they spent how much welcome to
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
most expensive video games ever made the
hell’s Rodrigo I don’t know man
Thanks somebody’s gonna go find it for
this list we’re taking a look at games
that required massive investment to be
developed promoted and manufactured some
of these titles justified such an
extortion at budget becoming commercial
and critical successes while others
received far more negative reactions
from audiences who that’s what happens
when you mix c4 with a bean burrito also
bear in mind that many of the quoted
figures are best estimates as companies
are often unwilling to release their
exact spending figures we’re also not
drawing a line between marketing and
development budgets because companies
are equally nebulous about those figures
as well similarly all numbers are from
the time of the game’s release and would
most likely be higher once adjusted for
current US inflation say what you want
about Americans but we understand
capitalism you buy yourself a product
and you get what you pay for number 10
Deadpool I’ve got my top designers
banging away on a strip right now and
it’s ready send it right over script
while this hundred million dollar beat
him up featuring the Merc with a mouth
wasn’t quite as bad as the characters
first big screen appearance it still
lacked the type of gameplay you would
expect from such an expensive title Wade
Wilson’s typically vulgar fourth wall
breaking humor was abundant however even
poking fun at the developers and the
shortcomings of the game hello hey there
hey I was just running around my game
and all of a sudden I noticed that some
shit was done as much as Deadpool mocks
gaming cliches it doesn’t hide the fact
that many of those same tropes are
present in almost every lifeless level
this all stemmed from a notably
tumultuous existence high Moon Studios
employees were fired during development
and the game was pulled from online
services after release
hey maybe Deadpool himself really wasn’t
charged all along roll credits we’re
done here
number nine max pain-free here I was
about to execute this poor bastard like
some dime-store Angel of Death there was
considerable pressure on Rockstar to
deliver a game that would not only live
up to remedies previous to third-person
shooters but also be a commercial
success by pumping 105 million into the
project was meant to be released way
back in 2009 they ensured that the
series would carry on with its
exceptional dark tone but left
themselves needing to sell four million
copies just to break even
then again what did I expect these were
the kind of people who went to
nightclubs in helicopters while an
aggressive marketing strategy eventually
allowed them to hit that mark Rockstar
greatly overestimated the games sales
projections resulting in a lot of unsold
copies of the game ending up in bargain
bins everywhere I guess they call it
trickle-down economics that’s funny
number 8 Red Dead Redemption Bill
Williamson come out here right now if
Max Payne 3 was a high-cost gamble that
didn’t exactly pay off then this
open-world Western is the one that
absolutely was worth the hefty price tag
selling 13 million copies Rockstar
comfortably recouped the estimated 80 to
100 million dollar budget and created
one of the best games ever in the
process you implore me you always were
one for fancy words they clearly used
every second of the five-year
development cycle to craft a beautifully
diverse world full of fascinating
characters and plenty of wild-west much
ismo with a sequel reportedly on the way
fingers crossed
expect the Red Dead universe to get even
bigger and better well that sounds very
fun Mr Marston quite heroic just like in
those penny dreadfuls my brother used to
read number 7 – human
I like heroes brother Oh from the
premise alone you can understand why
this action RPG taking a sci-fi angle on
norse mythology was plagued with nearly
a decade in development hell during that
time it racked up costs of 60 to 100
million over three separate consoles yet
the end product on the Xbox 360 was a
mediocre game that looked okay but
ultimately was too short and boring to
play she’s a paltry come to take it aha
the nightmare didn’t end with the game’s
release however Epic Games developers of
the engine on which to human was built
won a protracted lawsuit that required
Silicon Knights the developer to pay 4.5
million and destroy all unsold copies of
to human a setback which as you can
probably guess eventually led to the
company’s bankruptcy in 2014 it’s a good
day to die you always say that it always
is
number 6 Shenmue II yeah Ryo Hazuki I’m
here for my ticket despite being the
fourth best selling game for Sega’s
Dreamcast this revolutionary title is a
notorious commercial flop although some
of its touted 70 million dollar budget
went towards the sequel the 1.2 million
copies were nowhere near enough to make
the most expensive game ever made at the
time profitable 70 million dollars
that’s around 46 million pounds at the
current exchange rate it’s slow and
often mundane approach deterred many
players but the introduction of features
like QuickTime events a day-night system
and an interactive world imagined with
such impressive looking graphics again
for the time left such an impact on
those who bought it that the relatively
tiny sum of six point three million was
crowd funded to support the upcoming
third installment of the series three
will be the story you have wait for but
this Kickstarter will be real success
number five Final Fantasy 7
the legacy left by this legendary title
is still felt by contemporary gamers but
it didn’t come easy 45 million went into
development and a hundred million was
allocated for marketing a JRPG that was
one of the first convincingly penetrate
the North American market we were able
to use many high-end machines and work
with a staff of approximately 100
squares moved to 3d and the elevation of
production values was lapped up around
the world as 2.3 million copies were
sold in just three days surprisingly for
a game regularly labeled as the best
ever developers were forced to leave out
several planned events to meet a tight
release date those exclusions apparently
made no difference to fans and it went
on to sell 11 million copies they said
it couldn’t be done in a major motion
picture
they were right
Fantasy 7
hazal number 4 Star Wars The Old
Republic you have built here only hope
to control it forms apart as easily as a
human life
Bioware had already proven that they
could handle one of the greatest media
properties ever when they released
Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and
as such they were trusted with an
investment of 200 million from EA to
make this subscription-based
MMORPG I promise you you’ll be well
compensated you can discuss the details
with The Watcher they created a game of
immense scale and depth Hey
it contained 1,600 hours of story
content yet still faced some criticism
for getting muddled between an MMORPG
and a Mass Effect style experience it
sounds very noble yes cowing the masses
is a complex art although it did require
the move to a free-to-play model to
reinvigorate interest in the game it has
been regularly expanded and in 2014 it
was still earning 165 million a year
once you play Star Wars The Old Republic
it’s pretty hard to go back to other and
most number 3 call of duty modern
warfare 2 over following the first
modern warfare title selling 17 million
copies
Activision could happily throw money at
this equal without worry of it ever
being a failure the development costs
were relatively modest at just 40 to 50
million but they put a staggering 200
million into marketing the FPS Titan
around the world hello you good modern
warfare 2 yet of course yeah I got a
Walmart like yesterday featuring a
refined almost flawless online
multiplayer suite and a new spec ops
mode 5 million copies were sold in a day
and despite the airport Massacre
controversy it went past 1 billion in
sales in just a few months the series
has grown tired since this juggernaut
success but where can it really go when
it’s clearly peaked I’ve heard there’s
over 20 million people doing it now so
it’s safe to say that everyone is doing
it
number two destiny destiny is shaping up
to be the most expensive video game ever
created has Activision Blizzard is
planning to send a whopping 500 million
on its development and promotion the
five hundred million dollar figure
bandied about by Activision CEO Bobby
Kotick is monstrous but is perhaps
slightly misleading all that cash is not
just for development neither is it
solely for the first game in the
franchise these funds will lay the
foundations for a ten year plan between
Activision and Bungie as they iterate on
their FPS MMO hybrid masters you ask me
about raids destiny has a raid it’s
going to be the most difficult challenge
that we’ve ever thrown at our community
expansions like the taken King have
already improved critical reception
addressing the off maligned story quest
system and bosses through feedback from
their reported 25 million registered
players reliable sales figures are
always hard to come by but with that
many players on board it’s likely that
destiny is another billion-dollar
franchise the darkness is coming back
we will not survive it this time before
we reveal our topic
let’s have a look at some honorable
mentions
we’re not able to get ourselves in but
your this point sir
ah
number one Grand Theft Auto 5 it was a
blockbuster debut that would make any
Hollywood executive jealous except you
couldn’t see it on the silver screen but
rather on the small screen this open
world title offers limitless
possibilities especially if you’re
running a mod or two and so it was
inevitably gonna leave a sizable hole in
rockstars pockets how much does it cost
you to produce this game Grand Theft
Auto belongs to put it in perspective we
don’t actually talk about those numbers
but we do say in our filings tens of
millions of dollars with a reported cost
of 265 million it dwarfed the hundred
million budget of its older sibling and
similarly obliterated it in pretty much
every statistic you could think of
benefiting from releases over two
generations of consoles 65 million
copies have been sold and although free
DLC likely eats into their 2 billion
dollars worth of revenue the online mode
is still a constant money-making machine
its numbers are often compared to that
of Hollywood’s biggest budget projects
and rightly so because it’s carnage
frequently out does it’s Hollywood
counterparts do you agree with our list
yes well what massive budget games have
you played that’s all I got today but
it’s early yet gave me a couple more
days it’ll be more for more top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com let me remind you that
my website got 15 million hits the
weekend we announced 1 million won 1
million to
you
watchmojo.com and today we’ll be
counting down our picks for the top 10
most expensive video games ever made the
hell’s Rodrigo I don’t know man
Thanks somebody’s gonna go find it for
this list we’re taking a look at games
that required massive investment to be
developed promoted and manufactured some
of these titles justified such an
extortion at budget becoming commercial
and critical successes while others
received far more negative reactions
from audiences who that’s what happens
when you mix c4 with a bean burrito also
bear in mind that many of the quoted
figures are best estimates as companies
are often unwilling to release their
exact spending figures we’re also not
drawing a line between marketing and
development budgets because companies
are equally nebulous about those figures
as well similarly all numbers are from
the time of the game’s release and would
most likely be higher once adjusted for
current US inflation say what you want
about Americans but we understand
capitalism you buy yourself a product
and you get what you pay for number 10
Deadpool I’ve got my top designers
banging away on a strip right now and
it’s ready send it right over script
while this hundred million dollar beat
him up featuring the Merc with a mouth
wasn’t quite as bad as the characters
first big screen appearance it still
lacked the type of gameplay you would
expect from such an expensive title Wade
Wilson’s typically vulgar fourth wall
breaking humor was abundant however even
poking fun at the developers and the
shortcomings of the game hello hey there
hey I was just running around my game
and all of a sudden I noticed that some
shit was done as much as Deadpool mocks
gaming cliches it doesn’t hide the fact
that many of those same tropes are
present in almost every lifeless level
this all stemmed from a notably
tumultuous existence high Moon Studios
employees were fired during development
and the game was pulled from online
services after release
hey maybe Deadpool himself really wasn’t
charged all along roll credits we’re
done here
number nine max pain-free here I was
about to execute this poor bastard like
some dime-store Angel of Death there was
considerable pressure on Rockstar to
deliver a game that would not only live
up to remedies previous to third-person
shooters but also be a commercial
success by pumping 105 million into the
project was meant to be released way
back in 2009 they ensured that the
series would carry on with its
exceptional dark tone but left
themselves needing to sell four million
copies just to break even
then again what did I expect these were
the kind of people who went to
nightclubs in helicopters while an
aggressive marketing strategy eventually
allowed them to hit that mark Rockstar
greatly overestimated the games sales
projections resulting in a lot of unsold
copies of the game ending up in bargain
bins everywhere I guess they call it
trickle-down economics that’s funny
number 8 Red Dead Redemption Bill
Williamson come out here right now if
Max Payne 3 was a high-cost gamble that
didn’t exactly pay off then this
open-world Western is the one that
absolutely was worth the hefty price tag
selling 13 million copies Rockstar
comfortably recouped the estimated 80 to
100 million dollar budget and created
one of the best games ever in the
process you implore me you always were
one for fancy words they clearly used
every second of the five-year
development cycle to craft a beautifully
diverse world full of fascinating
characters and plenty of wild-west much
ismo with a sequel reportedly on the way
fingers crossed
expect the Red Dead universe to get even
bigger and better well that sounds very
fun Mr Marston quite heroic just like in
those penny dreadfuls my brother used to
read number 7 – human
I like heroes brother Oh from the
premise alone you can understand why
this action RPG taking a sci-fi angle on
norse mythology was plagued with nearly
a decade in development hell during that
time it racked up costs of 60 to 100
million over three separate consoles yet
the end product on the Xbox 360 was a
mediocre game that looked okay but
ultimately was too short and boring to
play she’s a paltry come to take it aha
the nightmare didn’t end with the game’s
release however Epic Games developers of
the engine on which to human was built
won a protracted lawsuit that required
Silicon Knights the developer to pay 4.5
million and destroy all unsold copies of
to human a setback which as you can
probably guess eventually led to the
company’s bankruptcy in 2014 it’s a good
day to die you always say that it always
is
number 6 Shenmue II yeah Ryo Hazuki I’m
here for my ticket despite being the
fourth best selling game for Sega’s
Dreamcast this revolutionary title is a
notorious commercial flop although some
of its touted 70 million dollar budget
went towards the sequel the 1.2 million
copies were nowhere near enough to make
the most expensive game ever made at the
time profitable 70 million dollars
that’s around 46 million pounds at the
current exchange rate it’s slow and
often mundane approach deterred many
players but the introduction of features
like QuickTime events a day-night system
and an interactive world imagined with
such impressive looking graphics again
for the time left such an impact on
those who bought it that the relatively
tiny sum of six point three million was
crowd funded to support the upcoming
third installment of the series three
will be the story you have wait for but
this Kickstarter will be real success
number five Final Fantasy 7
the legacy left by this legendary title
is still felt by contemporary gamers but
it didn’t come easy 45 million went into
development and a hundred million was
allocated for marketing a JRPG that was
one of the first convincingly penetrate
the North American market we were able
to use many high-end machines and work
with a staff of approximately 100
squares moved to 3d and the elevation of
production values was lapped up around
the world as 2.3 million copies were
sold in just three days surprisingly for
a game regularly labeled as the best
ever developers were forced to leave out
several planned events to meet a tight
release date those exclusions apparently
made no difference to fans and it went
on to sell 11 million copies they said
it couldn’t be done in a major motion
picture
they were right
Fantasy 7
hazal number 4 Star Wars The Old
Republic you have built here only hope
to control it forms apart as easily as a
human life
Bioware had already proven that they
could handle one of the greatest media
properties ever when they released
Knights of the Old Republic in 2003 and
as such they were trusted with an
investment of 200 million from EA to
make this subscription-based
MMORPG I promise you you’ll be well
compensated you can discuss the details
with The Watcher they created a game of
immense scale and depth Hey
it contained 1,600 hours of story
content yet still faced some criticism
for getting muddled between an MMORPG
and a Mass Effect style experience it
sounds very noble yes cowing the masses
is a complex art although it did require
the move to a free-to-play model to
reinvigorate interest in the game it has
been regularly expanded and in 2014 it
was still earning 165 million a year
once you play Star Wars The Old Republic
it’s pretty hard to go back to other and
most number 3 call of duty modern
warfare 2 over following the first
modern warfare title selling 17 million
copies
Activision could happily throw money at
this equal without worry of it ever
being a failure the development costs
were relatively modest at just 40 to 50
million but they put a staggering 200
million into marketing the FPS Titan
around the world hello you good modern
warfare 2 yet of course yeah I got a
Walmart like yesterday featuring a
refined almost flawless online
multiplayer suite and a new spec ops
mode 5 million copies were sold in a day
and despite the airport Massacre
controversy it went past 1 billion in
sales in just a few months the series
has grown tired since this juggernaut
success but where can it really go when
it’s clearly peaked I’ve heard there’s
over 20 million people doing it now so
it’s safe to say that everyone is doing
it
number two destiny destiny is shaping up
to be the most expensive video game ever
created has Activision Blizzard is
planning to send a whopping 500 million
on its development and promotion the
five hundred million dollar figure
bandied about by Activision CEO Bobby
Kotick is monstrous but is perhaps
slightly misleading all that cash is not
just for development neither is it
solely for the first game in the
franchise these funds will lay the
foundations for a ten year plan between
Activision and Bungie as they iterate on
their FPS MMO hybrid masters you ask me
about raids destiny has a raid it’s
going to be the most difficult challenge
that we’ve ever thrown at our community
expansions like the taken King have
already improved critical reception
addressing the off maligned story quest
system and bosses through feedback from
their reported 25 million registered
players reliable sales figures are
always hard to come by but with that
many players on board it’s likely that
destiny is another billion-dollar
franchise the darkness is coming back
we will not survive it this time before
we reveal our topic
let’s have a look at some honorable
mentions
we’re not able to get ourselves in but
your this point sir
ah
number one Grand Theft Auto 5 it was a
blockbuster debut that would make any
Hollywood executive jealous except you
couldn’t see it on the silver screen but
rather on the small screen this open
world title offers limitless
possibilities especially if you’re
running a mod or two and so it was
inevitably gonna leave a sizable hole in
rockstars pockets how much does it cost
you to produce this game Grand Theft
Auto belongs to put it in perspective we
don’t actually talk about those numbers
but we do say in our filings tens of
millions of dollars with a reported cost
of 265 million it dwarfed the hundred
million budget of its older sibling and
similarly obliterated it in pretty much
every statistic you could think of
benefiting from releases over two
generations of consoles 65 million
copies have been sold and although free
DLC likely eats into their 2 billion
dollars worth of revenue the online mode
is still a constant money-making machine
its numbers are often compared to that
of Hollywood’s biggest budget projects
and rightly so because it’s carnage
frequently out does it’s Hollywood
counterparts do you agree with our list
yes well what massive budget games have
you played that’s all I got today but
it’s early yet gave me a couple more
days it’ll be more for more top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com let me remind you that
my website got 15 million hits the
weekend we announced 1 million won 1
million to
you
Please follow and like us: