"Call of Duty Unveils Enormous Development Costs"

Summary

• Call of Duty games have set new records with budgets reaching up to $700 million.
• Black Ops Cold War's $700 million budget surpasses even Star Citizen.
• Rising AAA game budgets highlight the escalating costs in the video game industry.

Activision has disclosed the budgets of three Call of Duty games, with figures ranging impressively from $450 to $700 million. These massive Call of Duty development budgets are the highest ever seen for the franchise, with Black Ops Cold War leading the pack.

Creating video games is a complex and costly endeavor. The development process often spans several years, requiring significant investment in time and resources. While indie games can be developed on smaller budgets, often through platforms like Kickstarter, the AAA gaming sector operates on a much larger scale. The budgets of blockbuster titles have been steadily increasing, outstripping those of games once considered expensive. Among the most costly games ever produced are Red Dead Redemption 2, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us Part 2, yet none of these reach the recently revealed budgets for Call of Duty titles.

According to Game File, Patrick Kelly, Activision's head of creative for the Call of Duty franchise, disclosed in a California court filing on December 23 the budgets for Black Ops 3, Modern Warfare (2019), and Black Ops Cold War. The latter's development cost exceeded $700 million, taking many years to complete and selling over 30 million copies. Modern Warfare followed, with Infinity Ward investing more than $640 million and selling 41 million copies. Black Ops 3, with the lowest budget among the three at $450 million, still dwarfs the $220 million spent on The Last of Us Part 2.

Black Ops Cold War Exceeded $700 Million in Development Costs

The budget for Black Ops Cold War stands as the highest ever recorded in the video game industry, even surpassing Star Citizen's $644 million in development costs. This is particularly noteworthy since Black Ops Cold War was funded by a single company, unlike Star Citizen, which was crowdfunded over an 11-year period.

It's intriguing to speculate on how much the budgets for games like Black Ops 6 might have risen since Black Ops Cold War's release in 2020. Budgets in the gaming industry are on an upward trajectory. For instance, the 1997 release of Final Fantasy 7, a landmark in graphics and technology, had a budget of $40 million, which was considered substantial at the time. Today, this figure pales in comparison to the budgets of modern AAA titles. Activision's recent disclosures underscore the rising costs within the video game industry.