Summary
- Call of Duty games have shattered budget records, with development costs reaching a staggering $700 million.
- Black Ops Cold War, with its $700 million budget, surpasses even the ambitious Star Citizen project.
- The escalating budgets of AAA games highlight the ever-increasing costs within the video game industry.
Activision's recent disclosures reveal the massive development budgets of three Call of Duty titles, ranging from $450 million to a jaw-dropping $700 million. These figures represent the highest ever recorded for the franchise, with Black Ops Cold War leading the pack.
Creating a video game is a monumental undertaking, demanding years of work and substantial financial investment. While indie games often thrive on smaller budgets, secured through platforms like Kickstarter, the AAA landscape operates on a vastly different scale. Blockbuster game costs have skyrocketed year after year, eclipsing even the "expensive" titles of previous generations. Games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part 2 are renowned for their high development costs, yet they pale in comparison to the newly revealed Call of Duty budgets.
According to a December 23rd California court filing, Activision's head of Call of Duty creative, Patrick Kelly, revealed the budgets for Black Ops 3, Modern Warfare (2019), and Black Ops Cold War. Black Ops Cold War stands out, exceeding $700 million in development costs after years of work and resulting in over 30 million copies sold. Modern Warfare follows closely, with Infinity Ward investing over $640 million, leading to sales exceeding 41 million copies. Even Black Ops 3, with the lowest budget of the three at $450 million, still dwarfs the $220 million development cost of The Last of Us Part 2.
Black Ops Cold War's $700 Million Budget: A New High Water Mark
The budget for Black Ops Cold War sets a new record in video game development, surpassing even Star Citizen's massive $644 million. This is particularly noteworthy considering Black Ops Cold War was funded by a single company, unlike Star Citizen, which benefited from eleven years of crowdfunding.
The escalating costs are striking when considering the trajectory of game development budgets. The 1997 release of Final Fantasy VII, a graphical and technical marvel for its time, cost $40 million—a significant sum then, but dwarfed by today's AAA budgets. Activision's recent disclosures serve as undeniable evidence of the video game industry's explosive cost growth, prompting speculation about the even higher budgets likely to be seen in future installments, such as a potential Black Ops 6. The trend of annually increasing budgets suggests that the cost of AAA game development will only continue to rise.
