GTA IV is most expensive game ever

By Ellie Gibson Published 25 February, 2010

Top ten also includes APB, KZ2 and Halo 3.

Grand Theft Auto IV cost $100 million to produce, making it the most expensive videogame ever made.

That's according to Digital Battle, which has published a list of the top 10 biggest game budgets.

Apparently the soundtrack for GTA IV turned out to be a big expense, not to mention the cost of paying 1000 people to work on the game for over three and a half years.

In second place is Gran Turismo 5 with a budget of $60 million, expected to rise to $80 million before the game is actually released. Other pricey titles include Too Human, Shenmue and Metal Gear Solid 4. Killzone 2 is the cheapest game on the list, coming in at $45 million. Bargain.

Here's that top ten in full:

  1. Grand Theft Auto IV - $100 million
  2. Gran Turismo 5 - $80 million
  3. Shenmue - $70 million
  4. Too Human - $60 million+
  5. Metal Gear Solid 4 - $60 million
  6. Halo 3 - $55 million
  7. APB - $50 million
  8. L.A. Noire - $50 million
  9. Final Fantasy XII - $48 million
  10. Killzone 2 - $45 million
Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (70) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cyacomini #1 2 years ago

    Since when did EG start posting news from 'no-name' blogs?

    This article has been doing the round for nearly a week - posted February 20th, 2010.

    Must be a slow slow day at EG towers..

  • Orihalcon19 #2 2 years ago

    Surely this list is date specific in the sense that the newer games were not considered. Case in point Modern Warfare 2. Didn't that game have a budget or expense amounting to upward of $300 million? Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

  • Blakester #3 2 years ago

    So GTAIV is the Avatar of the games world.

    Hyped to death, fun at the time but ultimately forgettable.

  • NoKamiFujiwara #4 2 years ago

    Holy crap, I had no idea Shenmue was THAT expensive to develop! I wonder if they even got their money back :(
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 09:15

  • Negotiator #5 2 years ago

    I find it hard to believe that KZ 2 is the cheapest game on that list, considering it was in development for near 5 years.

  • GamerG #6 2 years ago

    Shane Battenhuse on a recent 1up podcast said a friend of his was working on a game that had so far cost $80m and got cancelled, mental!

  • GAmbrose #7 2 years ago

    Orihalcon19...stand corrected.

    Avtivision offered to throw loads of money at Infinity Ward, but the developer turned around to them and said we don't need it and pretty much worked on the same budget they had for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

    Marketing budget is a different kettle of fish entirely...

  • AphoticCosmos #8 2 years ago

    Lol @ Too Human.

    Biggest investment fail ever.

  • homerramone #9 2 years ago

    Im sure GT 5 will surpass GTA before its done :-)

  • wellzy4eva #10 2 years ago

    It's not really that surprising they their budget was so high, they hired a comedian like Ricky gervais just for a bit of side entertainment.

  • miiiguel #11 2 years ago

    So GTAIV is the Avatar of the games world.

    You sir just won the prize for the worst comparision ever. A nihilist story of violence of an ilegal emigrant in the USA with a "cute" juvenile fable.

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #12 2 years ago

    no wonder sega went bust if they were sheding that much money on dev costs for the dreamcast

  • iHAZaCHEEZ3burger #13 2 years ago

    They probably could have cut $40 million of Too Humans budget by shortening the death sequence.

  • ignatiusjreilly #14 2 years ago

    Does this include advertising? I hear that's often 50% of the budget these days.

  • siro #15 2 years ago

    APB is expensive... to me it bears the same amount of hype and excitement that Two Humans had... :)

  • crozon #16 2 years ago

    I wonder how much the old republic is gong to cost considering the size and voice acting cast

  • Doctor_What #17 2 years ago

    It would be interesting to see how much was spent on their marketing too - probably more than they spent on making the games, I would guess. Sometimes I think I'm on the wrong side of the business.

  • The_Inquisitor #18 2 years ago

    Taking in to account inflation and relative development cost increases, Shenmue would probably rank top.

    L.A. Noire and APB are two games I can't wait to see, especially now we know how much they cost.

  • Cujo #19 2 years ago

    GTA IV - $100m? How much did MW2 cost to make?

  • kinky_mong #20 2 years ago

    All that money and two years on the graphics have not aged very well at all. Started The Ballad of Gay Tony last night and I was shocked at how dated the whole thing looked.

  • ShinMegami08 #21 2 years ago

    what the fuck is APB? have no idea

  • Lusterpurge #22 2 years ago

    Not a single Wii game on that list. How surprising.

  • convercide #23 2 years ago

    ShinMegami08: what the fuck is APB? have no idea

    All Points Bulletin (APB) is an MMORPG being developed by Realtime Worlds for Windows, originally it was supposed to be out on 360 at the same time but they say it has been deleayed. Which will probably mean it has been canned.

  • DrDamn #24 2 years ago

    I think to have much credence the original article needs proper references. A lot seems too much like tittle tattle and hearsay.

  • dagas #25 2 years ago

    Can't believe Too Human is up there at number 4. Also are these numbers corrected for inflation? 60m in 2000 (Shenmue) is probably almost 80m today.

  • ignatiusjreilly #26 2 years ago

    Here's a list with some attempt at references: [link url=http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Most_expensive_video_games
    ]http://vg sales.wikia.com/wiki/Most_expen...[/link]

    But of course lots of the references are just other blogs, which make no mention of their sources. Still, further than EG went.

  • hibee #27 2 years ago

    Shenmue: worth every penny.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #28 2 years ago

    I think that $50million budget for APB is not necessarily accurate - they're probably using the Realtime Worlds investment figures that they announced, but that's not all going to fund APB (I have some insider knowledge in this regard).

    In fact, Dave Jones has quoted costs of $30 million including data centre infrastructure for running the thing:
    [link url=http://ve3d .ign.com/articles/news/49116/APB-Costs-Total-30-Million-Uniq ue-Subscription-Methods-Touted
    ]http://ve 3d.ign.com/articles/news/49116/...[/link]

    so it'd probably just slip off this list.

  • jag10 #29 2 years ago

    halo 3:

    50 million advertisement

    5 million game development.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #30 2 years ago

    Also, these are like the only budgets that have been announced, it would appear. How much do any of EA's games cost to make, for example? I imagine that annual FIFA license must run to tens of millions of dollars.

    And there's no budget listed for World of Warcraft or any other released MMO. Warcraft probably costs a million dollars a week to run.

    Edit: There we go:

    [link url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/wo rld_of_warcraft_upkeep_200m/
    ]http://ww w.theregister.co.uk/2008/09/18/...[/link]

    $200million from inception to 18 months ago (which if you do some division works out at about a million dollars a week! Maybe I should become an industry analyst).
    Edited by 2 at 25/02/10 @ 11:02

  • OllyJ #31 2 years ago

    100 million and they still couldn't afford decent checkpoints!

  • DrDamn #32 2 years ago

    @jag10
    Reading linked article fail.

  • Murton #33 2 years ago

    The big costs come in the wages for all the people involved, rewarding overtime (most games companies don't pay overtime but give their people the time worked off again when things are quiet, still costs though) Then of course there's the completion bonuses and any other staff perks. When I was tester all overtime was returned as time off in lieu and we got takeout food paid for by the company when working late/weekends to the tune of £7 per head, so it adds up pretty quick when you have entire departments ordering pizzas from Dominos.

    Then there's the marketing, advertising costs an absolute fortune. Manufacturing isn't cheap either and if you're third party you have submission fees to MS/Sony/Ninty to consider too. It's a very expensive business,

    I'd be interested in seeing those figures updated to 2010 equivalents via inflation, I reckon Shenmue could very well end up top dog if we did.
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 11:17

  • mashk #34 2 years ago

    Too Human is definitely the Heaven's Gate of the games world.

  • optimusprym8 #35 2 years ago

    I know of a game (that failed hard) that should be at n#3 but as the official cost was never released ...

  • cyacomini #36 2 years ago

    /\

    Daikatana :)

  • FooAtari #37 2 years ago

    Pretty crazy really.

    It's no wonder few devs cater for niche market and genres now and everything is designed to follow the same template as the most successful games. Sadly it means most games feel very similar.

  • Hobo #38 2 years ago

    First comment here nails it. WHY is this news? What makes it credible? Just a few examples...

    "Higher estimates put it at over 41 million Euro, which translates to $56 million USD — but this number has never been confirmed by anyone at developer Guerrilla."

    "Final Fantasy XII had a budget of a whopping $48 million, excluding any marketing costs. The sequel, Final Fantasy XIII is rumored to have had at least a 50% higher budget, however, this hasn’t been made official (yet)."

    "This added at least another $10 million to the budget, according to some sources."

    No links to their sources? What an absolute joke.

    What makes them credible exactly?

  • RobotRocker #39 2 years ago

    Strange. I remember reading that the development cost for Modern Warfare 2 ran at about $50 million as well. Most companies don't like talking about budgets though so its very hard to estimate. Around $10-20 million a game seems a good ballpark though.


  • Emth #40 2 years ago

    Gta4 would still be fantastic if it wasn't for the framerate issues, bring on 5.

  • tossetaz #41 2 years ago

    I wonder what the sources of this data is because it seems strange to me that none of Blizzards games, especially WoW, doesn't even make it to 40 mio$

  • gjgjg #42 2 years ago

    wow.
    i feel poor.
    note lack of nintendo titles

  • fiery_jackass #43 2 years ago

    man, use of the outdated 4channery is out of control. Any time someone types "fail" I think Colin. Find some newer neologisms.

  • Badassbab #44 2 years ago

    That's a bollocks list.

  • ignatiusjreilly #45 2 years ago

    @notmyrealname

    I liked World of Goo better than every game on this list (that I've played), and that had a budget of $10,000.

    I suck at maths, but I make that 0.01% of the GTA budget...
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 12:56

  • CaptainTrips #46 2 years ago

    Hmm, what about games which have continued development after launch, most notably MMOs? I know that they still get revenue after launch, but so do the other games in the form of DLC.

  • Badassbab #47 2 years ago

    Does anyone think MS would spend the budget of a Hollywood summer blockbuster on advertising Halo 3? No business sense in that.

  • ignatiusjreilly #48 2 years ago

    $40 million is a generally accepted figure for Halo 3's marketing. I don't really know how that compares to movie budgets - they are probably even more wide-ranging than games.

    Even Left 4 Dead 2 spent $25m on marketing.

  • Orihalcon19 #49 2 years ago

    Ah. Thank you Gambrose. I included the marketing budget into my calculations.

  • jefranklin18 #50 2 years ago

    @frod: and yet only 3 are PS3 exclusive and 3 are XBOX 360 exclusive. How very bizarre, is it a conspiracy?

  • MrMud #51 2 years ago

    So where is world of warcraft?
    The initial development costs for that game were over 60million $
    Total costs are over 200million $

  • Shikasama #52 2 years ago

    Thats really weird because GTA4 is one of the worst games to come out on this generation of consoles.

  • DigDugDo #53 2 years ago

    $60 million on Too Human, LOOOOOOOOOOOL

  • sfp_noodle #54 2 years ago

    the fact that uncharted 1 or 2 aren't anywhere on that list is a HUGE compliment to the developers. nothing more to say :) gears of war also gets a mention for being an amazing game without having big bucks thrown on it

  • mega7ech #55 2 years ago

    The latest Edge magazine states that SEGA are actualy still willing to make Shenmue 3 if a platform holder helped fund its production. So go on Microsoft, $80,000,000 is far less than the $1.5 billion you blew on RROD recalls..

    Failing that, anyone fancy a whip-round?

  • SniperZoz #56 2 years ago

    I wonder what WoW cost to make including all expansions and running costs to date!? .... I also wonder what their profit to date is ..... ah well!

  • Miths #57 2 years ago

    60 million for Too Human? What an utterly insane waste of money :). Unless it actually sold a lot better than it deserved?

  • Caspar_Esq. #58 2 years ago

    Everybody knows MW2 cost $200m so this is a really shitty list, doubly so in that its someone else's shitty list. Way to go morons.

  • Rodchenko #59 2 years ago

    Wonder how much money DNF flushed down the crapper before it got canned.

  • irve77 #60 2 years ago

    pah .. unless you compare it to the money the games made who cares !

    If GTA made 300 million then it can cost 100 million to make .. however when games like too human cos 70 million and only make about a grand in return someone is in big do do !!

  • IMD1_Pk #61 2 years ago

    Am I the only one who noticed that the salaries of the workers average under 30000 only. If you include a deviation of 10,000 because of beta testers and people with minor roles like photography it may be better, like maybe it would be around 40,000 but that's still nothing. This doesn't include the cost of all the equipment they had to make the game. When I think about it games should be more expensive because the workers must be getting paid barely anything for their work and with the stories of long hours it must suck for them.

  • ignatiusjreilly #62 2 years ago

    40,000 but that's still nothing

    You're making me cry :(

  • thelzdking #63 2 years ago

    GTA IV certainly doesn't play like a $100m game.
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 18:55

  • sega #64 2 years ago

    "no wonder sega went bust if they were sheding that much money on dev costs for the dreamcast "

    The didn't go bust - hence why they're still around.

  • Badassbab #65 2 years ago

    GTA has a lot of licensed tracks, that bumped up the cost, also there's no other games that come close to the living breathing world of GTA then and since.
    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 20:08

  • FutileResistor #66 2 years ago

    GamerG wrote

    "Shane Battenhuse on a recent 1up podcast said a friend of his was working on a game that had so far cost $80m and got cancelled, mental!"

    It was worse than that, he said he knew of 3 projects that cost over $80m that were canned.

  • sarcasmoidosis #67 2 years ago

    According to an "anonymous" source (http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/unchar... UC2 cost about 20 million.

    Well, I guess, as others have said, it really matters what you get back. But 100 million on GTA IV is still insane.

  • WizenWolfBain #68 2 years ago

    I'm surprised that there aren't any Bioware titles up there, like Mass Effect/2. They had some fairly famous voice actors working around the clock and a hardcore team. But then again the marketing for ME was poor and wasn't up to the standard of the games on that list.

    I am actually surprised that Halo 3 didn't place higher, having had so many live action adverts directed by Neil Blomkamp and a stunning viral campaign which must have taken some serious man power to get off the ground. Then there's the 2 soundtracks backed by full orchestra's pretty much all the way through... A snip at 55 million when you think about it really!

    Edited by 1 at 25/02/10 @ 23:00

  • Andrefpvs #69 2 years ago

    $48 million on FFXII and they couldn't get some believable characters in that game... shame.

  • MrSpew #70 2 years ago

    Non-story without credible sources.