Games where alot cheaper to make back then.
The most expensive SNES games probably cost like abit under ~$1m to make.
I wouldn't be surprised if something like Mega Man X, was like half that.

edit:
This also means, that they likely recouped like 100x or more the money they put into production costs.
Not many games today come near, earning back that much.

This is definitely not a sustainable practice, this trend of overspending can't be allowed to go on unchecked, or it will bring down the AAA industry given enough time.

I think Ghost of Yotel was reported to cost 60 millions or so. Not sure if that includes the marketing, but still. It is a massive open world with cutting edge graphics. What is the secret?

The $60m cost was without marketing included.
However the secret is 100-150 people max, and a short development cycle (~4-5 years).

Apparently the guy leading the studio, dislikes the idea of over complicated stuff, and needlessly large groups working on stuff.
He purposefully rains in scope, and keeps size of the studio matching what it aims for.

"We always kind of felt like we don't want to have a team that's too big," - Flemming

I think its the mentality, of just winging it, and fixing things as you go along, rather than plan every little detail out,
and 14 layers of management to get through, to realize changes ect.

Ei. instead of sitting around debating what to do, they are the type that rather just do stuff, and work around that, regardless of the outcome.

The bigger the budgets get, the less willing the publishers are to this sort of thing though.
It carries a bigger risk factor (imo) for a larger payoff if things work out well.

The most expensive game to make ever in the mid 90s was Phantamagoria  at $4.5 million. Then Shenmue at $70 million became the most expensive game ever made and held that title for several years.That game was a financial disaster for SEGA. It's just insane what game budgets are now. They really need to be smarter about it. Gears E-Day has a PS5 version of the game just sitting around but stupid pride bullshit leadership said no Xbox exclusive now.