY as a first party just has to deal with no matter what. It's marketting that they've been cheaping out on. In the PS2 days, they likely didn't feel the need to spend so much on marketting their games because their install base made sales easy.
4 ≈ One
