Edit: I have ignored the designation that the development cost of all three games arises “in the life cycle of the game”, according to the file report. I’m sorry if you feel really shocked instead of the more appropriate vehicles to make it surprised.
The development of 2020 FPS Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War costs $ 700 million, making it the most expensive video game project. It is according to a court’s profile considered by Stephen Totilo’s game profile (paid), in which the head of Call of Duty Creative Patrick Kelly revealed the budget of three games in Se -Ri.
This is Black Ops 3 in 2015 (over 450 million dollars), modern war in 2019 (over $ 640 million) and the cold war mentioned above. The record also contains sales data: Black Ops 3 sold 43 million copies, Modern Warfare 41 million and a cold war of 30 million. They are designated by Kelly as “development costs”, so maybe not including marketing, although there is no adequate incident.
There have been higher external estimates for a continuous development of a video game, notably Genshin Impact, but this is the highest number from an internal source. To compare, Totilo pointed out the courts’s documents since 2023, revealed the $ 212 and $ 220 million budget for Horizon: Forbidden West and our last 2, respectively.
Information, indicating the game profile, based on the statement from Kelly submitted to a court in California on December 23 and is part of Activision’s feedback for a lawsuit that was submitted against the company in May last year on the shooting at the 2022 school at Robb Primary School in Uvalde, Texas. The lawsuit against Activision also blamed Facebook Meta owners, accusing that the two companies deliberately exposed the shooter in the weapon he used.
According to the game file report, Activision last year refused all relationships between games and gun violence, and expressed sympathy for the victims. In October 2023, Wall Street Magazine reported an agreement on the previous product position between Call of Duty and the manufacturer of rifle Remington.
To return to the figures: they are ridiculous, yes. It is ashamed that we do not have the right division of costs according to development discipline. Is most of the money shifted to adjust the art and graphics? If so, it is worth noting that today the player seems to be increasingly supporting reliable old games with outdated images than expensive scenes. In all cases, this large budget has a worrying meaning for individual developers in the Microsoft/Activision empire, who are more likely to face the dismissal when costs increase and not be recovered.
