The 10 Most Expensive Games Ever Made & How Much It Cost To Make Them - GameRant

Back in the late eighties and early nineties, the cost of developing video games was fairly modest when compared to what it is today. As the capabilities of home consoles and high end gaming rigs have increased through, development costs have risen sharply, with most modern titles now costing publishers and developers tens of millions of dollars to produce. Some, however, can cost considerably more.

Over the last ten years, there has been a huge increase in the number of games costing more than $50m to develop, and that's before marketing and promotional costs are taken into account. While most of these titles do manage to turn a profit, some of the figures involved can be truly mind-blowing and offer a lot of insight into the sheer scale of the games industry as well as how competitive it really is.

10 Shadow Of The Tomb Raider - $75m+

key art for shadow of the tomb raider definitive

The latest chapter in the excellent Tomb Raider reboot series, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, also happens to be Lara's most expensive outing to date. In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, head of Eidos Montreal David Anfossi revealed that the game's production budget came in at somewhere between 75 and 100 million dollars, with an additional $35m or so being spent on marketing and promotion.

Luckily for the developer, the game sold incredibly well, with more than four million copies being snapped up in its first three months on the market alone. It performed strongly with critics as well, although its ratings over on Metacritic aren't quite as impressive as those for the two games that preceded it. Regardless, it's more than likely that the title returned a healthy profit for both its developer and its publisher, Square Enix.

9 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - $80m+

It's looking increasingly probable that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be Hideo Kojima's final Metal Gear game, with the influential Japanese developer having parted ways with Konami back in 2015. The exact reasons for the sudden and shocking split will likely remain a mystery, but the budget for his final project with the company is at least a little bit clearer.

According to Eurogamer, a report from a Japanese financial newspaper revealed that $80m had been spent on the game's production as of April 2015. With the final release not coming until September of the same year, however, it's fairly likely that the final cost was a lot closer to the $100m mark, especially if post release content and patches are taken into account.

8 Defiance - $80m+

Defiance was an MMO third-person shooter that released for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC back in 2013. Although it didn't impress critics all that much, it did attract a fairly sizable playerbase and survived for a very respectable eight years before servers were finally shut down in early 2021. The game's huge budget certainly helped in this regard, although its true cost remains a little unclear.

Shortly before its release, a report from Forbes suggested that around $100m had been spent on the entire project, although this amount also covered the cost of a sci-fi television series of the same name. The report estimates that around $80m went towards the game itself, but this amount could be considerably higher given that an enhanced version of the title was later released for the PS4 and Xbox One.

7 Battlefield 4 - $100m

Considered by many to be one of the very best FPS franchises out there, it should perhaps come as little surprise to learn that EA's Battlefield games are not cheap to make. According to the company's former Chief Creative Officer Richard Hilleman, in fact, the series' fourth entry cost a staggering $100m to develop, which would make Battlefield 4 the franchise's most expensive title to date.

The game performed strongly with critics and has sold more than seven million copies since its launch. Despite these impressive accomplishments, however, it struggled to keep up with the competition, with Call of Duty: Ghosts going on to sell almost three times as many copies. Whether the highly anticipated Battlefield 6 will fair any better in this regard remains to be seen.

6 Max Payne 3 - $105m

Rockstar Games isn't known for taking half-measures or playing it safe, as evidenced by the sheer scale of the projects that the developer typically takes on. While GTA and Red Dead may be the most notable examples of this though, there are plenty of other impressive titles decorating the company's extensive back catalog of games. One of these is Max Payne 3.

The iconic video game cop's third and final outing is also his most expensive, with estimates suggesting that the game had a production budget of $105m. It sold more than four million copies in its first year though, so should at the very least have recouped its development budget. More importantly, perhaps, the game served as a perfect send-off for Max while also offering a solid gameplay experience in the process.

5 Grand Theft Auto V - $137m

Regardless of one's thoughts on the game itself, it's hard to argue that the $137m Rockstar poured into the initial development of Grand Theft Auto 5 wasn't money well spent. It has sold more than 140 million units since it first went on sale back in 2013; an amount that will no doubt increase when the PS5 and Xbox Series ports of the game finally arrive in late 2021. For those wondering, that all equates to total profit of around $6 billion and counting.

It's worth noting that the $137m figure only covers the game's initial production costs, with DLC, GTA Online and the game's multiple next-gen ports likely to have driven that amount far higher over the course of the last eight years. The game's initial marketing budget is also believed to have been around $137m, so, when all's said and done, it wouldn't be too surprising to learn that Rockstar has now spent more than $300m on the title in total.

4 Read Dead Redemption 2 - $170m+

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It may not have sold quite as many copies as GTA 5, but Red Dead Redemption 2 features just as much detail throughout its large open world. This attention to detail came at a huge cost, however, with the game alone though to have set the developer back between 170 and 240 million dollars. With as much as $300m spent on marketing on top of that amount, the true cost of the title may even have passed the half a billion dollar mark.

Considering the game generated an impressive $725 million in revenue in just its first two days on sale, it seems safe to say that Rockstar was once again able to make a healthy profit on this occasion. Like GTA Online though, the game's online features will no doubt have driven the production cost higher still since the game's initial release, so exactly how much the developer spent or made in total remains something of a mystery.

3 Cyberpunk 2077 - $174m

After eight years in development and multiple delays, developer CD Projekt Red had a lot riding on the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. It sold well enough, but the game's buggy performance and various glitches led to widespread criticism from players, causing the company's value to fall by billions of dollars in the weeks that followed. Compared to that, the $316m that was spent making and marketing the game seems like little more than a drop in the ocean.

According to one of the company's own financial reports, around $174m was spent on development, making it one of the most expensive games ever produced at the time of writing. Miraculously, the company did manage to turn a healthy profit on this amount, although its share price remains less than half of what it was prior to the game's release and shows no sign of bouncing back anytime soon.

2 Star Wars: The Old Republic - $200m

Despite releasing almost a decade ago, Star Wars: The Old Republic continues to receive updates on a fairly regular basis. Considering how much time and money was spent on its initial development though, this really shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Reports suggest that the game had a $200m development budget, making it one of EA's most expensive and most ambitious projects of all time.

This ambition has definitely paid off though, with the game now thought to have generated more than $1b dollars in revenue since servers first went live back in late 2011. This would make for a healthy return on the game's hefty development budget, and, with tens of thousands of people still playing the MMO, there really is no telling how much more profit the game might generate before its servers are finally shutdown.

1 Star Citizen - $275m+

Following several hugely successful crowdfunding campaigns, developer Cloud Imperium Games was able to raise more than $300m for the production of Star Citizen. Since then, even more capital has been raised through private investment, which has in turn led to both the scale and the scope of the project increasing dramatically. While this is undoubtedly good news for backers and the game's future players though, it has brought with it a new problem.

Production of the game first began back in 2011, yet there is still no clear indication as to when a full commercial release will finally arrive. Estimates suggest that more than $275m has already been spent on development up to this point; an amount that is only going to increase as production continues to drag on. To say that there is a lot riding on the game's final performance would therefore be a bit of an understatement.

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Tom Bowen (381 Articles Published)

Tom loves classic adventure games and RPGs above all else, but is also partial to a spot of FIFA from time to time. He typically writes about 80s movies, 90s video games and post 2000 television shows; although he's happy to cover just about anything providing that it has some depth to it.